Vic Falls Road turned into war zone
GIVEN the responsibility to command a military region that covered districts such as Lupane, Nkayi, Silobela, Gokwe and Zhombe was not an easy task especially for one who was in his youthful days, mid20s.
The responsibility came with careful planning, formulating sound military strategies with precision, endearing oneself to the masses, being firm and fair to the subordinates, some much older and more experienced in the art of guerilla warfare but the then young Ernest Sibanda pseudo name Phebion Mutero handled the responsibility with aplomb if his narratives are anything to go by.
The region that he was tasked to command, the Northern Front Two (NF2) was very strategic for Zipra guerillas because it was the corridor used by the troops to enter the country from Zambia and also to reach other operational areas in the country in provinces such as Midlands and Matabeleland South. The area was also important to the Rhodesian government because of the Bulawayo-Victoria Falls highway, a route to the country’s premier tourism town, the scenic Victoria Falls. In that context it meant NF2 became one of the most contested zones during the country’s war for Independence. In our today’s Lest We Forget column Cde Phebion Mutero or Retired Lieutenant-Colonel Ernest Sibanda spoke to our Assistant Editor Mkhululi Sibanda about the military situation in the Lupane, Nkayi, Silobela, Zhombe and Gokwe during the armed struggle. Below are excerpts of the interview:
MS: Cde Sibanda, may you please give us your background, who is Retired Lt-Col Ernest Sibanda?
Rtd Lt-Col Sibanda: I was born Ernest Sibanda on 3 June 1954 at Mpilo Central Hospital in Bulawayo. Originally my family is from Lower Gweru, that is Vungu District in the Midlands Province but I grew up in Jambezi, Hwange District under Chief Mvuthu as my family had relocated to that part of the country. I did my primary education at Bhethesda Primary School until I completed Grade 7 in 1969. People who wrote Grade 7 in 1969 were the first because to do so because in the previous years the country was using Standards. After my Grade 7 I went for Form One at a local school but later moved to Bulawayo where I continued my education at St Pius in Njube, which is a Catholic institution. From St Pius I went to Mzilikazi Arts and Craft Centre where one of the things that I did was to make special Christmas candles. I later worked at Kango where I was under its spinning department. MS: When did your interest in politics start? Rtd Lt-Col Sibanda: It started when I was still at home in Jambezi. The guerillas attacked Chisuma which was sort of a military base for the Rhodesians and people who were involved there included my relatives, in fact a cousin of mine Pray Mpofu was one of them and unfortunately they were later captured and locked at Khami Maximum Prison, so we used to visit them there. Also some of our neighbours had crossed to join the armed struggle and that inspired me a lot. One of the people from our village who had left to join the armed struggle is the current Cabinet Minister and Zanu-PF Politburo member, Dr Obert Mpofu. Dr Mpofu is also my relative. He should have left the country between 1968 and 1969 to train as a guerilla. So with all those incidents and the way people were being treated by the Smith regime, the urge to join politics grew. So when I was in Bulawayo I started participating in the youth affairs of Zapu and I moved up the ladder as I was elected the youth chairman for Makokoba and Mzilikazi. I was a resident of Mzilikazi then.
MS: Then when did you leave the country to join the armed struggle?
Rtd Lt-Col Sibanda: I left the country for Botswana in March 1975 and that was during the Easter holidays. I had a pass from my workplace that allowed me to travel to anywhere. So during the holiday my and friend Frank left the country for Francistown and we travelled without any incident. In Francistown we did not stay long as we were taken to Zambia. Our first military installation was at Nampundwe, which had been a Zanla camp. From Nampundwe we were taken to Mwembeshi training camp where we found veterans who were instructors such as Stanley Gagisa and now Rtd Col Eddie Sigoge. From Mwembeshi we were moved again, this time to Mboroma Camp where we were put together with Zanla cadres and those from Froliz. Remember that was the time of the détente when all military activities had ceased and the country’s political parties were operating under the banner of ANC. Zapu also had just emerged from a crisis, the Chikerema problems that led to the formation of Froliz. It was while we were at Mboroma that my friend from Bulawayo, Frank left Zipra to join Froliz.
MS: During the détente period did you receive military training?
Rtd Lt-Col Sibanda: Although it had been pronounced that all military activities or hostilities should cease at Mwembeshi we were being trained. By the time we went to Mboroma we could handle and use firearms. We had been taken through some military drills, we were able to defend ourselves even in serious combat. Later on our Zanla colleagues left Mboroma and so did the Froliz people.
Was it easy keeping the three different armies under one roof at Mboroma?
I would say it was a bit difficult as skirmishes usually broke out. But our commanders kept on urging us and counselling the troops that we were one and we all wanted a free Zimbabwe. As fate would have it we also left Mboroma for Tanzania and that was part of preparations for the formation of Zipa. Under Zipa all nationalists forces were to operate as one. So in Tanzania we joined Zanla at Magago where we were to undergo military training as one army. However, that did not last as problems started and Zipra was to leave and go to Morogoro where other Zipra guerillas had done their guerilla warfare training. At Morogoro we had to resume our training and our group was the one which became known as the Group of 800.
MS: Who were some of the recruits and instructors?
Rtd Lt-Col Sibanda: Among the people that I trained with were Zenzo Ntuliki who passed on recently and was declared a national hero, Mafutha, Andrew Ndlovu, the late Orders Mlilo who was of the elder brother of Local Government Permanent Secretary George Mlilo and John Clever Dube. Among us were women and they included cadres like Cdes Grace Noko and Thoriso Phiri. Those women were very strong as they did everything that men did despite the fact that we were being taken through a semi-commando manual. We did military engineering, intelligence, judo, politics and so on. Our instructors included Sigoge, Gagisa and Billy Mzamo. While undergoing training I was made commander of my company.
MS: After completing your training where were you taken to?
Rtd Lt-Col Sibanda: Some were selected to go for further training in friendly countries overseas while some of us were sent to the front for operations and that was towards the end of 1976. I was deployed near Kariba but on the Zambian side. I was commander of that section of seven. Our duties were to monitor the enemy’s activities as there was a crossing point that Zipra guerillas were using for incursions into Rhodesia. We stayed there for some time and then we were recalled to our main forward base which was at Mpondoland West. The base was used as a transit site for guerillas going for deployments. When we got to the main base Cde Tshangane (late Major-General Jevan Maseko) who was one of the senior officers in the department
of operations then gave a briefing. He told us we were to cross and start full scale operations on the Rhodesian side. We were told that we would not be going and coming back but we were to remain on the ground. We were only to return to the rear in cases of injury to personnel or for replenishing our supplies.
MS: How many of you were deployed to the front?
Rtd Lt-Col Sibanda: There were different units but in my group we were 15, although we were joined by two other comrades who had been to the front before and had returned to Zambia via Botswana. So those guys had no weapons as the Botswana authorities did not allow us to enter their country armed. Comrades had to hide and leave their weapons somewhere when entering Botswana. So those two comrades were told by the command element that they would return to the operational areas each armed with two grenades. They were told in no uncertain terms to go and recover their weapons. However, on seeing the situation they were in we managed to find some weapons and armed them. When we left Zambia we were also given a senior commander, Gilbert Khumalo (Nicholas Nkomo) to take us to our designated operational area which was to be Lupane and Nkayi. Gilbert who was to become the deputy frontal commander under Rodwell Nyika (Retired Brigadier-General Collin Moyo) in the later stages of the war was in the company of Oswald (the late Stanley Donga). Those two had seen action at the front and were already veterans. They are the people who showed us the way. But we had problems while crossing the Zambezi as we were almost swept away by the strong current but we soldiered on and finally crossed.
MS: When you crossed the Zambezi which area did you go to?
Rtd Lt-Col Sibanda: Gilbert took us to the Hwange area where he had left a unit he had been operating with. This was meant to have us get first hand information about the situation on the ground and how to relate with the masses. That unit was made up of about 16 fighters and we found them at Lupote and Gurambira areas as they had split into smaller units. Those comrades updated us about the situation on the ground and also gave us tips of how survive among the villagers. After some days with them Gilbert told us that we were moving to Lupane but we skirted the Mzola and Dandanda areas where there was another unit which had comrades like Mafutha, Driver and others. Those comrades were part of the Group of 800. Gilbert then left us in the Lupane area going back to Zambia via Botswana. His brief had to deploy us and then go back to Zambia to report.
MS: Now you were on your own. What did you do next?
Rtd Lt-Col Sibanda: We had specific orders to keep along the main highway, the Bulawayo-Victoria Falls Road in Lupane and also the Lupane-Nkayi Road. We had also to operate in the Zenka, Mbuma and other areas in Nkayi, so we split into smaller units. I had been appointed overall commander of the unit. In the smaller groups I moved with three others, who were Stanley Donga, but he was more experienced since he had been on the ground for some time. The other two I remained with were Silas and Potters. We agreed with the other comrades on the GP (gathering point). Since we were still new we were using maps to locate the areas. The other group moved to Nkayi while others kept close to the Lupane-Nkayi Road. Our mission was to carry out ambushes along the roads, so that we make it difficult for the enemy to move. We also wanted to announce our presence to keep the enemy on its toes and also win the hearts of the masses.
MS: How long did it take you to carry out those attacks?
Rtd Lt-Col Sibanda: As for the four it didn’t even take us five days.
MS: What happened? Take us through that contact.
Rtd Lt-Col Sibanda: We decided to ambush the enemy along the Bulawayo-Victoria Falls Road and I still remember we laid that ambush at around 7pm near koMkhuyana which is just a few kilometres down the Falls from Lupane Centre. When I look back I sometimes think we were over excited or kwakuyi buntwana (being childshish). Just imagine four people attacking a convoy. However, we did it. We hit the scout car with a grenade launcher and there was confusion that hit those soldiers. When that vehicle was hit it was forced to spin and face the direction it had come from. We then fired at the vehicles and quickly moved away. The Rhodesians in their confused state fired their shots in the opposite direction of the route we had taken. We just melted into the darkness but we did not go far as we spent the night just a kilometre away from the contact scene. That was July 1977 when we had our first contact and that shocked the establishment. To make matters worse the Rhodesian government had just finished upgrading the Bulawayo-Victoria Falls highway. Before that there was an old highway and the attack was carried on the new road. From that day things changed along the Vic Falls Road. MS: What was the next move? Rtd Lt-Col Sibanda: In their confused state the Rhodesians thought they were attacked by a big unit, so they might have gone to the drawing board and decided to make a follow-up the next day. They picked our spoor and followed. They caught up with us near a certain homestead and it was around 11am. We had just been served tea in a nearby thicket when we saw them. There was an open ground and we even counted them. They were eight and we said each man should take care of two. But we agreed that let us target the black soldier who seemed to be their trekker and the communications guy. Again our first shot was from an AK-47 fitted with a grenade launcher. I am the one who fired the first shot and it caught the black soldier. It was a good shot. Then there was an exchange of gunfire but some white soldiers ran away. Even their machine gunman fled. Little did we know that they had communicated with the air force, which was stationed at Jotsholo. In no time we heard sounds of choppers, they were three of them. There was also a spotter plane. We withdrew towards an area where the vegetation was not thick and that was a good decision because the helicopters combed the area where there was thick vegetation. We walked until we reached the Shangani River where we took a rest. MS: That was very close. Rtd Lt-Col Sibanda: True. However, we made a mistake by resting on the banks of Shangani because those enemy soldiers went back where we had a contact and made a follow-up again. Now we were facing the ground troops and the helicopters. Donga is the one who kept on telling us to move, he warned that you can’t shoot at helicopters, so we moved on. I then started being affected by a cramp and it was difficult for me to move. The three comrades then left me. I ended up removing my boots and walked barefooted. However, I managed to pull through and re-united with others at Mgombani Village. That same night we went and raided Sothani Farm as we wanted some provisions. The farmer was away and we rounded up his workers and entered the main house. Being mischievous we phoned the Bulawayo Main Post Office and when a white woman answered I said we were terrorists looking for the owner of the farm. We then asked the workers to go and report our presence but warned them not to take a ride on the Rhodesian trucks. We then planted a landmine and when the enemy forces came the following morning one of their trucks was hit. One of the villagers who was on the truck lost his mind and became mentally unstable for good. We used to see him and that was an unfortunate incident but that was war.
Next week we continue with the interview with Rtd Lt-Col Sibanda speaking about the expansion of their operations, coming in of more guerillas, spirituality issues during the war and his promotion to regional commander.