The Sunday Mail
After watching Rhodesian forces slaughtering Cde Soul Sadza and his group, Cde Aaron Nhepera said they shot one of the planes from this battle as it flew above their base. He says as they were shooting at this plane, something went wrong and one of their comrades was shot. Cde Nhepera, whose Chimurenga name was Cde Simbi Chinembiri, continues his narration in this interview with our Deputy Editor Munyaradzi Huni, revealing how in just two months, he lost 30 comrades.
Read on …
MH: Can you briefly talk about one of the comrades, who you said was injured as you were firing at the plane that was flying over your base after attacking Cde Soul Sadza and his group?
Cde Nhepera: I don’t really know what exactly happened, I think through our own fire, one of our comrades was shot. To be honest, I thought it was our own fire because I didn’t see anyone from the plane returning fire. This comrade, we called Moses, I later learnt that he was from Chiweshe, he was injured badly and later died. We had to bury him. After this we remained at this base for a while.
MH: How did you bury him?
Cde Nhepera: We had all the time to bury him because it was now dark. We dug the grave the normal way, it may not have been very deep but we tried our best.
MH: Did you cry as you were burying him?
Cde Nhepera: No, no, no. We would only sing the song Moyo Wangu which goes:
Moyooo wanguuu, watsidza kufira Zimbabweee
Moyooo wanguuu, watsidza kufira Zimbabweee
Dzamara pfumo rangu ramutsa Zimbabweee
Dzamara pfumo rangu ramutsa Zimbabweee; and so fourth and so fourth. (Tears filling his eyes) It was quite a touching moment son. We were all very sorrowful. For me this was the first death of a fellow comrade l had witnessed. It was very painful.
We tried to hear from the villagers and mujibhas if there were any survivors from the battle where Cde Soul Sadza was killed but no one came to us with any information. We thought no one had survived. The following day, we heard by our mujibhas that mabhunu had paraded some comrades at the shops to show people that if you support magandanga this is what we will do to you…
MH: After this battle, where did you go?
Cde Nhepera: I was later deployed to open a new detachment in Marange. I was still a detachment commander. The whole of Marange was under my command. I was given 37 comrades, that’s like three sections, to command around June 1976. As detachment commander, I could join any of these three sections. In the beginning we would preach politics and things were a bit difficult because we were going towards the dry season miti isisina mashizha.
I remember there was a camp called Mutsago, where Rhodesian soldiers would come to camp. We attacked it around August 1976. We were around 20 macomrades and I had a Motor 82 which I used to attack this camp. After this attack, we quickly left because we had no capacity to overrun this camp but I am sure we killed quite a number of Rhodesian soldiers. We also mounted an ambush along the Bezel Bridge near Masvaure village where we attacked trucks belonging to the Rhodesian support unit. Haaa ava takavarova chaizvo. I think this was in September.
MH: How did you plan an ambush?
Cde Nhepera: We took a lot of time planning and we would even conduct some rehearsals at the base. We would make sure all the comrades understood what we were planning to do and we would make sure they were in the right spirits. We would check all our weapons and talk about our target. Who we were going to attack and how many Rhodesian soldiers we should expect, their armament and so on. What would be our strategy in confronting them and put the comrades in their attacking positions. Each comrade would be told his target and what time to hit the target. We also told the comrades that once you attack the enemy, there were 50-50 chances of dying because the enemy would definitely try to hit back.
I want to tell you that I faced quite a number of challenges as a young commander. Some of the comrades who were way older than me would give me lots of problems. There were cowards who would almost beat me for asking them to go to war. I had that nasty experience with one chap. He said to me handisi kuenda kuhondo. He said to me if you keep insisting that I should go kuhondo I will beat you up. (Laughing) I said to him, comrade kuhondo ndiko kwatiri kuzoenda. We have to go. I stood my ground as the commander because I had all the powers. In fact, if the worst was to come to the worst, you were allowed to use your pistol to deal with such people.
MH: Did it get to that?
Cde Nhepera: No, it never got to that. As for this chap, it took persuasion and a bit of authority to force him to go to war.
So once in position, as the signal to start firing at the enemy sometimes as the commander you would fire first or you would task the bazooka guy to fire first because the explosion of the bazooka tends to cause serious confusion and shock the enemy. In that confusion, you then fire a barrage of bullets to finish of the enemy.
MH: And you are saying on this particular ambush, you killed quite a number of Rhodesian soldiers?
Cde Nhepera: Oohh, yes. We killed many. Kana kudzorera fire they didn’t. Takavarakasha. There were two trucks and I think there were no less than 20 soldiers.
MH: What kind of soldiers were these Rhodesians?
Cde Nhepera: Well, they would portray an image of brave people because they had all the advantage. They were moving in trucks while we moved on foot, they would immediately have air power soon after an attack and they were better equipped. But they were real cowards. Sometimes they would hear you were somewhere and they would decide not to come for you. Kutotya chaiko. (Laughs). Sometimes vairova povho then povho would say ahh, muri kungotinetsa macomrades ari apo endai ikoko pane kurova isu tisina pfuti. After being told of our position, they would not come to attack us.
MH: So are you saying you always won the battles you started?
Cde Nhepera: No, no, no. The Soul Sadza battle is one incident which tells you that sometimes we lost. There were situations where the enemy won against us.
The 37 comrades I said I was given at the Marange detachment in June, by October I was left with only seven comrades.
MH: Seven out of 37? That’s really bad, what happened?
Cde Nhepera: Yes seven out of 37. We were involved in numerous battles and the comrades perished. I remember there was one occasion when we lost an entire section in one battle around the Chiadzwa area where we are mining diamonds today. That section was commandeered by a young man I had left home with called Christopher. I was actually related to him. I think they were observed from the Hotsprings side by the enemy because they were close to the Odzi river. They were attacked and none of them survived.
Another section was attacked along Mutsago road and only three comrades survived. The section I was with was also attacked and we lost about five comrades. All this happened between August and September.
MH: As the leader, the detachment commander, don’t you feel you were to blame?
Cde Nhepera: I expected that question but like I told you, as a young commander, you feel its your responsibility and you feel ndiwe wauraisa macomrades. You question yourself, is there something I didn’t do?
MH: But were you not? You were the leader.
Cde Nhepera: What could I have done? (Laughs) We were all being attacked and we were returning fire the way we could. We eventually had to move away from the area. You ask yourself, where are we going with this? Of course the spirit to continue the war never died.
MH: What kind of spirit is this? Losing 30 comrades in such a short space of time?
Cde Nhepera: It had already being inculcated in our minds that no matter what difficulties, we would eventually become victorious. By this time takanga tichiri vashoma then later reinforcements started coming from mid-1976. Even the weaponry started improving. That gave us the spirit to continue fighting.
At the end of 1976, I became a member of the General Staff in Zanu.
MH: When you say member of General Staff, what do you mean?
Cde Nhepera: When you became a member of the General Staff, it meant you were now commanding at a level above a detachment. As a member of the General Staff, I was promoted to the Sector in charge of logistics and supply.
Early 1977, I became the political commissar of the Munhumutapa Sector. It’s an area from Mutare to Chimanimani up to Harare, through areas like Zimunya, Wedza, Mutambara, Buhera parts of Gutu, Chivhu, Mahusekwa, Seke till Harare. By mid-1977, I became the full commander of the whole Sector.
MH: As the political commissar, what were your duties?
Cde Nhepera: My duty was to keep the spirit of the war alive, especially amongst the comrades and the povho. We had programmes where we spoke to the povho about the development of the war and the gains we were making. As time went on, we now had semi-liberated zones where the enemy would not dare come to.
This brings me to the attack yatakaita somewhere kwaMafararikwa, near that place kunoita Mapositori ekwaMarange. I was with Commissioner of Prisons, vaZimondi at that time. I think this was now 1978. General Zimondi, whose Chimurenga name was Cde Tonderai Nyika, had joined us the previous night. He was the provincial commander and a member of the High Command. There was also another member of the High Command in the area, Cde Tinzwei Goronga. So this area we were was like a semi-liberated zone.
We decided with General Zimondi that together around 4pm we would leave – him, his assistant, me and my assistant – on bicycles to go and meet Cde Goronga at the base where he was. Little did we know that in a mountain that was overlooking our base, there were some white Rhodesian soldiers who were monitoring us. That was now their system because they knew we were defeating them in battles.
So around 4pm, our bicycles came from madhara emumaraini and we were about to leave. (Laughs) Ndege dzakauya from nowhere and pakaita bata-wabata. There was a dakota from the distance dropping paratroopers and there were helicopters all over the place. We quickly took cover, gained our composure tikarova ndege idzodzo kwete mbichana. One of the helicopters actually fell down and dzimwe dzacho dzakabva dzatanga kutambira kudenga. The dakota stopped dropping the paratroopers and flew away. They discovered that we were ready for them.
We were around 30 comrades and takarova ndege. As sectorial commander, ndaingodeedzera kuti ngatirovei iyo, or I would just fire towards one plane and my comrades would follow suit. The idea was to focus firepower on one helicopter and inflict maximum damage then move to the other. As we were doing this, we would move from one position to the other.
MH: I hear you were quite some top marksman?
Cde Nhepera: I don’t know about that but tairova ndege kwete mbichana.
MH: As you were firing and directing the battle, where was General Zimondi?
Cde Nhepera: He was with us and firing from his position.
MH: Hapana zvekuti I am a member of the High Command?
Cde Nhepera: Izvozvo zvinozivikanwa by everyone but in terms of the battle, the command was supposed to come from the person who had that unit.
Cde Nhepera: Cde Stephen Chocha (Commissioner Augustine Chihuri) who by this time was a base commander while I was senior to him as the sectorial political commissar was the one who was in charge as we went to attack the Grand Reef. He was taking the lead because this was his unit. As we went for the attack, General Zimondi who had not featured in previous arrangements, joined us as the most senior person because he was the member of the High Command. But like I said when going for battle, the one in charge would be the leader of that unit even if there would be someone senior to him. So Cde Chocha was the one in charge as we went for this attack.
About 200 comrades went for this attack. It was to be one of the largest force put together to attack a target. Because of these numbers, this was very difficult to command but we managed to camp at Mhandambiri close to Grand Reef and in the evening, we went for the attack. We were well equipped for this attack.
When we got to Grand Reef, the Rhodesian soldiers were having an early Christmas party. This was 1977. Dzakabva dzatsva.
MH: Why was it important to hit this target in such large numbers?
Cde Nhepera: As I told you earlier on, this camp, Grand Reef, was giving us lots of problems. It tipped the balance of power in favour of the enemy. Almost every time we engaged the enemy during the day, the Rhodesians would call for their airpower which came from Grand Reef. This gave us lots of problems so we wanted to destroy this camp. After hitting Grand Reef for quite some time, the Rhodesians stopped using it. We damaged lots of aircraft. They couldn’t believe we could attack such a big camp so close to Mutare. We took them by surprise and they tried to fight back but we quickly retreated. I can tell you that I never left the war front from 1976 until December 1978.
MH: You were at the war front for such a long time, didn’t it affect you because it was war and death through and through?
Cde Nhepera: I think it affected me. It did. You see every second of your life you were in danger and you had to live with that. That definitely caused some psychological problems but of course, the war front was a little bit safer than the rear. At least at the war front you knew where your enemy was than at the rear where you could be attacked from nowhere.
In 1978, I was not feeling well after my clothes had been poisoned by the enemy. So I went to our hospital in Mozambique, Parirenyatwa where I met Dr Ushewokunze, Dr Sekeramayi, Dr Muchemwa and Dr Gwada. In 1979, I was sent to Libya to oversee the training of about a thousand recruits. We were about five members of the General Staff – Cde Munyari Tichatonga, Cde Kenneth Tawuraya, Cde Madhara Chihombe, myself and Cde Felix Gabiza.
In Libya that’s when I was introduced to the field of security and intelligence.
We then went back to Mozambique at a base called Samakweza and we were there until Independence Day in Zimbabwe. We were waiting kuti kana Smith akada kuita funny, we would rescue the others and continue with the liberation struggle.
A day after attaining our lndependence, Cde Tungamirai came back and instructed us to go back to Libya again. We had another group of one thousand recruits to train from 1980 to September 1981 when we finally came back home. The story of where I am now is for another time.
