The Sunday Mail
Our reporter Norman Muchemwa (NM)continues to chronicle the political life of Cde Isaac Muguti Chivendera (IMC), whose nom de guerre was Cde Busy Nyuchi Dzinoruma. This week, the former fighter narrates his encounter in the war front.
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NM: You returned to Chimoio to complete your training after the Rhodesians had attacked that camp. Upon attainment of military skills, what duties were you assigned?
IMC: I was deployed to the war front. That was February 1978, immediately after my specialised training, which had lasted for a month.
I was deployed in the Manica Sector that covered most parts of Manicaland and I operated in the Buhera area. The day we crossed into the country, there was a group that was ahead of us that came under attack from Rhodesian soldiers. That group suffered serious fatalities and casualties. We could hear the sound of gunshots from a distance, but we could not do anything as we were not sure what we would run into if we tried to reinforce the group. You see, guerrilla warfare had a tactic of ambush and we needed to have done surveillance of an area to launch an attack.
Hence, we did not know what was ahead of us so, we could not join the group that had been overpowered by the Rhodesian forces. It was sad to later learn that our colleagues had died. I am not sure who was leading that group because, during deployment, we were joined by fellow comrades trained in other camps.
NM: As for yourself, did you encounter any battles at the war front?
IMC: We had a difficult time when we crossed into the country because when the group that was ahead of us was attacked, the Rhodesians also had information about our group.
They knew we had crossed into the country.
There were more than 20 of us and we had a torrid time tichinzvenga varungu vaititsvaga.
The enemy even dispatched spotter and surveillance planes to track us, but they failed to detect us until we got out of the area, Chimanimani, and crossed Save River into Buhera.
Takaenda painzi Romorehoto Base. The area was mountainous. To answer your question, on armed confrontations with the enemy, yes I was involved in a number of battles. That was our mission. That was the reason why we had trained — to fight. We laid a number of successful ambushes managing to kill a number of white soldiers.
I remember our first ambush was a truck carrying Rhodesian soldiers that was going in the Murambinda direction. One of our comrades who had a bazooka managed to aim at the vehicle. After hitting it, we opened fire at the vehicle. I could hear cries from the Rhodesian soldiers in that vehicle. That was my first time to fire a gun directed at someone and this attack boosted my confidence.
This kind of attack and firing of a gun gave me courage to soldier on and determination that we had to dislodge the white colonial government. After the attack, we immediately retreated from the area because we knew the Rhodesians would come looking for us. Within 30 minutes of leaving the area, we could see, from our hiding place, two helicopters hovering around the area we had killed the soldiers.
We had several ambushes in Buhera, especially along road yaibva kuChivhu ichienda kuDorowa.
My section commander was Cde Jimmy Mashiriapungana and I was promoted to political commissar in that section. I had been given political orientation lessons at Chimoio or trained to be a political commissar. I was also involved in another ambush around the Chikavakava area which is at the border of Buhera and Matenganyika in the Wilshire farming area.
We ambushed three trucks that were carrying Rhodesian soldiers. There was a fierce exchange of gunfire. I am pretty sure we killed a number of them. One of their vehicles caught fire.
Since we were trained in guerrilla warfare, it was hit and run and after such an attack, we would quickly leave the area.
NM: As a political commissar, what was your role during the liberation struggle and how important was it to the success of the war?
IMC: The role of a political commissar was very important during the liberation struggle because when we got into our areas of operations, first, the masses needed to know what our mission was all about. We needed a buy-in from the villagers so that they supported us and gave us information to survive and win the war.
We had a role of educating the masses on the importance of why we were fighting the war.
The history of how we were colonised and dispossessed of our land was at the core of these education sessions. This was important because it was difficult to win the war without the support of the masses.
You might be familiar with the phrase “fighters were the fish and the masses were the water”.
Fish cannot survive without water so we seriously needed the help of the masses to push the struggle forward. Remember, it was the masses that provided us food, accommodation, clothing and other material we needed to push the war forward.
We used to meet with the masses during the night in what was known as mapungwe.
Also, as a political commissar, it was my role to motivate the comrades on the importance of carrying the war forward through history or liberation songs.
NM: The pungwes you mention were held at night, how did you handle issues of being sold out or being attacked by the enemy considering it was dark?
IMC: We had so many of those incidences of being attacked or being sold out but as trained comrades, we had ways of handling them.
During a pungwe gathering, only two or three comrades would address the gathering while other comrades would be guarding the gathering in a battle formation. This was done to minimise damage and the number of casualties in the event of an attack.
Comrades in guard positions would quickly alert us of the enemy presence and we would disperse the crowd and take our positions to attack. We also educated the masses on escape tactics in the event of an attack. The war was two sided, the enemy hunted us and we hunted it.
At one time we were attacked at a place called paChiguwune at the border of Buhera and Gutu.
We all managed to escape including the masses, no one was injured. This area was a farming area and the Rhodesians had a section of security that was mandated to guard these farming areas.
Usually when they got wind that we are in such an area, they informed the conventional soldiers. I strongly believe this security, of the farm areas, is the one that attacked us because the way they attacked was amateurish and different to conventional soldiers with full military training.
They fired at us and when we fired back, they quickly retreated. That exchange did not last more than 10 minutes. Usually when the Rhodesian soldiers launched an attack, they would be well equipped for such.
NM: How long did you operate in this area?
IMC: I operated in this area for more than one year until the beginning of 1979 when I was withdrawn to go for further training in Romania. But before I left for Romania I still remember two other battles. There is the one known as Maburutse Battle in Gutu around Nyazvidzi area. This area was a farming area. I still remember this battle because we lost a number of comrades including one of the commanders ainzi Mhaka. There was a group of female freedom fighters that crossed into the country with material.
We didn’t know the Rhodesians were tracking this group until they arrived at the base.
The base was attacked at dawn and we lost a number of female comrades. I am forgetting the exact number, but it was a sad day for us.
We had tried to return fire to the Rhodesian ground force, but they also had helicopters.
Together with other comrades, I managed to retreat into the mountain. That is how we survived. After that battle, I was assigned to go and operate in the Beatrice farming area.
There was an instruction to open a new front in Beatrice since Buhera and most parts of Manicaland had become more like semi-liberated zones. The new operational area was meant to escalate attacks in areas close to urban centres. So a large group of comrades crossed into the country with material heading for the Beatrice area and I joined them.A few days in the new area, we were attacked by the Rhodesians.
I think they had monitored our movement from Buhera. They attacked using helicopters and fighter jets. There was no ground force. During that time Beatrice yaiva nemasango aityisa, maybe that is why they did not deploy a ground force.
But we managed to hide and that attack was not serious in terms of fatalities or casualties.
That was my last encounter with the Rhodesians at the front before I was selected to go to Romania for further training.
