The Sunday Mail
This week, The Sunday Mail’s Deputy News Editor Levi Mukarate continues his conversation with Cde Ngiyo Mpofu, who was in the first group of liberation fighters to be trained in China. Cde Mpofu speaks about the liberation ideology and the essence of being a hero.
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Q: You were in prison for a long time. What was it like?
A: After being arrested in Botswana and upon being sentenced to one year in jail for unlawful escape from protective custody, together with (Elliot) Ngwabi and (Keyi) Nkala, we were to serve at Khami Prison.
Ngwabi and Nkala, who had initially been arrested for the shooting incident at Dube Range in Matobo, were to stand trial for that case. Like I mentioned earlier, they were sentenced to 10 years in prison.
It was at Khami Prison that I experienced what is called a dark cell. There was no light and I do not even know for how many days I was held there. It was a painful experience.
Since I had a pending case of sabotage, I was to stand trial at the High Court in February 1965. I was discharged by Judge Danny Young. My saving grace was the torture I had gone through, which allowed me to tell the court that I had pleaded guilty to the charges under duress.
When questioned, the police did concede that they had used force on me, but they maintained that they had evidence I had committed sabotage. The judge, however, didn’t entertain them and I was freed. I was to be released from Khami Prison in September 1965, because a month in prison has less days, and part of the one-year sentence was suspended on condition of good behaviour.
It was not absolute freedom. As a political prisoner, I was immediately restricted at Gonakudzingwa, where I received a hero’s welcome from other comrades. When I got there, I was welcomed by the likes of Joshua Nkomo, Daniel Ngwenya and Joseph Msika.
We were to be arrested again at Gonakudzingwa for continued political activities. This time it was myself, Dan Madzimbamuto, Willie Dzawanda Musarurwa, Kenan Moyo, Zipper Ncube, Tinaye Chigudu, Ronald Kavhiza and Lucas Manyatela. Chigudu, Manyatela and Kavhiza were trained in North Korea and I was trained in China. The four of us were guerrillas and the other four were nationalists. We were sent to Gweru Prison.
While we were there, Cephas Msipa, Herbert Musikavanhu and Shakespeare Makoni joined us after they were arrested for escaping from Gonakudzingwa. In Gweru Prison, we were held incommunicado and spent the bulk of the time isolated. We were not allowed visitors. Our area was secluded. We didn’t know what was happening.
There I also found James Chitagwi, Stone Nkomazana and Findo Mpofu. We used to call that prison “Gweru Hell” because of the harsh treatment we got there. We were held incommunicado until 1966 when we were released into the yard.
Q: You clearly show that you found prison life difficult. Did you at any point regret your political activities?
A: Prison actually toughened me. I had been subject to ill-treatment by the settler regime and there was no way I was going to like the system.
I was determined to fight for black majority rule. That is why when we were released into the yard, I got encouragement to prepare myself to contribute towards development in an Independent Zimbabwe.
Q: What do you mean “preparing yourself”?
A: In 1966, when we were released to the yard, I remember Willie Musarurwa said to me, “Clark, Ian Smith has only arrested our bodies and not our minds, so we have to organise that we get education.”
He said we needed to take subjects or academic studies that are not taught broadly in African schools, as whites did not want Africans to be educated to run the country.
Musarurwa suggested we take up Economics, Commerce, Accounting and Law. That is how I took up Economics and Accounting. We had Shakespeare Makoni and Herbert Musikavanhu, the young brother to the late former Vice-President Joseph (Msika).
These two already had some academic degrees. Herbert had majored in Law while Makoni had taken Economics. These are some of the people who helped us with our studies, but they were to be later released, leaving us there.
The Chinese had taught us, during training, about development. It was a blessing in disguise that we were detained because we had the opportunity to study areas that would give us the foundation to run this country. We had to learn, we read at night and study materials were smuggled to us.
We would organise with our people outside like Phelekezela Mphoko and so on to give us reading material for our studies. That is why upon my release from prison in 1979 I wanted to pursue my LLB studies in London.
But the whites thought I wanted to go and join my colleagues in Zambia, so they didn’t give me my passport.
I stayed in the country and at Independence, I had demobilised from the army after having been at Julietta Assembly Point. I spent about three months at the assembly point and was asked if I wanted to join the army, but I said I had good qualifications and would pursue other interests.
I went to seek employment at Bulawayo Polytechnic. The whites who were there were surprised by the qualifications that I had got whilst in detention. I was employed as a part-time lecturer for Economics, Commerce and Accounting and eventually rising to lead the institution.
Q: On the political side, what was happening in Gweru Prison?
A: We continued to give encouragement to all comrades who were visiting us there. But I think the major highlight was in 1974 when all nationalists were released from prison and sent to detention centres.
I remember some Zanla comrades who were transferred to Gweru from Harare Central Prison, who included Shadreck Chipanga.
The situation was charged and we would spend nights singing and denigrating Smith’s government.
Tempers were so high and this led me and many other comrades to be taken to Connemara Prison, where we were held in solitary confinement for 30 days. We were on what they called a penal diet, which is a small portion of sadza, a small piece of meat and some few vegetables.
This was meant to drain us and by the time I got out, I should admit, I was drained, weak and skinny. It was terrible. In 1974, I was transferred to Wha Wha Prison and eventually released in 1979 during the Lancaster House Conference.
That is the conference that produced a constitution that I didn’t like. I disliked it especially on the land provision and for the reason that it was supposed to have been written by the people of Zimbabwe.
I felt Nkomo and Mugabe had made a lot of concessions just to rule this country. We had been supported by the Chinese and Russians during the war and it seemed the Constitution was accommodative to the Britons.
Q: Could this be a why you were to form the Liberty Party and later the Federal Party in the 1990s, when you became highly critical of Robert Mugabe’s government polices?
A: I was surprised at how Mugabe and Nkomo were not working closely with the Chinese and Russians during the early years of Independence.
These were the people whose ideology we had adopted. It seems on one end we wanted to be socialists, and on the other capitalists. It is evident that these leaders, those in their Government and their policies, were for self-benefit. They were adopting the lifestyles of the whites whom we had fought.
The Chinese and Russians are hardworking, you can never trust the Western imperialists. But I did support Mugabe when he introduced the Look East Policy. I said that is the direction we should have taken (from the start).
I don’t lust for money or positions, but I want to see Zimbabwe prosper. We cannot develop if we are not united and (don’t) share the same ideology.
Look at Sudan, Iraq, Syria or Nigeria: they have oil, but because they are not united, they are failing to develop their countries. They are always in tribal or religious wars.
We don’t need that in Zimbabwe. We must be united. We fought for everyone to enjoy what the country has to offer and not certain tribes.
Nkomo and Mugabe were leading tribal politics. We don’t need two Vice-Presidents, to say this is ex-Zapu and this is Zanu. No, that is nonsense. It is because of such arrangements that tribal politics are given room to brew. That is why you hear people saying so-and-so does not deserve to be Vice-President because he or she is not senior surviving ex-Zapu. What is that? We need one Vice-President of Zimbabwe, chosen not because of tribe or race.
We liberated the country, but we are still very poor. Craig Mills, an author and academic, says the main reason why Africa’s people are poor is because their leaders have made this choice.
But what should we do? We need to dam all the major rivers in Zimbabwe. We lack water, we need irrigation. We are sandwiched between the mighty Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers. We have all that water along the watershed. We need to dam wall all the rivers that go to Zambezi and Limpopo and do agriculture.
In Asian countries such as China, Taiwan, Singapore and Cambodia, they do not waste productive time away from the fields.
Vietnam is a net exporter of world wheat after Philippines. It is because they take advantage of their water.
In Zimbabwe, we import wheat because we lack irrigation facilities, but we have the water and good soils. We need to have 90 percent of our population involved in one way or the other in agriculture, otherwise we are not going anywhere.
We harvest in April and we spend six months seated waiting for the next rains. Oh no, that is not it; we are underutilising the land.
We have plenty of land and let us rationalise the farms and take land from those who have vast tracts that are underutilised.
We cannot have a situation where we import soya beans or yellow maize from Indonesia and Hungary.
Apart from agriculture, we have mining. We need to give the mines to the private sector because these are the ones with the business capital to run the ventures.
Locals should form consortiums and get these mines. But the Mugabe Government did not realise this. We have too much corruption in this country.
Look at how CSC was destroyed or how Zupco was run down; how the Grain Marketing Board lost its maize. That is not what we fought for.
I am happy President Mnangagwa has been the only high-level person to publicly say the police are corrupt. He is trying his best, but I am afraid he is going to be sabotaged.
Q: Finally, Cde Mpofu, with your liberation struggle history, how do you want the nation to recognise and honour you for your sacrifice?
A: I am National Heroes Acre material and must – I emphasise – must be declared a national hero.
Why not? I qualify for that without doubt and if anyone thinks otherwise, let them come and tell me whilst I am still alive.
All my comrades – Gundu, Dauramanzi, you name them – are all at the National Heroes Acre. Their record speaks volumes as well as mine. That status I demand – and will not beg for, because it is not about personality differences, but for our history and future generations.
In fact, I think one should be honoured with the hero or heroine status whilst he or she is still alive.
The Americans, British and other progressive nations honour their heroes whilst they are still alive, why not us?
We have had people being declared national heroes because they were in camps in Zambia or Mozambique or because he or she was in Cabinet. That was Mugabe’s way of thinking and it should be done away with.
We had people in Smith’s parliament like Godfrey Chidyausiku who were buried with honours at the National Heroes Acre, but they used to call us terrorists, what a betrayal.
We have people who, because they were businesspeople assisting us with clothes or medicines, were rewarded with ministerial posts and upon death were declared national heroes. What of the women, boys and girls from the villages who were giving us information about the enemy?
The criteria is just wrong and it is only through people like me being declared national hero that we can draw demarcations of what a national hero is or is not. I might be one of the silent ones, but I am among the real ones.
