The Sunday Mail
This is the second part of the biography of Group Captain Sithabile Sibanda aka Cde Ntombiyezizweni Mhlanga. Under the working title “A Woman’s Choice, The untold story of the ZPRA Women’s Brigade”, the book was researched and written by Tjenesani Ntungakwa. Group Capt Sibanda was been awarded the Liberation Medal (1990), Independence Medal, Mozambique Campaign Medal (1991), Ten Years Service in the Air Force of Zimbabwe (2000), Long and Exemplary Medal after 15 years of service in the AFZ (2005), Sadc Medal of the DRC Campaign (2008), the United Nations Medal (2008) after serving in The Sudan under the United Nations Mission in Sudan.
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Group Capt Sithabile Sibanda —
The mood for a war in Rhodesia had become so pronounced that there was no longer any room for a normal life. The Rhodesians were very much on the offensive, doing all they could to stifle the pace of the armed struggle.
Young people had to take up arms and remove the chains of British settler colonialism. In terms of my social involvement at the OId BSAP Camp, Judith Mavolunteer Moyo became another dependable confidant.
She worked for the man who deputised Officer Dodd. The junior police details were very cautious about approaching me. There was a black officer, Rogers Mdlongwa who had some kind of respectable rank. I cannot recall what status he had in the BSAP but for a black man, he must have been somebody.
He seemed to like chasing after young women and also preyed on me to no avail. I once met him in Bulawayo after ceasefire and he had lost most of his teeth due to old age. Some of his responsibilities were distributing beds, mattresses, blankets and sheets. In the organised structures of a conventional army like nowadays, he could have been referred as a provost.
Other than that, the rest of the guys were very much apprehensive of me. At weekends I used to do my laundry, visit Idah Songo or hang around with Judith Mavolunteer Moyo.
With time, the strain of work began to wear me down. I kept in touch with Idah Songo. After leaving the Old BSAP Camp in Kwekwe, I went to stay with a relative at Torwood in Kwekwe.
I was getting older, more rounded and definitely with an appearance which left many males holding their breath. However, the tradition had been that the brothers of a girl who was just getting over puberty would watch out for any trespassers.
Supposing I got home late, my brother had a self-proclaimed right to send me back to wherever I had been. There was a day that I went out with Idah to a function and stayed there overnight. Having arrived early morning, I was told to go away.
I ended up staying in Torwood for the whole of 1976. In 1976 I applied to join the British South Africa Police but was turned down. My fascination was with the uniforms female officers wore in the BSAP.
At that time, the police force was taking some recruits that were holders of the Grade Seven Certificate of Education. I heard that the police sent some people to our area and investigated my family’s political background.
When it was discovered that Nkonkoni was politically active in Zapu, my application to join the BASP was rejected. Such was normal practice in settler colonial Rhodesia.
With time, I became aware that there were Zapu broadcasts on Radio Zambia. They became quite frequent after the recruitment of the Manama students in early 1977.
I was also constantly involved with Idah Songo. On Radio Zambia, Jane Ngwenya was part of the Zapu compliment of announcers. The spirit of what I heard on radio began to move my interests towards Zapu.
There was another Zapu radio personality called Chipo Mabuwa, the sister to Chiratidzo Iris Mabuwa who also played a part in conscientising us towards the armed struggle.
Chiratidzo Iris Mabuwa was among the group of students that were taken by Zapu militants at Manama around January 1977. Ian Douglas Smith had openly stated his disapproval of the Zimbabwe African Peoples Union and listening to such Radio Zambia could get us into big trouble.
The armed struggle was scaling new heights and reports of contacts between the Rhodesian security forces and guerillas were increasingly becoming pronounced.
I recall that one day Chipo Mabuwa appealed to us on Radio Zambia, something to this effect: “To you who are still at home, what are you waiting for? I joined the armed wing of Zapu and have since been issued with my rifle.”
It was an unpredictable phase in my life but I had decided that push had come to shove; the armed struggle was going to be my choice. I would fight for the freedom of my country. At that time, I thought that being in the armed struggle was going to be exciting.
A crop of the Zimbabwe Peoples’ Revolutionary Army female combatants had were spreading the ideology of the armed struggle waged by the Zimbabwe African Peoples’ Union. I had to be prepared to carry the gun and move forward.
After all, missionaries like David Livingstone had preached the gospel on one hand whilst facilitating the work of the Maxim gun on other. I began to realise that Zapu was the vehicle for the emancipation of the majority in Rhodesia. It was in Zapu that I was to find the messiah mentality which would set my people free.
By then I did not know that the slogan, “Aluta Continua” meant something serious, beyond life or death. At Torwood, I spent some time at number N2 11 where the Moyos lived. Paul Moyo was like my guardian, married to Jessica Sibanda who became a relative by virtue of sharing the same totem with me.
Paul was an avid lover of soccer and became a coach in the latter years of his life. Benedict Moyo his son, followed suit and also became a prominent mentor in the game of football. I used to call Paul “Sibare”, taken from Ndebele.
It meant brother-in-law. In those days, in-laws were dear. It was unheard of that they quarrelled. In 1976, I was a mature 17-year-old. By February 1977, Silobela had become a very tense spot. There were movements of Rhodesian security forces in pursuit of guerillas.
Everywhere, there were searches and roadblocks manned by heavily-armed soldiers. Everything deteriorated after the mass recruitment of Manama students.
Manama was a mission secondary school of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Rhodesia, situated about 200km south of Bulawayo. The nearest major provincial centre to Manama was Gwanda, and Gwanda became known for guerilla incursions.
Here and there were some clashes between the Rhodesian army and freedom fighters. The Rhodesians used to issue what was called a communiqué from their army headquarters in Salisbury indicating the casualties of every battle.
Those updates would be along the following lines: “Today, the Joint Operations Communiqué informed of a clash with ZPRA terrorists at Figtree, near Plumtree. Four terrorists were killed and five terrorists’ collaborators were wounded in cross fire. The security forces are continuing with follow-up operations.”
One was left feeling as if the guerillas were losing ground to the Rhodesians. At times, the reportage seemed to demean the intellect of the predominantly black populace.
Not all of us were in a position to read between the lines as the Rhodesians waged psychological warfare against supports of both Zapu and Zanu. Some among us lost relatives; others were captured and tortured by the Rhodesian Special Branch.
I got to learn that the Special Branch was the state security arm of the Rhodesian right wing government led by Ian Douglas Smith. The intelligence organisation was quite heavy-handed in its operations against Zapu and Zanu.
There were many stories about how the Special Branch abducted some of our comrades in neighbouring countries like Botswana, Zambia and Mozambique. The accounts were painful, even young as I was.
Under such circumstances the broadcasts from Radio Zambia caused a lot of indignation among the Rhodesian security apparatus.I grouped together with such friends as Idah Songo, Marina, Ossa and others to hear Zapu’s revolutionary propaganda encouraging us to leave the country for Zambia.
It was risky for us to crowd around the radio set and listen to the message of hope. The evenings were quite convenient for this. It was like a spiritual experience and it was partly because of such broadcasts that we were motivated to join the armed struggle.
I became so bold as to tell my mother what I wanted to do. Sooner rather than later, we had to organise ourselves and cross the border into Botswana. On January 22, 1977, Zapu national treasurer Jason Ziyaphapha Moyo was killed by a parcel bomb in Zambia.
Ziyaphapha had been instrumental in modelling the armed struggle with Zapu after the banishment of the party’s leadership to Gonakudzingwa around 1964.
After Zapu Vice-President James Dambaza Chikerema left in 1971 to form the Front for the Liberation of Zimbabwe, Moyo took on greater significance in the struggle.
There were many versions that were spread concerning the death of JZ. One theory was that the Rhodesians might have planted an informer within Zapu to eliminate him.
The survivors of the bombing incident in which Moyo died were John Nkomo, Jane Ngwenya, Dumiso Dabengwa, Amos Jack Ngwenya and a Zapu intelligence officer who went by the name Cici.
Amos Jack Ngwenya assisted in Zapu’s external wing after the banning of 1962, along with Aron Ndlovu, a trade unionist who had worked closely with Joshua Nkomo.
