The Sunday Mail
THIS is the third and final instalment of our discussion with CDE ENERST MDLULI (EM), a former ZIPRA combatant who was captured by Rhodesian security forces when he was on a mission to establish new bases in the Eastern Highlands. In our previous edition, he took us through his tortuous journey from then Northern Rhodesia (Zambia) to Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). He recounted the numerous battles his group of 32 combatants fought against the Rhodesian army in the Zambezi Valley. This week, he concludes his account by telling our Senior Reporter TENDAI CHARA (TC) how hunger forced his group to scrounge for food in a village where Rhodesian soldiers were waiting in ambush, resulting in his capture.
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TC: Cde, we ended our discussion with you telling us how hunger forced you to go into a village to secure food. Kindly take us through the rest of your story.
EM: After our initial efforts to get food from the first village failed, we proceeded to the next village where I was subsequently captured. What happened was that as I was walking through the village in search of food, I bumped into Rhodesian soldiers. I did not have my gun, which I had hidden in a river bed. Without any sort of weapon, I was captured easily. I surrendered without any fight. The Rhodesian soldiers were clearly overjoyed when they captured me.
TC: What happened after your capture?
EM: After pointing their guns at me, I lifted my hands as a sign of surrender. Two Rhodesian soldiers — one white and the other black — came to where I was and tripped me. I fell with a heavy thud. I was severely beaten, then handcuffed. I was then taken to a Rhodesian army camp which was in an area called Bvute near Luangwa Bridge. I was detained at this camp for two days. I was interrogated and severely tortured. The Rhodesian soldiers desperately wanted to recover the gun that I was using. I think they wanted to use the gun as evidence in court.
I strongly suspected that my captors initially planned to shoot and kill me in cold blood.
I do not know why they later changed their minds. I think they didn’t kill me so that they could get as much information as they could from me on how we were operating.
On the first day at the camp, I was taken back to the place where I was captured and I directed them to where the guns were. I did not show them the place where I had hidden my gun. I had fired my gun the other time that we had engaged the enemy.
If I had shown them my gun, they would have seen that I had fired it. This would mean certain death for me. They would have definitely shot me on the spot. At the camp, I was treated in an inhumane manner. During the day, I was often forced to sit in the scorching sun. That year, we experienced extremely cold weather, but during the night, when it was bitterly cold, I was made to sit outside. One young white Rhodesian soldier clearly enjoyed torturing me.
He would hit me repeatedly on one side of my cheek, and for a whole month, that cheek was heavily swollen. The first thing he did each morning was to hit my cheek. I do not know why this soldier disliked me that much. From the Luangwa Bridge camp, I was taken to a police camp in Chipuriro, Guruve. We slept at the camp and the following morning I was shoved into a Land Rover vehicle, and it was driven deep into a bushy and mountainous area.
I think my captors wanted to shoot and kill me. However, I found myself alive after a terrifying ordeal.
The Rhodesian soldiers, who were clearly enjoying themselves as they celebrated my capture, shoved me out of the vehicle and dragged me to a trench.
The soldiers then put two target-practising objects and placed me between them. They then drew their guns and aimed at the targets. One of the black Rhodesian soldiers told me that the trench was going to be my grave. He joyfully told me that my life was going to come to an end within some few minutes.
As I closed my eyes, I prayed and readied myself for death. The guns were cocked and the first shots rang. The bullets hit the targets, narrowly missing me. Again, the soldiers took aim and before they fired their shots, I passed out. In my mind, I had concluded that this was going to be the end of my life.
After a while, I regained consciousness. When I regained consciousness, the Rhodesian soldiers roared into laughter. They called me a coward who was afraid of death. The soldiers shoved me back into the vehicle. One of the white soldiers told me I was a lucky man. He said I should have died.
Later on, I discovered that the soldiers had no intention of killing me. They wanted me to break. They later on tried to turn me into their spy. From the bush, I was taken back to the holding cells. When I returned to the cells, I was pleasantly surprised to see that two of my colleagues had been captured and were at Chipuriro.
My colleagues later told me that the Rhodesian agents had lied to them that they had killed me and were going to kill them. Such lies were mind games that were employed by the Rhodesian agents to torture us psychologically. Their mission was to get as much information as they could from the captured guerrillas.
The Rhodesian soldiers lied to me that they had captured and killed Joe, one of our colleagues, whom I was related to. From Guruve, we were taken to Karoi, where we were detained at a police camp. Together with my fellow combatant, Edward Nkomo, we spent three days at the camp.
From the police camp, we were subsequently taken to a nearby prison. At the prison, I was reunited with some of my fellow cadres with whom I had trained and travelled with from Zambia. We were in detention at the prison until November 10, 1968, when we were taken to Salisbury (now Harare) for trial.
Our group was taken to court and in a brief trial, I was sentenced to death. I accepted my fate.
TC: How did you react to the death sentence?
EM: I was not surprised. Like I said previously, I had accepted my fate and was ready to die. I was incarcerated at Salisbury Central Prison from 1968 to 1971 before we were transferred to Khami Maximum Prison. I was at Khami until 1980, when the country got its independence.
TC: How were you treated in prison?
EM: We were treated badly. However, the treatment depended on prison wardens on duty. Some were sympathetic to the liberation cause and felt sorry for us. The majority of black prison wardens were against us.
They often told us that we were straining their relations with their white bosses. At one time, I fought with a young white prison warden who had slapped me for no apparent reason.
The prison warden was coming straight from training and was notorious for harassing and beating up prisoners.
When he slapped me, I fought back and within moments we were engaged in a fierce fight.
After the fight, I was reprimanded and thrown into a cage. I was saved by a senior black prison warden who was sympathetic to our cause.
In 1980, we were set free and for the first time in 10 years, I was a free, happy man. After the war, I was attested into the Zimbabwe National Army where I served until retirement.
TC: Thank you for your time.
EM: You are most welcome.
