Tshelanyemba
RAIDS into nationalist camps in Zambia and Mozambique were carried out by specialised Rhodesian forces who possessed air power and elite units.
However, because of the zeal to free their country the young Zimbabweans held their own against the wellequipped enemy. At times the Rhodesian forces bombed the Zipra and Zanla camps with devastating effects where hundreds of people lost their lives. As the war went on both Zipra and Zanla started to defend their camps in Zambia and Mozambique after acquiring anti-air weapons.
In this week’s Lest We Forget column our Assistant Editor Mkhululi Sibanda (MS) spoke to Cde Victor Ndlovu, a former Zipra artillery commander who faced the Rhodesian Airforce led by the notorious Chris Dixon (Green Leader) at Mwembeshi. Cde Ndlovu pseudo name Cde Cold Chivi was also part of the unit that attacked a Rhodesian camp that was situated along the Zambezi River at Mana Pools. The unit that attacked Mana Pools was under the command of Cde Rodwell Nyika (Retired Brigadier-General Collins Moyo). During our interview Cde Ndlovu was in the company of Cde Ignatius Mabuza who led the reconnaissance team that spied on the operations of Mana Pools Camp. Below are excerpts of the interview carried out at Tshelanyemba area in Kezi on Wednesday last week where Cde Ndlovu is the village head.
MS: Cde Ndlovu, may we start the interview by you giving us your brief background?
Cde Ndlovu: I was born on 12 April 1952 here at Tshelanyamba area in Kezi. I attended the local Tshelanyemba Primary School, Ross Camp in Bulawayo and Tomlison in Harare. I went to Ross Camp and Tomlison Schools because my brother, Adam Maratha was a policeman so I was living with him. After school I got a job at Schweppes where I worked between 1971 and 1975. After leaving Schweppes I packed my bags and left for South Africa where I worked at Revonia just for two months. MS: Why just two months? Cde Ndlovu: I did not last there because the revolutionary spirit was upon me. The other reason is that I did not like South Africa as on the day of my arrival I was arrested for failing to produce a pass. So I just worked there to raise money for my transport on my way to join the armed struggle in Zambia via Botswana. It was after working for two months, I told Ignatius Mabuza, my childhood friend (pointing at him as he was present during the interview) who was working at Khaya Lami Hotel where there was a race course in Johannesburg of my intentions to join the armed struggle and that was May 1976. Mabuza hesitated and then I also told my brother Brown about my intended move to Zambia, but he said he wanted to wed first and I told him that there was no time for weddings as we were at war with the Rhodesians. So in the end I was joined by Herbert from Marinhoha area here in Kezi and another guy from Plumtree. So we took off.
MS: How easy was it to leave South Africa and cross into Botswana to join the war?
Cde Ndlovu: It was not that easy as on my way I was arrested at the Ramatlabana Border Post. The SA police queried why I did not have luggage with me and they said “you are going to Zambia”, but I denied that. I told them I was going home to Bulawayo but they said you are going to join the terrorists because you do not have anything with you. During those days you were not supposed to say you were going to Francistown as there were offices for the nationalist forces there. I was thoroughly beaten while my two colleagues were allowed to proceed. However, I insisted that I was going home, they only let me proceed when I told them I was going to Bulawayo and when they looked at my train ticket it was marked Bulawayo as my destination. They were now calling me a terrorist but I kept on telling them that my luggage went with my brother the previous day. MS: Then from there what happened? Cde Ndlovu: I proceeded to Francistown. I went to the Zapu premises where Makepesi was the camp commander. I also found those guys I had left Joburg with. There were WHEN Nosizo Ncube (12) (not real name) passed her Grade Seven examinations she was very excited. She saw no hurdle standing on her way to become a nurse after getting inspired by the ones she always saw in snow white uniforms on occasional visits at Tshelanyemba hospital in the deep rural Kezi district of Matabeleland South Province.
To her, graduating from primary to secondary school meant she was going to get a complete set of uniforms but the decision of the school she was going to attend was not hers to make. It depended on her widowed mother and was so much dependent on whether one of the two he-goats that the family owns, courtesy of an NGO, got a buyer.
Her situation was not very rosy and she was so much awake to it, in fact her mother had planned to drop her out of school had she failed her first major examination. That she passed was a new headache to her. She did not have the resources to send her to a boarding school and the only option was for her to go to Tshelanyemba Secondary School which is almost 15 km from where they stay.
Following the footpaths to school was a punishmentlike exercise to Nosizo, it was torturous and so was it to so many other pupils from different villages who gambled with life to survive attacks from rapists, snakes, hyenas and jackals in the bush as they walked the punitive between 15 and 20 people there. One of them was Golden Mangombe Dube, uNhlanhla, the younger brother of Obert Mangombe Dube, the guy who set up Omadu Motels in Kezi and Plumtree. Golden was fresh from Mzingwane High School. A majority of the people were from Beula area here in Kezi. After two months we then left for Zambia and our first port of call was Nampundwe Transit Camp. MS: Take us through your experiences of Nampundwe. Cde Ndlovu: Heyi that place. That place was terrible I tell you (Mabuza chips in and says it was hell on earth). We arrived at Nampundwe late afternoon at about 4pm straight from Lusaka International Airport, I was shocked at what I saw there. You could not tell whether the occupants there were people or pigs. They were full of mud all over and you could only recognise someone you know from close range. I saw an old mate of mine and my first words to him were “Gilbert, kanti kuyini unje” (Gilbert why are you like this). People were as dirty as pigs I tell you. Then we said so this is what they call training, aah aah. This is not what we thought of otherwise we could have remained eGoli. More trouble was to follow. MS: What trouble? Cde Ndlovu: The following day we were woken up at 3am and we asked where we were going at this hour. The veterans there told us that we should run to the parade square and there were women among us. At the parade square orders were given at us and the next thing we found ourselves singing “itoyi toyi, toyi, toyi, hawu hawu”. As for the toyi toyi we had done little of that in Francistown, so it was not that new. The instructions started coming thick and fast as we were told to head to the apex of the gorge doing number nine (frog jump). After getting to the top of the gorge the instructor said “number six” which are your press ups. After that we were ordered to roll from the gorge downwards. Some started vomiting, it was tough. When we got down we were ordered to do number nine again, his time for a distance of about 400 metres. From there we were ordered to run for about five kilometres. It was terrible, just imagine it was the first day. After running we were told to run to a nearby river to get a bath. The instructor called Shumba told us that we were to take just a minute bathing and I wondered how as there was a need to remove the clothes, but I soon got an answer when I saw those whom we found at Nampundwe just diving into the water fully dressed. That was how a bath was taken. We continued with those tough exercises at Nampundwe for two months. After that we were moved to Mwembeshi for full military training. MS: Tell us about Mwembeshi. Cde Ndlovu: At Mwembeshi that is where I met the current commander of Four Brigade in Masvingo, BrigadierGeneral Exsebios Vusa Tshuma, who comes from here at Tshelanyemba as well as Madliwa (Retired Major-General Stanford Khumalo). We trained together. Our instructors were the late Eddie Sigoge, Ambrose Mutinhiri, Jack Mpofu, Majogi, the late Brigadier-General Mike Reynolds (Charles Grey), Chikerema, Ananias Gwenzi (General Philip Valerio Sibanda), Billy Mzamo and Stanley Gagisa, a very sharp guerilla. Of the team he was the most outstanding. After two months more recruits arrived and we were grouped into companies and I belonged to company H, which had Magedleni (Tennyson Thambolenyoka Ndlovu) as our company instructor. Now it was serious business. We went on until the new year and that is when Jason Ziyapapa Moyo came and we celebrated the New Year’s Day with him at the camp. JZ loved his soldiers and his presence touched us, to see our leader living among us raised our morale. It was during that time that he told us that nobody is allowed to beat anyone during training. However, he emphasised that these people (military instructors) will push us to reach the level or standard they wanted. We finished training in April 1977. Our group was succeeded by eyaboMabuza.
MS: You spoke about Stanley Gagisa as an outstanding instructor. Tell us more about him.
Cde Ndlovu: He was brilliant both physically and intellectually. That man could do anything with his body. He could somersault over 15 people and then demand that we do the same, then you see the recruits fall on others trying to imitate him. Stanley was too fit, he was like a leopard. He was also educated, having done his secondary education at Inyathi High School. Even when it came to theory you could tell that you were being taught by someone who went to school. We are very grateful to him for that training as some of us are still fit. He was also gifted in karate and you will hear him bellowing instructions “jump dokonyo” and that earned him the nickname Doko. MS: Then after training what happened to you? Cde Ndlovu: Others left for further training in the USSR and I was supposed to be part of that team. However, others left when my group had gone for patrol. I was then drafted into a unit that was trained in anti-air there at Mwembeshi and it was myself, Themba, Mafleni, Dumi, Bhekimpilo and Wilfred Jubane. One of our instructors was Mapara who trained us how to use Zegue one barrel and Desheka. After that I was deployed at Mwembeshi to defend the camp against the Rhodesian aircrafts. I became the crew commander of the anti-air unit but I was with the Desheka crew.
The next group had 1 000 recruits and Jack Mpofu brought 200 others. After their training, we did not stay long before the camp was attacked by the Rhodesian Air Force. What happened is that they had bombed Mkushi and Freedom Camp on 19 October 1978 and on their way back to the base they flew over Mwembeshi. On the day they flew over our camp all the infantry soldiers had been told to go and meet our Zapu President Dr Joshua Nkomo, about 8km from the camp and the orders given were that the soldiers should not go there armed. They were exposed to the enemy and we did not understand why such an order was given that endangered the lives of our comrades. When we tried to add one plus one it could not make a two, something was fishy about that arrangement. MS: So you just followed the order? Cde Ndlovu: When an order comes from above in a military set up you take it as it is. However, I approached the camp commander, Silas Chenjerai and asked him why the soldiers were traveling such a distance without being fully armed and the few that were armed had one or two magazines. We then agreed with Cde Chenjerai that those soldiers who numbered more than a 1 000 were to be covered with a Zegue one barrel. Bhekimpilo Mafu was the one who covered them with the Zegue and that helped. When the soldiers arrived where they were told that they would meet Dr Nkomo, which was at a main road they found cartons and cartons of Cuban military fatigue. Then disaster struck. MS: What disaster Cde Ndlovu? Cde Ndlovu: Some of the aircrafts that had attacked Mkushi and FC arrived at that place. There were two jet fighters and that was part of the Green Leader operation. One of them I am told tried to apply its brakes, ready to attack but it was hit and that is how that group survived. Imagine if the Rhodesians had gone on a full scale attack they could have wiped out the whole group.