The Sunday Mail
IN the previous edition, Cde Sando Kano narrated how he initially developed cold feet before finally gathering courage to join the liberation struggle. He narrated his escapades with Frelimo fighters and life at the disease and hunger-stricken Zhunda Base. In this instalment, Cde Sando recounts to our Senior Reporter TENDAI CHARA, the journey by sea from Beira in Mozambique to Mgagao Training Camp in Tanzania. He also tells us how his company avoided boarding the wrong plane at Mtwara in Tanzania. The wrong plane could have taken them back to Salisbury and possible hanging. Read on as Cde Sando discusses how he came to the war zone and his first encounter with Rhodesian soldiers.
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Q: Cde Sando, in the last chapter, you narrated how you were selected to be part of the group of 700 that was chosen to undergo military training in Tanzania. Kindly continue with your narration.
A: At Beira, we spent about two weeks waiting for the ship “Chama Chamapinduzi” to arrive. The ship was going to take us to Dar es Salaam in Tanzania via the Indian Ocean. It took us three days to reach Arusha in Tanzania. That was in 1975.
Q: What happened after you got out of the ship?
A: We were welcomed by the Tanzanians and were ferried by trucks to a place called Iringa. The late former Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere was born in Iringa. Mgagao Training Camp, which was a training camp for Zanla forces, was also located in Iringa.
Upon arrival at Mgagao, we were welcomed by military instructors. I remember that one of the instructors who trained us was Vice President Constantino Chiwenga. The late national hero Cde Perrance Shiri was also an instructor. We also had Cdes Chibage, Chimombe, Agnew Kambeu and Cde Chaitezvi, whom if I am not mistaken, was the camp commander.
At Mgagao, we were given political orientation and trained in guerrilla tactics and artillery. I specialised in the 60 and 80 mm mortars, with Perrance Shiri being my instructor.
In addition to these instructors from home, we also had Chinese instructors at Mgagao.
Q: You were trained for how many months?
A: At first we were trained for three months. We, however, did other training programmes since it was during the time of détente when the war had been shelved. After training we could not go home and fight the enemy. Those who were at the front were holed up there with their weapons. During this period, the Frontline States namely Mozambique, Zambia, Tanzania and Botswana were saying Zanla and Zipra should form a united front so that the Frontline States could give them weapons and continue with the war. In the end, the two parties united and the war continued.
After completing training in 1976, we were taken by lorries to Mtwara, again in Tanzania. Mtwara is a very hot place which is geographically located close to the Equator.
Q: What brought you to Mtwara?
A: At Mtwara, we were supposed to be taken by plane to Beira, Mozambique and then from there to the war front. The name of the group that I trained with was Moto Moto and before us, was a group called Vala Ngebhetshu.
Our group was well-trained and well-armed and we had Chinese uniforms. The Rhodesians, through their intelligence unit, found out that there was a group which had finished training and was going to be deployed.
So, the Rhodesian forces feared us and they knew that once we were deployed to the war zone, we would change the tide of the war. The Rhodesians therefore devised a plan in which they arranged another aeroplane which was similar to the one that we were supposed to board. The Rhodesian plane was meant to take us to Salisbury Airport instead of Mozambique where we were going to be arrested and killed.
Crucially, the Zanla intelligence discovered the ploy and promptly made other arrangements.
Q: What were the arrangements?
A: We stayed at the airport for a week. It was very hot and people would collapse and faint during the parade due to the heat. It was then arranged that we go to Mozambique using ships.
We boarded Tanzanian submarines. We were 50 fighters in each submarine. I vividly remember the submarine that we were in getting lost in the Indian Ocean.
The Tanzanian coastal guard found us and we were lucky that they did not attack us. We took the right direction and headed for Beira, Mozambique.
Q: What happened after you arrived in Beira?
A: We stayed for another two weeks in Beira and we were then deployed to the war front. That was in 1976. Some of the cadres were deployed to Gaza Province, some to Tete and Manica. In my group, we were 200 and were deployed to Gaza Province.
Q: Gaza province comprised which areas?
A: We went through Maputo and Gaza province comprised such places as Balaji, Xai Xai, Maruvenya (Malvein) and Villa Salasi. We were ferried by train from Balaji going towards Chiqualaquala.
During the train ride we came under heavy fire from Renamo bandits, who were very active those days. We fought back in what became the first war experience for most of the newly-trained cadres.
The fierce battle took place at Villa Katandika. Cde Ziso, who was a medic, got injured in the exchange of fire.
Q: From Villa Katandika, what happened next?
A: After the battle at Villa Katandika, we dropped off at a place called Mapayi in Mozambique before crossing the border through Gonarezhou National Park. We walked for five straight days from Gonarezhou to Chiredzi.
In Chiredzi, we were operating in the Mpapa area.
When we arrived in Chiredzi, there was another group of fighters which was already based there. I remember we had a group that comprised Cdes Amos Tsana, Rupiza, Dzvombi and Chuma Che Zimbabwe.
After only three days in Chiredzi, we were ambushed by the Rhodesian forces at a place called Tonono. We returned fire and that day we fought like lions.
I shelled the enemy with my Duri raMbuyanehanda (Mortar 82). When the Rhodesians found out that reinforcements had arrived from East Africa, they fled from the battle scene. Vakanzwa mudumbu.
During the war, East Africa had a reputation for churning out well-trained freedom fighters. We neutralised enemy fire, killing many white Rhodesian soldiers in the process.
That was my first battle in the actual war zone.
In the next instalment, Cde Sando’s narration reaches its climax as he chronicles how his group blew up locomotives laden with sugar in Chiredzi. He also describes, in detail, the works of sabotage that his group embarked on in areas surrounding Chiredzi and later on in Mberengwa. Cde Sando vividly recalls how a landmine that his group had planted derailed a locomotive that was carrying sugar from Rutenga to Zvishavane. Also, don’t miss the opportunity to read the blow-by-blow account of the hell-raising Nyamhondo battle in Mberengwa in which Cde Sando lost nine of the freedom fighters under his command. The freedom fighter, together with two of his comrades, were subsequently captured and brutally tortured. Don’t miss it…
