The Sunday Mail
Tendai Chara
CDE Enerst Mdluli is a naturally simple and quiet man who always minds his own business, according to family and neighbours.
The former freedom fighter’s short stature, lean frame and fair skin belie the 80-year-old’s heroics during the liberation war.
He is a man of few words, whose face always lights up each time the liberation struggle is discussed.
Cde Mdluli was a fearless fighter who was a thorn in the flesh for Rhodesian authorities.
For a week, Rhodesian security forces hunted the slippery guerrilla like a wild animal before cornering and capturing him in Hurungwe, Mashonaland West Province.
His group was on a long and torturous journey on foot from Zambia to Nyanga, where it had been ordered to go and open a base.
After a short and quick trial, he was sentenced to death, a sentence which was, however, later commuted to life imprisonment.
For 11 years, which Cde Mdluli described as “hell”, the former ZAPU cadre languished in two of Rhodesia’s most notorious prisons – Salisbury and Khami.
Born and bred in Chipinge, the liberation fighter joined the war during its infancy.
He said his arrest and sentencing, however, could not break his spirit, as he remained a constant menace to prison guards, with whom he often fought running battles.
“I was exposed to ill-treatment by white racists at a very tender age,” he told The Sunday Mail.
“As a boy, I worked for many white families as a farm worker, cook and gardener.
“Anger and resentment against white rule grew as I became older.”
His exposure to racist whites began in 1958 when he left his parents’ home and moved to a farm in Nyanga.
A year later, he was working for another white family in Mutare as a cook and gardener. In 1960, Cde Mdluli settled in Kwekwe, where he was employed by a white family again as a cook.
“All of my white employers treated black people badly. At the farm in Nyanga, the white owner treated his livestock better than his black workers. I left the farm after I got injured at work and was not compensated,” he recalled.
It was during his time in Kwekwe that he became politically conscious and active.
From Kwekwe, he made the long trek to Kariba, where he briefly worked before crossing into Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia).
In the neighbouring country, he worked for a number of white-owned companies, which, like the other companies in then-Southern Rhodesia, paid black workers peanuts.
“In Zambia, I started mixing and mingling with ZAPU members. I supported the party financially. Then there came a time when the ZAPU officials said our financial support was not enough. The officials said there was need for us to support their cause by training as liberation war fighters,” he added.
“A ZAPU official, Cde David Nkiwane, and one Cde Ngoshi recruited us and took us to Lusaka enroute to Tanzania for military training.”
From Zambia, Cde Mdluli, together with other youths, went Morogoro training camp in Tanzania for military training in 1966.
After training, the freedom fighter came back to Zambia, from where his group was then deployed to the front.
“Our mission was to get to Nyanga, where we were supposed to set new bases. We never made it to our destination as we were captured along the way in Hurungwe,” Cde Mdluli said.
Of the 30 freedom fighters that he travelled with from Zambia, 18 were killed after the group was ambushed in Guruve.
Escaping with his life during the ambush, he said, was nothing short of a miracle.
The capture marked the beginning of very painful journey in which Cde Mdluli stared death in the face.
“We were beaten, starved and abused in many ways. There was this white police officer who bashed me on the same spot on my face. For over a month, my face was badly swollen. The Rhodesian soldiers forced me to dig a deep pit that they said was going to be my grave,” he added.
“After placing me in the pit, the soldiers shot towards me. I lost consciousness and when I finally woke up, I was back in prison cells. The Rhodesian soldiers did not want to kill me. They were only playing mind games with me.”
The prisoners were made to sit in the sun when it was hot and also sit on bare floors during the night when it was cold.
In prison, he often clashed with the officials.
“I remember one day I was involved in a fist fight with a white prison warden. The young prison wardens had a tendency of hitting and abusing political prisoners. One young warden slapped me and I fought back, resulting in a brawl.”
From 1969 to 1971, he was a prisoner at Salisbury Central Prison (now Harare Central Prison) before he was transferred to Khami Prison, where he was incarcerated until 1980.
Life in prison was unbearable.
“I was itching to fight the enemy but I could not do so. It pained me to see myself rot in jail whilst some of my colleagues were fighting the enemy. I tried to escape on several occasions but security was very tight at the prisons.”
He said he regrets getting captured on that fateful morning.
“I should have avoided capture. I ended up wasting 11 good years in prison. I should have contributed more to the national cause,” said Cde Mdluli, who was enlisted into the Zimbabwe National Army at Independence.
He was among the many black political prisoners who were released in 1980.
He urged Zimbabweans to jealously guard the country’s sovereignty.
“Fighting for this country was not easy. Imagine walking all the way from Zambia up to Hurungwe with Rhodesian soldiers hunting you as if they were hunting wild animals.
“As we commemorate Heroes Day, let us remind one another that the freedom that we enjoy today came as a result of self-sacrifices.”
Next week, Zimbabwe will commemorate Heroes Day to honour the country’s liberation war heroes and heroines.
