The Sunday Mail
We continue the political memoirs of Cde George Shumba whose nom de guerre was Cde Farai Tafirenyika. This week the liberation fighters tells our Deputy News Editor Levi Mukarati some of the battles he encountered with the Rhodesian Forces and also begins to chronicle the events surrounding the end of the Zimbabwe People’s Army (Zipa) era.
Question: You were at Tembue for a few months, can you explain the circumstances that made you cut short your stay and duties at the camp?
Answer: While I was at Tembue, in the commissariat department between May and July 1976, there was a battle at Nzeveyahumba in Mt Darwin near Pachanza.The battle claimed many fighters and I was summoned by our commanders, who included Cde Rex Nhongo, Dzinashe Machingura, James Nyikadzino and Elias Hondo.
I was appointed political commissar for Tete province, where Cde Chinodakufa had been appointed field commander.
Cde Dzamatsama became provincial security while Cde Zhosto or John Mutseyami, whom I had left at Chishawasha Seminary with to join the war, was appointed provincial logistics.
In our leadership we also had Cde Tensen Sithole. We were tasked to go to Nzeveyahumba and establish what had caused the loss of so many comrades.
Our findings were that Cde Bombardier, who had been Tete provincial commander, with Cde Chinodakufa being his political commissar, had assembled some sections in the province to execute the battle. We discovered that Cde Bombardier gave the comrades an order of no retreat, no surrender.
He even threatened to shoot any comrade found retreating. However, our fighters came under heavy fire from Rhodesian fighter jets, helicopters and ground force.
The battlefield topography was between semi-vegetated mountains and our fighters were in a valley.
They were trapped there. Pakarohwa vakomana vedu zvainzwisa tsitsi. We usually talk of our successes, but at Nzeveyahumba it was a sad story.
Chinodakufa, a sectorial commander, Chimombe, and a few other fighters survived. Cde Bombardier died during that battle as well as many other comrades.
The disadvantage of the battlefield was that it did not have much tree cover and our fighters were exposed. I remember seeing a lot of big spent cartridges, indicating that the helicopter gunships were spraying bullets through heavy machine guns.
When we tried to get information from the villagers, we noticed they were also traumatised and confused. Our conclusion was that the deployment was poorly done and the order not to retreat was suicidal or motivated by dangerous heroism.
It was a nasty battle to an extent that the few comrades who made it back at Tembue were seriously traumatised. Vamwe vaiti vakanzwa pfuti kurira vaitotiza zvekutozodzoka after a few days.
We had to take them in for counselling.
Question: With all the information that you gathered, how helpful was it to your operations or planning future operations?
Answer: When we returned to the rear, we planned a three pronged attack in Rhodesia, Tete province, which covered areas on the other side of Zambezi and Kairezi Rivers. Cde Chinodakufa, as the new field commander, myself, Cdes Chorosi or Chitauro and Remigious Zimondi, who was later appointed Air Commodore in the Air Force of Zimbabwe, took one group kwaNora and passed through Nehanda Section.
Cde Dzamatsama took another group and went through Zhento which was Chaminuka Section while Cde Zhosto went with his group along Kairezi.
Each group had nearly 1 000 men, but we were not moving as a unit because we risked being detected by the Rhodesian security details. We broke into smaller groups after setting our next meeting point.
At the meeting point, only the leaders of the various groups came together while vakomana remained either in the bush or lived amongst the villagers.
Ipapo hondo yakanga yakomba nekuti we engaged in many battles and I think the Rhodesians felt the heat.
Question: During this period, were you Zanla or Zipa and which are some of the famous battles that you were involved in?
Answer: We were now under Zipa. I went for training in Tanzania in 1975 around April and when we returned the following year, Zipa fighters were also being trained in Tanzania. As such, when we went to the front we were under Zipa. Our command was Zipa.
As for the battles, I remember a battle, in 1976, paBhavhu kuNyombwe in Mt Darwin. Takaridzirana nevarungu vakatiza. After that battle, takapinda muChesa ndokunowana kuine newspaper, Rhodesia Herald, richinyepa about that battle.
The story stated that it was Frelimo that had invaded Rhodesia and caused disturbances in the area, in support of guerrillas. Pane patakarova paChanza Camp yepaDA (district administrator). We encountered a few casualties, but we had struck them hard.
We then had a mishap while crossing the border into Mozambique with our casualties. There was Cde Farai who was in charge of assisting the fighters cross the minefield into Mozambique.
It was at night and Cde Farai was unlucky to step on a landmine and it exploded.
The explosion triggered a panic in our group and people began running in various directions in the minefield.
All I can say is that it was a nasty sight because Cde Farai’s leg was cut off and the incident left him blind. Two other fighters were seriously injured after stepping on the mines.
Nyama yemunhu hayidi kudamburwa zvakadaro. It was not a good picture.
We then sought refuge at a disused house and in the morning went to Nora where we managed to access a tractor that took the injured to Tete for treatment.
As said earlier, we were now operating as Zipa and had a Tanzanian soldier attached to us. We were with him when we went to Kairezi base and he saw some trees that had been hit by shrapnel from bombs by the Rhodesia Forces and said; “so the metals that hit across these trees were targeted at human beings”. Akabva ati he had seen enough and joined a group that was crossing to the rear in Mozambique.
Around October 1976, as nationalist leaders prepared to go to Geneva for talks, Dzinashe Machingura and mukwasha waRobert Mugabe ainzi Sam Geza, he was an economist and once permanent secretary after independence, wrote a document against the Geneva talks and that leaders including Mugabe and Tongogara, who had been detained in prison, should apply to join Zipa.
Question:Are you now talking of the ‘infamous’ plot that was to lead to the arrest of Zipa leadership?
Answer: Yes, that is true. It was another turn in our politics and I was also arrested alongside the Zipa leadership.
Question: Can you take us through the events leading to your arrest during the Zipa period?
Answer: Around that time I went to Tembue with Cde Dzamatsama leading a group to get reinforcements and to report on what was happening on the war front. I remember it was around 10am when we got near the turn-off road to Zambia from the road that led to Tembue, towards Malawi.
We saw a lorry that had a couple of people including Josiah Tungamirai and Kadungure. These, we later leant, had been released from jail in Zambia. The lorry stopped and Tungamirai called Dzamatsama and waved at him.
Apparently, the same lorry had transported Zipra commanders, arrested in Tete including ana Maseko, to Zambia before returning with these Zanla leaders.
The arrests of the Zipra commanders were because of the war problems.
Question: What were these problems and who was arresting these comrades?
Answer: Let me give a brief background. The Organisation of African Unity Liberation Committee had called for the formation of a single force in 1975. They wanted to train fighters from both Zanu and Zapu who would operate as Zipa. Zipra was reluctant on this Zipa initiative. As such they sent few comrades for training, arguing they were already training soldiers who were coming from Russia.
There had always been bad blood between Zipra and Zanla. When the training under Zipa was conducted in Tanzania, the fighters returned for deployments mostly in hot areas in Mashonaland areas. The Zipra guys, mostly Ndebele, were in some cases, being targeted and killed by Zanla combatants. It was tribal politics at play.
Saka anaMaseko were now saying we can’t send our fighters to the front because they are being killed. As such they were arrested by Frelimo and accused of trying to sabotage the war. I should also point out that there was a ‘secret order’ from the commanders like ana Rex kuti damburai vakomana ve Zipra.
Continued next week.
