AFRICA DESK: In jail with the President

24 May, 2015 - 00:05 0 Views
AFRICA DESK: In jail with  the President Cde Marufu

The Sunday Mail

Cde Marufu

Cde Marufu

On May 25, 2015, the continent celebrates Africa Day, with Zimbabwe — the Africa Union Chair — leading the way. Today, we publish the narrative of 83-year-old Sekuru Freddy Marufu Furarema, a Zapu cadre, who was handcuffed to AU Chair President Mugabe when the pair was detained by the Rhodesian regime. This is Sekuru Furarema in his own words.

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On August 30, 1964, Ian Smith’s regime declared a state of emergency.

Police and intelligence operatives besieged Harare’s Highfield township and cordoned off the main road leading out of the location.

The security agents were combing the suburb for political activists whom they wanted to answer to charges of attempting to subvert the regime.

Clearly, there was no way out for any nationalist. Smith’s boys were ruthless and their mean faces confirmed it.

What is your name? Where do you live?

The questions came thick and fast. Everyone was supposed to show them his or her identification particulars, which were then quickly processed via the agents’ fixed gazes.

A number of activists were inevitably caught in the mesh and arrested, while the fortunate ones slipped through undetected.

I had just knocked off from work at Concorde Service Station when the Rhodesians began swarming the suburb.

Call it naivete or otherwise, but for some reason, I thought I would get to Old Highfield without any hassles.

When I got to the barricade that had been set up, their obvious demand was for me to produce my ID.

But I had left the ID card in my work-suit!

They told me to find it by all means, and I was left with no option, but to go back home. In those days, I lived at House Number 1243, Lusaka in Harare.

The whites for whom I worked knew the truth, that I had left my ID in my work-suit. What they did not know, though, was that I was in the Zapu structures.

The Rhodesians were tipped off about my political affiliation and I was arrested.

They detained us at Shingirai Primary School for some hours after which they transferred us to Nyandoro Primary School.

At around 5pm, all those who had been arrested were interrogated by two black officers from the Rhodesian Reserve Police.

Their names must have been Sam and Magama.

It seems the interrogators had a database of all Zapu and Zanu members. Those deemed apolitical were released.

After establishing that I was a Zapu cadre, they told me that I had been arrested for plotting to oust the Smith regime.

We were put into batches of 22 so that we would fit in a truck that was to carry us — away to detention.

We called this truck a Dakota.

I think President Mugabe was interrogated before me, as I only saw him as I walked out of the interrogation office.

Of course, I knew him. He was once Zapu’s publicity secretary, the one in charge of disseminating information to the masses.

I was in the party’s military wing — the People’s Caretaker Council — at the time. During handcuffing, I was paired with him.

He was now in Zanu, bringing the number of Zanu cadres in our batch to 13 and those in Zapu to nine.

I recalled then how Zanu had few members and Zapu wanted to obliterate it.

That same night, the President and I slept close together; there was no choice anyway, as we were still handcuffed, even during the night.

We hardly spoke in keeping with the guard’s demand. At around 5am the following morning, we were taken to Harare International Airport.

I was still handcuffed to President Mugabe and the police officers ensured there wasn’t any form of communication between us.

On the aeroplane, we never spoke, though we both might have wondered where these Rhodesians were taking us.

The destination, we later learnt, was Gweru, and still, we remained handcuffed.

We arrived at around 11am and were force-marched into Whawha Prison. The senior prison warder recognised President Mugabe immediately.

The majority of our people did not understand English, so the prison warder communicated with President Mugabe, who would, in turn, convey the message to us.

In all his addresses, the President emphasised unity, telling us we had been arrested for one cause — to liberate Zimbabwe.

Cde Mugabe and I were taken to Section 2, and we slept there.

In the meantime, the Rhodesians continued rounding up more activists in Highfield and bringing them to Whawha.

Our conversation in that cell was mainly about peace and unity. He was given to Zimbabwe’s liberation and unity between Zapu and Zanu.

“It is all the same whether Zanu or Zapu succeeds. All I need is to have freedom in this country.”

That is what he told me.

The following morning, President Mugabe and other senior cadres organised a hunger strike because the prison warders had given us rotten food.

The food crisis was immediately resolved.

More people were brought in from Highfield and the President was later moved from Section 2 because Zapu members had complained that they did not want to stay with Zanu people.

The prison warders had to erect a fence to separate the two groups. The people at the detention centre were now around 400.

I remember there were 13 Zanu members in Section 3 — President Mugabe’s new cell. So, Zapu had the majority of people.

President Mugabe continued his role as translator, and this only stopped when George Marange was brought to the centre and took over.

A few months later, there was a fracas in Section 3 between Zapu and Zanu cadres, and President Mugabe was pushed to the ground.

I do not know the man, but this man tried to kill the President by striking him with a rake on the head while he was still on the ground.

The prison warder had to fire a warning shot in the air and the man ran to another section.

Though the man was not “caught”, I think other detainees in Section 3 knew him.

The prison warders later moved President Mugabe closer to their quarters since they feared he might be attacked again.

The President was moved to Sikombela and I was released on March 31, 1966. From there I never saw the President but learnt that he had crossed into Mozambique.

I later saw him when he addressed us in the run-up to the 1980 elections.

Interview and transcription by Itai Mazire in Chihota on May 23, 2015.

 

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