Turning the tide against the enemy

25 Dec, 2022 - 00:12 0 Views
Turning the tide against the enemy Cde Hamunyari Makadzange

The Sunday Mail

This is the final instalment of our discussion with CDE HAMUNYARI MAKADZANGE (HM), a prominent war collaborator who operated in Rusape during the liberation struggle. This week, Cde MAKADZANGE continues recounting to our Deputy News Editor LINCOLN TOWINDO (LT) how she undertook a dangerous mission to deliver a secret message to freedom fighters operating in Hwedza that subsequently led to a massive push-back against marauding Rhodesian soldiers and Selous Scouts. She also recounts her daring escape from capture by the enemy following an assault on her home village by Rhodesian forces in response to a devastating attack that nearly crippled their operations.

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LT: It appears the Rhodesians had taken the upper hand following the deployment of Selous Scouts. How did the freedom fighters push back against the enemy?

HM : Now, in response to increasing Rhodesian soldiers and the Selous Scouts activities, the comrades in our area wanted to coordinate their activities with colleagues in neighbouring sectors.

They wanted to organise a meeting with comrades operating in Hwedza.

I was tasked to deliver a letter to the base in Hwedza, which was basically an invitation to what they called a GP (gathering point).

I was being sent out into an unfamiliar territory and I did not even know where I would find the comrades in Hwedza.

Regardless, I took up the mission and made my way to Hwedza, on foot.

I was going to an area called Makwarimba, kwaGovha.

Fortunately, I had an uncle who lived in this area, having relocated from our village.

I had no choice but to go to his homestead, because there was no other way I could establish contact with the comrades in the area on my own.

I was welcomed on arrival by my uncle.

I noticed that my nieces were not at home, so I asked where they had gone.

Apparently, they were at the freedom fighters’ base, where I was supposed to deliver the letter.

However, my uncle could not tell me that they were at the base because divulging the freedom fighters’ position was forbidden.

He then told me that my nieces where at the garden.

I immediately told him that I would rush to the garden to see them.

He stopped me abruptly because he knew that they were not at the garden.

LT: Why did your uncle not tell you that the girls were at the base?

HM : As was custom during those days, whenever you had a visitor at your homestead, you were required to alert the freedom fighters.

This was done to flush out Rhodesian spies, who would sometimes be deployed to visit their relatives to carry out covert spy missions without the knowledge of their hosts.

So, my uncle wasted no time, and alerted the comrades of my arrival through a mujibha.

On my part, I also had not alerted my uncle about the purpose of my impromptu visit.

Before long, mijibha were sent out to take me to the base for interrogation.

I was taken through a brutal interrogation.

There was this comrade called Morison Chiutsi who violently slapped me across the face with his open palm during the interrogation.

I fell violently to the ground and lay prone for what seemed like an eternity.

My uncle was then called and ordered to corroborate what I had told the comrades during the interrogation.

After regaining my composure, the comrades asked why I had visited unannounced.

I then I told them about the true purpose of my mission and handed over the letter.

The letter was an invitation to a meeting between comrades operating in Dedzo, Masvosva and Hwedza to organise a response to the intensifying incursion of Rhodesian soldiers and Selous Scouts into the area.

Once they were satisfied that I was not a spy, the commanders ordered that I receive food after having travelled such a long distance on an empty stomach.

In a small way, I had played my part in helping organise a meeting between the comrades that would end up helping them coordinate better and eventually turn the tide against the marauding Rhodesians.

Also, it was during my short stay at this base that I first met the man who would later on become my husband – Cde Killmore Mabhunu.

LT: Were comrades allowed to engage in romantic relationships during the war?

HM: It was allowed to have romantic relationships during the war.

However, what was not allowed was having sexual relations, which was referred to as kupisira.

Everything else was allowed, but having sexual relations was strongly forbidden.

Whenever an incident of kupisira occurred, the local spirit medium would manifest and alert the commanders that a prohibited deed had taken place.

Whenever such an incident took place, in most cases, the base would come under enemy attack and usually, the culprits would be killed during the attack.

LT: You were now heading towards the end of the war. Can you take us through other battles that you still remember vividly?

HM : Sometime early in 1978, there was a brutal five-day bombardment of Rombwe by the Rhodesian Air Force.

It was easy for the enemy to attack that area on account of its proximity to Rusape.

Rhodesian planes would unleash bombs and quickly fly back to the airstrip in Rusape to reload before returning to attack again.

For the entire five-day siege, no one could eat.

Villages were left abandoned after everyone fled to safety because the bombing was indiscriminate.

In response, the comrades organised a counter-offensive targeting local police camps where Rhodesian soldiers were based.

The offensive would target Hwedza, Chisasike, Dorowa, Chiwetu, Mudhuri and Zadzaguru camps.

All the camps were to be attacked simultaneously.

After the offensive had been plotted, the commanders chose me to deliver letters with orders about the mission to all the bases that were to be involved in the surprise attack.

I duly delivered the letters to more than five bases.

Within days, all the police camps were attacked simultaneously at exactly 12am, when the enemy least expected an attack.

The attack riled the enemy so much that within hours, hundreds of soldiers had deployed to all villages where police camps had been attacked.

The soldiers were beating and torturing everyone they could lay their hands on.

I was, unfortunately, captured by the enemy while hiding in our family garden along with four cousins – Pauline and Susan Gukuta, as well as Fiona and Sarah Nerwande.

We were forced into a military truck and taken to Rest House police camp. There were hundreds of captured villagers at the camp.

The Rhodesians then ordered that everyone without a national ID card be issued with one.

The soldiers had with them a list of names of people who were collaborating with the comrades.

So, they wanted to use the exercise of issuing ID cards to flush out all collaborators they had on their list.

Unfortunately for my cousins and myself, our names were on the list.

We had been sold out by a boy by the name of Michael Chizunguza, a mujibha who had been captured earlier by the Rhodesians.

I then overheard the official who was taking down our details asking a girl who was just in front of me whether children from the Nerwande family were in the queue.

The girl said “yes” and moved on.

When my turn came, and the official asked what my name was, I gave out a false name and my cousins, who were behind me followed suit, and also gave out false names.

That saved us from what would surely have been certain death.

We were then thrown into a heavily fortified open prison, which was fenced off with barbed wire.

The soldiers then took away Pauline. They started torturing her right in front of our eyes.

They would dunk her head in a drum of water and whipped the underside of her feet with a sjambok.

They used live electricity cables attached to her breast nipples before doing the same on her private parts as well.

It was so painful to watch.

She would occasionally pass out, and they would dump her by our side.

We were not allowed to touch or talk to her as she writhed in pain.

They would then come back and dump a bucket of water on her face so that she could regain consciousness.

They did this over and over for the whole afternoon.

That night, as we sat in a circle, we knew that one of us was next.

So, we devised an escape plan.

We started digging a way out from under the fence, making sure that the searchlight that circled around the perimeter of the camp would not spot us.

We used our bare hands to burrow a hole into the ground and made a small tunnel to the other side of the fence.

Only four of us, including Sarah and Fiona, managed to make our way through the tunnel to freedom.

Pauline could not make it because of the injuries she sustained during torture.

We fled towards Chiwetu village and then proceeded to Mudzinganyama village.

We spent the entire night fleeing from the camp until we ended up at the Madhibe base, where we found refuge. The following morning, we made our way home.

Upon reaching our destination, we were told that Rhodesian soldiers had already deployed a search party to recapture us.

They had assumed that, because of our ages, we would not make it back home on foot, and that we would need to board a bus to return home.

So, they had also mounted roadblocks along all the major roads.

We quickly made our way to the freedom fighters’ base for refuge.

We told them how we had escaped from the enemy and they immediately decided to shift their base.

Soon after we had left, the soldiers raided our village, including the base we had just abandoned. They failed to find us.

Pauline was later released by the Rhodesians.

They figured out that she would die from all the injuries she had sustained during the torture.

But by God’s grace she survived.

That is how we survived suffering at the hands of the enemy after the attack on their camps.

Next week, we feature Cde Aaron Musiwavo, a former guerrilla fighter, whose yearning to fight against the Rhodesian army saw him embark on a perilous journey into Mozambique for military training against the odds.

Twitter: @kuntowaz

 

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