‘I saw people dying; it was traumatising’

01 Mar, 2020 - 00:03 0 Views
‘I saw people dying; it was traumatising’

The Sunday Mail

This week, we focus on ex-liberation war veteran Cde Isaac Muguti Chivendera (IMC), whose nom de guerre was Cde Busy Nyuchidzinoruma. He chronicles to our reporter NORMAN MUCHEMWA (NM) how he joined the liberation struggle and the Chimoio Camp bombing.

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NM: Cde Chivendera, can you briefly tell us about your early childhood?

IMC: My name is Isaac Muguti Chivendera, I was born on June 5 1956 in Zvishavane, Midlands Province.

I am the last born in a family of 10 children. I went to Bumburwi Primary School in Gweru and then Mabika Primary School in Zvishavane, where I completed my Grade Seven in 1972. I did not proceed to Form One as my parents failed to secure school fees for secondary education.

As such, I studied up to Grade Seven.

By then I was a mature person who could understand what was going on in politics.

I joined the liberation struggle in Mozambique in 1976 and my liberation war name was Cde Busy Nyuchidzinoruma.

NM: What pushed you to join the liberation struggle?

IMC: After finishing my primary school, I became a caddie at Roland Golf Park in Zvishavane.

I had developed a passion for the sport because our school in Zvishavane was near the golf course.

It was a routine that every day, after school, I would go to the golf course.

I ended up learning how to play the sport at that tender age.

It was during this time that I witnessed the segregation of blacks by white people.

It was also the time when political meetings were gathering momentum.

Around 1974, when the war started in Mt Darwin, my brothers who were working in the Ministry of Roads were deployed in that area.

Each time they returned to Zvishavane, they would tell us of their encounters with liberation fighters.

The most popular names of the comrades included Cde Vhuu.

To me, the name Cde Vhuu was evocative of a brave and invincible character.

It was during the conversations with my brothers that I began to imagine what it was like to fight in the liberation struggle.

That alone triggered an interest to explore, first hand, what was going on.

My interest in joining the war went on for some time until Mozambique attained its independence in June 1975.

The independence in Mozambique came as a confidence booster for me and made me view the fight for independence in Zimbabwe as possible.

Together with some friends, we decided to leave home to join the liberation struggle.

It was around August 1976 when we left for Mozambique.

NM: How did you travel to Mozambique?

IMC: I left home with the likes of Cosmas Gwizhu and Sifelani Macheni Tsuro.

We boarded a bus from Zvishavane to Chiredzi.

We went via the Gonarezhou National Park into Chicualacuala, Mozambique. Comrades were already operating in the area, so we met a group of eight comrades and introduced ourselves.

The comrades had a standard procedure of serious vetting and they interrogated us for two days to ascertain whether our mission was genuine.

This group we met was led by Cde Fast Move and they accompanied us through the Gonarezhou National Park until we met another group that was led by Cde Gabarinocheka.

This group was on its way to Mozambique to collect material, so Cde Fast Move handed us over to this group and they helped us to cross into Mozambique.

When we got into Mozambique, we first arrived at a base called Mapai, which was a Zanla transit base.

That is where these comrades left us.

From Mapai we went to Baraji, which was a base for Frelimo and also housed some Zanla comrades who were in transit.

We moved to Xaixai, which was also a Zanla base paiva nana Cde Jena, Cde Bataimhandu, among others whose names I cannot remember.

During that time, it was difficult to pick names of the comrades because we met many of them.

Also take note that the journey we travelled was not overnight, it was months and months of walking, and sometimes on empty stomachs.

Zvaitoda kushinga nekuzvipira, otherwise nyika tingadai tisina kutora, the journey was not for the faint-hearted.

NM: How long did you stay at Xaixai, and did you receive military training?

IMC: We stayed at Xaixai until the beginning of 1977 when we were taken to Chimoio. We did not commence our training on arrival, but waited until July.

While awaiting training, since Chimoio was a big camp, we assisted in various duties such as chopping firewood, erecting shelter and cleaning the area, which helped in the day-to-day running of the camp.

NM: Take us through your training at Chimoio, and who were your instructors.

IMC: We received basic training in guerrilla warfare, individual tactics – that is, how to handle a rifle or machine gun.

It was a tough kind of training, but as someone who knew his mission, I had to soldier on.

We also trained in handling grenades, how to lay landmines and how to prepare for ambushes.

Cde Morgan Shumba was our base commander of Takawira 2 where we received our military training. Other instructors were Cde Lot Sibanda, Cde Jeke and Cde Ziso.

Other senior commanders included Cde Martin Ndlovu, who used to take us through marathons and individual tactics.

The overall commander of Chimoio was Cde Norman Bethune.

In November, when Chimoio was attacked we were about to complete our training.

NM: What do you remember about the attack and how did you survive?

IMC: A lot happened during this attack and it was so sudden to a point that the reaction time was very limited.

I saw comrades dying and it is a traumatising experience.

This was my first time to experience a real war situation.

The fortunate part was that the side we were based had a lot of trained comrades who had ammunition.

At the main camp – Takawira Base One – there was a field nearby and other various camps.

In those various camps, that is where people coming to join the war would be received.

These are mainly the victims of Chimoio attack. They were killed as they sought to cross the field to Takawira Base One.

There was Chitepo Ideological College and Parirenyatwa, which was our hospital, then Chaminuka responsible for security and Nehanda that housed women, while Chindunduma was for children. These are the areas that were heavily attacked.

What saved us is the fact that when the Rhodesian war planes came in the morning to attack, they concentrated more on the other side because the defence there was very weak.

Our side had trained comrades, so they fired back for a very long time, thereby giving room for most of us to escape.

At the centre of the camp was an anti-air machine gun, but it was never used because it was the first to be attacked.

That is where Cde Brown and other comrades who manned the anti-air died as they tried to fire back.

Together with other comrades, we managed to cross the river to safety, heading north and  we ended up at Mudzingadzi, where we were picked up the following morning by Frelimo soldiers and taken to Gondola.

We took advantage of the rains that fell towards evening and managed to escape from the radius.

NM: Still on the attack Cde Chivendera, we hear the camp commander Cde Bethune was forewarned of the pending attack by spirit mediums, is that the case?

IMC: I cannot say much on that. But that is the information yatinongonzwawo nemamwe macomrades who were in leadership positions.

I am too junior to comment on that since I was a recruit who was still on training and hardly came into personal contact with these leaders.

But we also hear that the commander, Cde Bethune, had warned quite a number of base commanders that they were taking the security issues for granted, but no one took heed.

I cannot comment much on that comrade, but I also remember when we were doing our marathon, we were warned to be careful and to be alert always.

The same week that we were warned, that is when the attack happened.

I think it will be fair enough to get a comment from those who were in the High Command.

NM: When Chimoio was attacked, you were towards the end of your training, where and how did you complete your training?

IMC: We came back at Chimoio after two weeks from Gondola to finish our training. Like I said before, the training base rataive harina kunyanya kuparadzwa.

So we came back to do some polish-ups.

We finished our training early January and immediately moved to Pungwe for specialisation.

I specialised in the use of the recoilless rifle, which is more like artillery, where we were trained in heavy weapons used to attack buildings and armoured cars, among others.

The same group of instructors we had at Chimoio are the same we went with for specialisation.

To be continued next week . . .

 

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