The Sunday Mail
This week, we conclude chronicling Cde STEVE TRINITY CHIDAWANYIKA (STC)’s journey in the liberation struggle. He recounts to our reporter AARON CHARUNGWA MOYO (ACM) his involvement in a major battle towards independence and his eventual demobilisation at the end of the war.
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ACM : Can you give us an account of the last battle?
STC: This was not the last battle.
Take note that I just picked a few battles that I was involved in.
This is only the ninth battle — the Murungu village enemy surprise attack of November 1979.
Nyamandwe, where we had just come from, was in the Bonda Detachment. Nyachibva village was in the Mandeya Detachment.
Now, after being briefed by Cde Mpetabere, the sectoral commander at Nyachibva, we were ordered to advance to the Hwedza detachment and wait for further orders whilst operating there.
In my case, I was ordered to go back to the Zindi Detachment, which now had a skeletal staff. I was based at Highfield Base, but before I travelled 20km there, an instruction was sent, stating that I was to catch up with the others heading to the Makoni Detachment en route to the Hwedza Detachment.
When we arrived in the Makoni Detachment, we could not find the local comrades, maybe they had retreated to another area because of the size of our group.
I do not really know.
We then based in Murungu village and organised food, and the masses began to prepare the food immediately.
But what surprised us was that no food was served and comrades were becoming hungry.
What we did not know was that the masses had been threatened by auxiliary forces from Rugoyi Rest Camp, who had been monitoring our movement, as we moved into the detachment. More than 300 auxiliary forces had been deployed and surrounded us throughout the day. There were about 60 of us resting at the base.
Around 3pm, there was a sudden burst of gunfire from three directions. We knew we were under enemy attack as the gunfire was coming mainly from NATOs and G3 rifles.
The auxiliary forces from Rugoyi Rest Camp that attacked us were under the command of the notorious Selous Scout popularly known as Comrade Max, who was once a ZANLA guerrilla before joining the Rhodesian force as a Selous Scout.
Comrade Max trained most of Bishop Muzorewa’s auxiliary forces known as madzakutsaku. We immediately took up positions and returned heavy fire, and the auxiliaries retreated.
We realised that we had to retreat.
As we retreated towards the west, intending to reach the Chiduku Detachment, the enemy continued to attack after the auxiliaries reorganised themselves into smaller units as they pursued us. No food was eaten that day.
I had become suspicious of what was happening during the night.
I had sent word through some mujibhas and chimbwidos to tell the great spirit medium, Sekuru Sakureba (real name Jairos Chikunguru), who was the husband of my mother’s younger sister, that I wanted to see him.
However, all those whom I sent never came back. It was much later that I learnt that Sekuru Sakureba had passed away not so long back.
After fighting through the numerous and sporadic battles of that day, we finally arrived safely in the Chiduku Detachment.
To cut the story short, we later went to the Hwedza Detachment, where we stayed until announcement of the ceasefire.
ACM: What then happened after the announcement of the ceasefire?
STC : What is left is to tell you how we went to Assembly Point X (Dzapasi), and how we were chosen to go and be the first group of fighters to meet the Rhodesians in Zimbabwe after voting in the very first general elections.
I also forgot to tell you about Cde George Onyango (Gabriel Madzinga), one of the finest guerrilla fighters I ever came across, who was the detachment commander for the Gandanzara Detachment, and Cde Mago, a commander in the Makoni Detachment.
The comrades had taken my father, Giles Chipo Chidawanyika, into their unit during one of the school holidays and gave him an AK47 and a bandoleer for the duration of the holidays that he was with them.
They trained him in the bush on how to use weapons and they stayed with him as one of them. In one of his photos, taken just after independence, he is seen wearing a “Chinese Rice” guerrilla combat uniform.
I don’t know if Max is still alive.
Max akaonesana ndondo naCde George Onyango.
You can even get footage of Max training auxiliary forces on YouTube.
He was also a very good fighter, but on the enemy’s side. He was the most senior commander of the auxiliary forces of Bishop Muzorewa, followed by Percy Kuzviedza, who was at Jongwe Printing and Publishing.
ACM : What happened to you after demobilisation?
STC : I joined the army and served for 20 years before retiring in 2000.
ACM : What was your rank during the liberation struggle?
STC : My biggest rank in the liberation struggle was detachment commander. I was also appointed as security or seguranza at various levels.
ACM: What do you consider your greatest achievement?
STC : I have achieved a lot materially, academically, socially and otherwise in my life, but nothing comes close to the prestige and honour of being a Zimbabwe liberation war fighter.
I prefer to be called comrade than anything else; there are many doctors or PhD holders in Zimbabwe, but I am a comrade, call me comrade.
God and the ancestors chose me to be one of those who were tasked to go and face death in the eye and be part of those who liberated the country from the yoke of colonialism and slavery. I probably would have been a totally different person today. But I credit all that I achieved to one particular individual, Herbert Wiltshire Pfumaindini Chitepo, who formed ZANLA, which I was to join, like every other guerrilla who now boasts having been part of those that were given the opportunity to liberate our country.
The truth is that none of this could have been possible if Chitepo had not decided to put his head on the block.
He chose to commit the worst crime of treason against the colonial regime.
Before Chitepo formed ZANLA and James Dambaza Chikerema formed ZIPRA to challenge the evil Rhodesia colonialist regime on the battlefield, no other nationalist had the fire in their bellies to do so. Before that, it was just rhetoric and nothing more.
