Tale of the ‘tamed terrorist’
IN this second and final instalment of blacks who served the Rhodesian African Rifles, which was Ian Smith’s army, GARIKAI MAZARA talks to STEPHEN MUGWAGWA on his failed journey to join the liberation struggle, ending up being a “tamed terrorist”.
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Q: As usual, we start off with a brief bio, who is Mugwagwa?
A: I was born in Kadoma on December 9 1958 and did all primary school learning at St Mary’s Gavhunga until 1975. The following year I enrolled at St Anne’s Goto in Wedza for my secondary school but one day freedom fighters came and took us, intending to take us across the border into Mozambique. They took us to Rusape, the idea was to take us through Nyanga but then there was a confrontation between the freedom fighters and the Rhodesian army. Cdes Mabhunu Muchapera, Pombi and Rammy were captured during that attack whilst the other ones managed to escape.
As school children we were ordered to go back to school but there was no school to go back to as it had been closed. As we were walking back to Wedza, we came across Cde Richard Tiki who took us to Weya Mission where we were kept for some time. From the mission, we were taken to Mt Hampden then to Yomba, somewhere in the Mhangura area. This was to avoid the eastern border which was now almost impassable. In Yomba, there was another confrontation where Cdes Jaravanda, Rufu, Kabox, Toro and Maoresa were captured.
Q: How many school children were there? A: We were five in this group. There was John Dhumondo who came from Rusape, Stephen Matambo (Wedza), Gilbert Nhidza (Bikita) and Fanuel Rudhanda (Bikita). So the five of us were taken in by the Rhodesian army and we spent about a year as applicants to join the army. They said we were too young to be soldiers.
During our training, when we finally enrolled in the Rhodesian army, I was injured and was taken in as back squad, working in the kitchen then moved to be a quarter master. Around 1978, myself and Mapako, or was it Bako, were asked to be escorts to Bindura. Whilst I thought I was just being an escort, little did I know that I was targeted for killing because they suspected I was a freedom fighter under cover as I could fire a gun and drive, things that I had learnt at the farm where my father worked. I was taken to a shooting range, and had a hood placed over my face. The white soldier who was at the range made an impromptu interrogation, asking me why I could fire a rifle and drive and when I explained to him that I grew up in farms, he let me go. He advised me to get into the next available vehicle going back to Inkomo Barracks. This gave us, me and Mapako (Bako) the chance to run away again. We went to Mukumbura where Cdes Sarudzai Chinamaropa, Tambaoga and Chopper took us in and we crossed into Mozambique. By that time the war was coming to an end and we did not get any training as freedom fighters.
Q: Before we get to your escape to Mozambique, let us talk about life after your capture at Yomba.
A:
When we were captured, we were called tamed terrorists, or TT. I was trained for only three months. Remember I said I was injured and became part of the back squad, when I was sent to work in the kitchen. Later I was sent for a basic storesman course, and then became a quarter master.
Q: There was no way you could run away from that camp?
A: The security was tight. The Rhodesian army could follow you to your rural areas, harass or even torture your parents. Even if you absented yourself for more than 180 days, they would come and harass your family such that on hearing it, you would turn yourself in.
Q: As tamed terrorists, did you stay or mix with the other Rhodesian soldiers?
A: We had our own camp, the bottom camp. Inkomo Garrison had many camps — there was the training depot, then the main camp where troopers stayed and then the compound for tamed terrorists, brick-under-thatch huts, which was always under strict security. Even if you went to town, someone was assigned to escort you, without your knowledge.
Q: Did you have any encounters, any battles, with the freedom fighters?
A:
As I was injured, I never got the chance to be at the front. There were fighting forces, the regiment; then other corps like signals, education, services. There are some corps that go to the front, like signals and others corps that never got to the front. As quarter master I was responsible for receiving and receipting goods from ordinance, so I never went to the front.
Q: What was the relationship between black and white Rhodesian soldiers?
A:
There was no relationship at all. For instance, we had a kitchen for blacks, a different kitchen for whites and another one for coloureds. Even our salaries, there were European, African and Coloured salary scales. A black sergeant would earn $186 yet a private white soldier would earn $270 which meant their white sergeant was earning around $400. And there was not even a black commissioned officer who would be saluted. The first black to be commissioned was Conrad Choruma, and then Baker Hokonya, who used to teach War and Strategic Studies at the University of Zimbabwe. These were the first blacks to be commissioned, with insistence from the Queen after Ian Smith had refused. Choruma was the best student out of 18, a group that had only three blacks. The other one being Piringondo.
Until after independence, these were the only three who were saluted, otherwise the highest rank for blacks was Warrant Officer Class 1 RSM (Regimental Sergeant Major). Even the bathrooms that we used, the whites never entered. Whilst we used showers, they used tubs. They ate in dessert plates and we ate in what we called “mesting”, a four-cornered plate with a wire handle. Everything was served in that.
If we were going for an operation, say for a company of 120, only two would be whites. When they got there, the two would get to an observation point on top of a hill or mountain and the blacks will be down and if things went wrong, a helicopter would come and rescue the whites from that hill-top whilst the blacks faced the music.
Q: As blacks, fighting in a war that wanted to liberate your country, how did it feel?
A: We knew and supported the cause. Remember I grew up in farms where discrimination was rife. My father worked for more than 30 years on a farm and we used to carry the white man’s children on our backs, sometimes children who were older than us. The rare times we were invited into the white man’s house to watch television, we sat on the floor yet there were empty chairs in the living room.
Q: This means your entire career you never had any encounters with the enemy?
A:
The real war that I witnessed was the dissident war, from 1980 till 1987. This war is largely misinterpreted, that Mugabe killed people. Of course, there were some happenings and there was retaliation that caused the death of many people. The thing is, Zipra refused to accept that Mugabe had won and moved as battalions, with their arms, from assembly points. There was even sponsorship to their rebellion. At Dete there was an arms cache which even had tanks.
When Gwesela kidnapped those tourists, that is when it became apparent that something was happening and there was an air-force supported follow-up. Feeling the heat, he killed those tourists and the dissident war started in earnest. They would kidnap and kill motorists and the war intensified.
I left training at Llewelyn Barracks to join that war. The bad thing about that war is the community even supported the dissidents.
In hospitals, nurses did not want to see Shona-speaking people. Ambulances would ferry weapons, under the guise of transporting patients. Dumiso Dabengwa gave instructions from a beerhall in Entumbane, which led to his capture, together with Lookout Masuku, Gevan Maseko and Abel Mazinyane. Joshua Nkomo skipped the country at that time.
Gukurahundi was a nickname for a team that was trained in 1985, when most unemployed youths were taken in by the army. There was the Youth Brigade, the People’s Militia and unemployed youths, who were all recruited and trained, and they were named Gukurahundi, meaning they had taken care of unemployment.
If you look at the army brigades, they have different insignia. For example, they have the eagle, snake, rhino, elephant. So this one was nicknamed Gukurahundi and some said Mugabe had trained a brigade to kill the Ndebeles but their people were the first to move out of camps and turned against the Government. The army that fought that war was headed by Henry Muchena, deputised by Conrad Choruma and Colonel Dyke came from One Brigade later on. The current President was a Minister, we hear people say Mnangagwa killed people but by then the Minister of Defence must have been Sydney Sekeramayi.
Q: Not Enos Nkala?
A: Am not sure who came first, Nkala or Sekeramayi. Mnangagwa was someone who travelled with Mugabe, I think that is why he is always fingered but he was not the one who commandeered the army that time.
Q: Going to that dissident war, what was the instruction that you were given: to kill anybody and everybody?
A: What happened is, they operated in flats and you would get shot at, the fire coming from the flats. Like Entumbane, there came a time when they attacked anyone who spoke Shona, even using stones. So the army reacted militarily, and not politically.
Q: You touched briefly on Morrison Nyathi, did you know him personally?
A: When he was captured, he came and stayed with the Selous Scouts. He was advisor to Ronnie Ridelly, the commanding officer of the Selous Scouts. He used to stay at our camp, the tamed terrorists camp, but he was so senior that he attended most of the planning conferences.
Q: Some say he was a Special Branch who was sent to infiltrate the freedom fighters?
A: No, he was captured and then started selling out.
Q: Would you know where he was captured or how he was captured?
A: The operation started as infiltration. There were what we called sticks, sticks of say four people. They would enter a base for freedom fighters and befriend people there. When it was time, they would disappear with their targeted person and no-one would notice. They would not kill anyone before they got any information. Even if someone was injured in a combat, they wouldn’t kill because they believed that person had invaluable information.
Q: What kind of person was he?
A: He was tall. As for the cause of the liberation, I don’t think he subscribed to it any more. The problem with those people is that they would pay handsomely so I think he must have sold out.
Q: And the person who was alleged to have been kidnapped at Mbare, you say it wasn’t him?
A: That is what we heard. Around 1982/3 we heard that he was saying he was in South Africa. Even Gwesela, it is said they killed his nephew who looked like him in Zhombe. The nephew lied that he was Gwesela, thinking that he will be pardoned or that his relatives would find some peace. But the real Gwesela is said to have run away to South Africa.
Q: The person who is said to have been kidnapped at Mbare, did he look like Nyathi?
A: They looked alike. He was tall, slim and darkish. There are some people who look so alike that when you see them, you think you have seen the right person.
Q: So he must be alive, this real Nyathi?
A: I am not sure about that. Remember there are some soldiers, like most of the Selous Scouts, who skipped the country and sought sanctuary elsewhere, especially in South Africa. The information says they were given an area to stay, during PW Botha’s reign. Some were caught whilst attempting to cross the border, like Aaron Chibayangwena, from Mwenezi, who was caught trying to cross with an army truck.