Sellouts were not shown mercy

18 Jul, 2021 - 00:07 0 Views
Sellouts were not shown mercy

The Sunday Mail

In our previous edition, we featured a nationalist who contributed to the war by organising, training and sending youths to conduct acts of sabotage against specific Rhodesian targets. In this week’s instalment, Cde George Kufakunesu, whose Chimurenga name was Softguy Chimurenga, narrates to our Senior Reporter TENDAI CHARA his journey from being a disgruntled causal worker in Salisbury (now Harare) to becoming a dedicated mujibha and subsequently an active guerrilla fighter.

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Q: Kindly introduce yourself to our readers.

A: My name is George Kufakunesu. I was born in 1956 in Jekwa, Murehwa.

My father was a shopkeeper and later a teacher at Darangwa Primary School.

My family later moved to Chikore in Makoni to farm.

I attended Chikore Primary School up to Grade Seven.

After completing Grade Seven, my uncle invited me to come to Harare where I was subsequently employed by a furniture manufacturing company as a general hand.

Q: How did the white employers treat you at the company?

A: The working conditions were not good and the wages were a pittance.

I grudgingly worked at the factory from 1973-1976 since I had nowhere else to go.

I then decided to return to our rural home to farm.

Q: Tell us about your early interactions with the freedom fighters.

A: I first interacted with guerrilla fighters in 1976 when I went to my rural home for the holidays. I was afraid of them. They had guns that we had never seen.

They had the sub-machine guns, bazookas and Light Machine Guns (LMGs).

I first met the guerrillas at our local township, Mujeni, where they had come to assess the situation.

They were particularly interested in getting to know people who were coming from Salisbury.

They were on the lookout for sellouts.

Q: Did you speak with the guerrillas on the first day you saw them?

A: As I said, I was afraid of them.

I did not talk to them, but I had a burning desire to become one of the fighters.

As a youngster, I was fascinated by the way they moved around carrying their guns.

Q: After seeing them for the first time, what happened next?

A: I returned to Harare. That was in 1976. During the holidays I often came home and would interact with the guerrillas, who were camped near the shopping centre where my father ran a grocery store.

However, in 1977, we could not interact with the guerrillas because it was during that time which we called Détente when the war was temporarily stopped.

The guerrilla fighters who were camped in our area left.

Q: Was it easy to travel from urban to rural areas during the Rhodesian era?

A: It was, at first. Problems started when the Rhodesian government decided to change identity cards from paper to metal ones.

There were roadblocks everywhere.

In my home area we had a roadblock at Mayo Police Station.

The bus would be directed to go into the police station and everyone on the bus was required to produce his/her identity particulars.

It was not a good experience.

Q: You can carry on.

A: In 1978, the Rhodesian army started what was then called the call-up.

Able-bodied men, mostly youths, were being forced to join the Rhodesian army.

Q: Tells us more about this call-up.

A: Both black and white workers were forced to temporarily leave their jobs and join the Rhodesian army.

The Rhodesian government was in desperate need of soldiers and I think it devised a plan to coerce mostly the mujibhas to train and fight against their kith and kin.

Q: Did you participate in the call-up?

A: No, I did not. Before I was called for the call-up, I was fired from work.

In fact, the whole metalwork department, which I worked under, was dissolved after we went on strike demanding better working conditions and wages.

After being fired, I went back to Chikore where I continued my interaction with the guerrilla fighters, who had, by then, returned to our area.

We were taught by the fighters how to remove mine detectors.

I remember my first assignment was removing a mine detector at a grid near Junju Farm.

Removing the mine detectors was a way of getting involved in the war.

As mujibhas, we were yearning to actively participate in the war.

We were desperate for action.

Q: Was it not risky to remove mine detectors? Were you not afraid of being sold out?

A: During this period the war was at its peak and sellouts were being killed once they were discovered.

I knew a number of sellouts who were killed by the freedom fighters for betraying the struggle.

Q: How were the sellouts killed?

A: What would happen is this; the guerrilla fighters would summon the povo to the bases and give them political orientation lessons.

The comrades would explain to the masses the aim of the war and how it would be conducted.

During these lessons, I remember one villager standing up and confessing, without being coerced, that he was a sellout.

Q: How can that happen? Confessing without being interrogated?

A: Yes. You know, a lot of strange things happened during the war.

The spirit of the war drove people to do extraordinary and unusual things.

Q: Were there no incidents in which people lost their lives after being accused of being sellouts when they were not?

A: As I said earlier, a lot of things happened during the war.

Some of the people were wrongfully accused of being sellouts by people who wanted to settle personal scores. We had an incident in which Chief Chikore was being accused of being a sellout.

After conducting their investigations, it was discovered that some family members who were not happy with the conduct of the chief had lied to the guerrillas.

The freedom fighters went with Chief Chikore to Mozambique since they had concluded that his life was in danger.

My uncle, Bernard Mudima, was taken to Mozambique after he was wrongfully accused of being a sellout.

A chieftainship wrangle sparked the accusations, with my uncle being accused of having received money, which was supposed to have been given to another chief.

I remember meeting them at Doroi camp where the Mzees were being looked after.

Q: Mzees?

A: Yes, Mzees referred to elderly people who were in the camps, but were too old to undergo military training.

Don’t miss next week’s edition where Cde Softguy will narrate how he was taken at gunpoint by the Rhodesian army and forced to undergo military training. He will recount how he turned his back on his captors and went on to fight for the liberation of the country.

 

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