The Sunday Mail
We publish the last part of an interview by our Deputy News Editor Levi Mukarati with Cde Agrippa Samuriwo. This week, the former Whawha detainee narrates his encounter with Cde Noah Gumbochuma, one of the early liberation fighters to lead a gang that killed a white couple as resistance to the settler regime intensified.
Question: You mention Noah Gumbochuma, one of the early fighters to lead a gang that killed a white couple in 1966, can you tell us more on your interaction with him and any information he shared with you on their mission?
Answer: The CID had gathered intelligence that some guerrillas had come from Zambia with various missions inside Rhodesia.
These fighters had split into four groups; with one destined to blow the Feruka pipe line in Mutare, the other heading to destroy Beitbridge, the third being the one that waged the Chinhoyi battle and the fourth was the Gumbochuma gang destined for Zhombe, Sikombela Camp.
When Gumbochuma first led his team to his home area, here; they stayed for some days.
During the brief stint here, he would move around at night giving political orientation to villagers.
He would explain to the people their mission and that there were many others fighters who were training outside the country who would need support when they return to dislodge the settler government.
That was the time he also passed through here, at the farm to see us, before proceeding to his uncle’s homestead.
I remember, he came here a week after the April 29 1966 battle of Chinhoyi.
This was after some of the comrades, whom he had been part of as they came from Zambia, had waged a battle in Chinhoyi, but were later overpowered by the Ian Smith regime.
He informed me that his mission was to move into Zhombe area, Midlands to free nationalist leaders who had been detained at Sikombela.
But Gumbochuma seemed to suspect that they had been sold out, especially after the Chinhoyi attack.
He had also got information that the Chigwada gang had been arrested near Penhalonga before fulfilling their mission to bomb the Feruka Pipe line. We used to have portable radios that we listened to and got information.
Besides, the Ian Smith regime would broadcast these cases to make it appear as if we were in a futile war.
I remember Gumbochuma saying, he feared the whites had got wind of what they were planning and could have already deployed their agents to kill them.
In fact, he had doubts on continuing with the initial task to Sikombela because of what had happened in Chinhoyi and Mutare.
After we parted ways, I later got news that the other team led by comrade Mudukuti had been arrested in Masvingo.
Again, a few days after Gumbochuma had visited us, members of the Rhodesia CID were spotted in the area.
I quickly suspected they were trailing Gumbochuma and his team, which had already left.
The gang was to be arrested after killing the Viljoen couple, who were white farmers in Hartley (Chegutu). It was mid-May 1966.
But one striking thing about Gumbochuma was that he was not your ordinary person.
He was brave and others might say he was ruthless because he was known to have assaulted some labourers in this area, during his short stint here.
He was deeply concerned over why some African labourers were failing to understand and join their cause.
I think it is a result of such clashes with the locals that made it easy for the CID to track them.
He had picked some enemies along the way and, as I said earlier, there was a lot of selling-out going on as some people thought we were out to cause them troubles with the whites.
Question: Coming back to yourself, you had been detained at Whawha and released on house arrest; what were you up to when you were confined to your house?
Answer: I was to be removed from house arrest in 1970 after I had married in 1969.
But my confinement did not stop me from participating in politics.
We would hold secret night meetings updating each other on what was going on and how we could assist each other achieve our mission towards freedom.
We were well known black business people and my father would assist the comrades in our area with food and clothing material.
I remember Cde Bruce Pisa Pisa who stayed with us for about two weeks with three other fighters as they strategised their operations in their area.
Cde Pisa Pisa was originally from Manicaland. There was a tall tree at this farm, but the area was a thicket so we would hold meetings here.
I should mention that after I was removed from house arrest, I knew there were Government security details in our area that were monitoring my movements. In August 1970 I was to be employed by my uncle as a bus conductor. We had a fleet of buses so that is where I got a job.
I plied various routes and we would ferry some comrades either as they crossed into Zambia or returned.
I remember Cdes Kennedy Madzima and Edwin, whom we once assisted to go to Zambia via Botswana because Chirundu had been closed.
It was scary because I knew their mission and during that time there were many roadblocks.
The police did not hesitate to arrest the bus crew once they suspected we were transporting liberation fighters.
It was like they were expecting us to know everyone who was on board.
But as I worked as a bus conductor, I remained active in politics here in Chitomborwizi, mobilising the people and making them understand why we were resisting the continued rule of white settlers.
I was to be chosen Chitomborwizi Central organising secretary between 1971 and 1973.
This was the time when we had most of our comrades skipping the country to train. I was still Zapu during that time so we were organising for your boys and girls to go for training mostly in Zambia. At the same time, we were having others who were returning to wage a resistance against Smith’s government.
There was a lot going on during that time.
But there was a slight setback in the war in 1975 after the assassination of Cde Herbert Chitepo.
That is the time I also left Zapu to join Zanu because it was our belief that some people in Zapu like Dumiso Dabengwa and Lookout Masuku were behind the death of Chitepo.
Most people failed to understand why we were killing each other when we had a common enemy – the white settlers.
It was a bad time and it appeared as if the war faced a derailment. We were hurt with the killing of Chitepo because he had been one of the early nationalists and we respected him.
Again there was a strong tribal wave during that time and people were seriously divided. However, we were to get direction and the war continued, culminating in Ian Smith to feel the heat around 1979 and agree to talks at the Lancaster House Conference.
That same year, we opened a Zanu PF office at Matoranjera here in Chitomborwizi. It was myself, Chris Nkomo, Brodreck Siyanata, Milton Gombera and Razaro Chihota.
We knew there was an election coming and there was need to mobilise the people for the vote.
Question: How far true is the assertion that there was a lot of intimidation to vote for ZANU in 1980 and can you explain how you mobilised the masses?
Answer: You see, the popular party had been Zapu. Most people knew Zapu and Nkomo was a leading figure.
But after the Lancaster House Conference, there was uncertainty on who was to be voted for between Robert Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo. While Zanu-PF was waging the war on another front and Zapu on another, Nkomo was the favourite. But we were Zanu and Robert Mugabe was our leader and we had been given word to campaign for him.
The war, on its part, had also divided people with us in Mashonaland areas linked more to Zanu and those in Midlands and Southern parts of the country to Zapu.
But we still had people with Zapu roots and it was our mission to ensure that these people are made to vote for Zanu-PF. You see, when you hear the slogan ‘vasingazive ngavadzidziswe’ it is not just a statement.
We had to use every tactic to make sure people are whipped into line.
But over and above that, it was a general sentiment that we needed to vote the whites out of power and we did in 1980.
