The Sunday Mail
WE continue our discussion with Cde LINGIWE CHIMBUYA (LC), a ZANLA cadre who decided to leave her parents’ home in Harare when she was only 17 to become a freedom fighter. In our previous instalment, Cde CHIMBUYA narrated to our Senior Reporter TENDAI CHARA (TC) how she travelled from Harare to Botswana and then Zambia to join the liberation struggle. This week, she gives us details of a sad incident in which ZANLA and ZIPRA cadres clashed over personal matters, resulting in the death of 11 ZANLA cadres.
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TC: Last week, you left us hanging as you were about to tell us about skirmishes between ZIPRA and ZANLA cadres at Nampundu. Can you give us details of this regrettable incident?
LC : I do not usually want to talk about such things. They are a bit sensitive. However, before I get there, I would want to tell you that during that time at Nampundu, the late Herbert Chitepo often visited us. I saw and interacted with him personally. Nampundu Camp was initially a farm. During our time there, we would wake up and do usual chores. We had a big field in which we grew crops. Former Cabinet Minister Cde Webster Shamu and Cde Happison Muchechetere, the former Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation chief executive officer, were at the camp during this time.
Our male counterparts would go to the fields early morning and female cadres would follow. On March 18, 1975, Cde Chitepo was killed and I was one of the few people selected to go to Lusaka for his burial. We buried him and then returned to Nampundu on March 22.
When we returned to Nampundu, we were not aware of political developments taking place behind the scenes. So one day, we woke up to discover that the camp had been encircled by Zambian soldiers. We were ordered to go for parade where it was announced that we should immediately vacate. Apparently, Cde Chitepo’s death had caused this banishment.
Only Zambian authorities knew where they were going to take us. We didn’t know by then that ZANLA leaders had been arrested in Lusaka and were in jail. We were taken to Mboroma in Kabwe. That is how we moved away from Nampundu, which was later occupied by ZIPRA forces.
- You were coming from an urban setting where you were not accustomed to hard, physical work. Now you were at that farm, how did you cope?
LC : For people like me, life at Nampundu was very difficult. Since I was coming from the city, I was interrogated and thoroughly vetted. Recruits coming from urban areas were always treated with suspicion. I am not too sure but I think the majority of people used by the Rhodesian army to spy on camps were youngsters from urban centres.
During interrogations, we were asked why we left a comfortable life in the city to come to the bush. I had my friend, Pindai, with whom I had grown up with in Mbare. Life was very difficult for us during early days as we were suspected of being Rhodesian spies. On many occasions, I asked if one could be allowed to go back home. It was, however, not possible to turn one’s back and return home.
Some of the people at Nampundu were not educated and some could neither read nor write. Such people always treated people who could read and write, like me, with suspicion.
Some absurd theories about us having tubes inserted in our bodies were bandied around. We were suspected of being on a mission to kill ZANLA leaders in Zambia. When I went to join the liberation war, I did not understand politics of the time. I went to war simply because I was following a friend who had gone there earlier than me.
I also had a friend who was from Chiweshe who often told me about how freedom fighters were always smartly dressed in denim jeans and nice shoes. I was also given the impression that those who went for military training were given opportunities to further their studies.
I therefore went to Zambia with a totally wrong perception of the real situation on the ground.
TC: You were relatively young and at that age, it is time when girls grapple with menstrual cycles. How did you cope?
LC: In my case, I had my first menstrual cycle when I was on my way from Harare to Bulawayo. I was a bit confused but I had no one to ask. When I crossed the Zambezi River into Zambia, the menstrual cycle immediately stopped and for a long time, I could not have my periods. When we arrived at Mboroma, it was nothing but a jungle. In fact, the new base was located right in the middle of a game park. The Zambian authorities wanted liberation war movements — ZANLA, ZIPRA and FROLIZI — to establish a single base at Mboroma.
When we arrived at Mboroma, we discovered cadres from ZIPRA and FROLIZI had already pitched tents. Cadres from all political movements were incorporated into one huge camp which housed female recruits on one side and their male counterparts on the other.
We stayed there for a while. I think our leaders wanted to have a combined force called ZIPA or something. Like I said earlier, I was young and could not comprehend politics of the time.
For a while, we co-existed with cadres from FROLIZI and ZIPRA, with Zambia’s government taking care of our needs. We were given food rations by the Zambian army, living peacefully.
However, a misunderstanding between ZANLA and ZIPRA cadres took place and fighting broke out. The fighting erupted after ZANLA cadres accused ZIPRA of snatching ZANLA women. During that time, ZIPRA had no female combatants at Mboroma.
After the skirmishes, ZANLA cadres left camp and started walking. We wanted to go to Tanzania on foot. Officials from the Zambian government followed us and tried to persuade us to return to base but we kept on going.
After walking for a distance, we decided to camp at a place which was near a river, about five kilometres from the Mboroma base where we had left the ZIPRA and FROLIZI cadres.
Our new base was still in the Mboroma area and we drank water from the same river that ZIPRA and FROLIZI cadres were drawing theirs. We built our barracks from scratch.
Our leaders were Cdes David Todhlana (real name Cde Chrispen Mataire) and late former Commander of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces General Vitalis Zvinavashe. A number of programmes were introduced at the new base. I briefly taught at this base. We went through basic military training although we did not have real guns.
TC: Tell us about skirmishes you earlier on said resulted in deaths of 11 ZANLA soldiers.
LC : I don’t know whether I should speak about this sensitive ordeal but what I know is some ZANLA cadres who had gone to take food supplies at a storeroom which was near the ZIPRA base were held hostage by ZIPRA. Also, when ZANLA cadres left to form their new camp, some of their members did not go with those that had travelled to the new base.
So one day, the ZANLA cadres decided to go back to the camp that was housing ZIPRA and FROLIZI cadres with the intention of freeing their counterparts who were being held hostage.
A truckload of ZANLA cadres went back to the ZIPRA base and when they were some few metres from the camp, Zambian soldiers opened fire, killing 11 ZANLA cadres.
Three female cadres died during the shooting.
Even up to this day, I do not know why the Zambian army opened fire and killed ZANLA cadres. Pedzisai Mazorodze and Mbuya Tsitsi were among those killed.
Do not miss our next edition, as Cde Chimbuya talks about her life as a teacher and mother at a refugee camp in Mozambique.
