The Sunday Mail
CHRONICLES From the 2nd Chimurenga
AS much as several battles were fought in the long and arduous road to Zimbabwe’s independence, two battles somehow re-defined how the war panned out — the attack on the Grand Reef air force base and the Mavonde battle. Ian Smith sought to use victory at the latter battle as leverage at the Lancaster House talks. However, it was not to be. Cde Gidza Makhanya, born Gilbert Mutyambizi, had a front-row seat to both battles, and gives a blow-by-blow account of what these two battles meant to him in particular and the liberation struggle in general. In a conversation with Garikai Mazara that spanned several hours, he broke down numerous times. He carries the mental and emotional scars from those — and many other battles. Read on . . .
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Q: Give us a brief background of yourself.
A: I was born on November 11, 1952, but if you check my national identity card, it is something else — the dates were altered, so I appear younger on official records. I did my primary education at Lobengula Primary School in Mzilikazi, up to Standard 5. I was later taken by my uncle, my father’s younger brother, to Zowa resettlement area (Mashonaland West) because he liked the way I did gardening and wanted me to help him with his farming.
I enrolled at St Joseph’s Marevanai and then went to Kutama College up to Form 2. But I could not go beyond Form 2 because my parents could not afford the fees anymore. I went back to Bulawayo and worked for several companies before going back to our rural home, Mhondoro, where I stayed briefly before going to Norton to look for work.
Q: Which year did you go to Norton?
A: That was 1971, when construction of Manyame Dam was starting and I got work there with the Ministry of Roads (sic). We made the road that leads to the dam wall from Norton. Then there was a call for volunteers to go and work in Mutoko and Nyamapanda.
Q: Why volunteers?
A: Because the area had become a red zone, a danger zone, because of the escalating war. And there was a danger allowance of about five pounds per month. We used to earn 27 pounds and those five pounds were a big incentive.
It is there that I met Cdes like the late Chimedza, 007, Mupunzarima and Tungamirai, and I started off as a mujibha until the situation was getting hot; I had to run off. But before running off, I was sent on a mission.
Q: What was that mission?
A: Because the supervisor trusted me, he sent me with Andrew — the driver — to collect our payroll in Harare, at the main railway station where the headquarters for Ministry of Roads was. So the comrades needed some money and I was supposed to intoxicate the supervisor, retrieve keys which he kept by his belt and get money from the safe. But that night, despite the bingeing, he didn’t sleep. So my mission to steal the money failed.
So when I got back to Nyamapanda, it was time to flee. But as I was walking along the highway, I saw a police car, those ones with the long aerials and I knew something was wrong, so I went into Nyamapanda River and walked northwards along the river bank, and some kilometres after the police station, I emerged. I reached Mozambique and met Frelimo soldiers who asked me how I had managed to navigate the minefields.
Anyway, the camaradas said Cde Gurupira would come and collect me. For sure, he came and took me to Changara, where I met other recruits like Benson Musendekwa, Barnabas Chadehumbe, Aggley Ndiriwani and a certain Peter, whose full name I cannot easily recall. Unfortunately, Peter passed away due to fatigue on our way to Seguranca. As part of the process, remember this was a war situation, at Seguranca, we could not just walk into any camp without any interrogations. We were to be interviewed thoroughly.
Q: Was this still 1971?
A: No, no, no. This was 1973, between September and December. After the interrogations, we were informed that we were to go to Chifombo for training. It was me, Cdes Musendekwa, Chadehumbe, Ndiriwani and Gurupira. We walked all the way to the Zambezi River, where we met Cde Mawaya, an old man who used to help recruits cross into Zambia.
From around 7am, we paddled in a canoe, and the Zambezi was full, with hippos, crocodiles and snakes keeping us company the whole journey. The canoe had holes and we would take turns to scoop water out of it using a small plate, until our arrival around 2 or 3pm.
We were taken to a rest camp where only a few people, maybe five or six, were present. After a few days of rest we proceeded to Chifombo.
We found Chifombo somehow semi-deserted and just as we were settling in, we were surprised to be surrounded by the Zambian defence forces. Apparently, we were under arrest. They were saying you killed Cde Herbert Chitepo, you killed Herbert Chitepo, but we hadn’t heard any news on our way to Chifombo.
In the meantime, we don’t know why but Cde Gurupira was removed from among us. The rest of us were taken to Petauke, a town to the east of Zambia, on the border with Malawi, where we were imprisoned. We stayed there for a long time.
Then one night we were removed from that prison and bundled into a truck. We travelled the whole night and we just heard gates being opened. We were placed into another prison. Then in the morning, the Zambian national anthem was sung.
Cde Benson Musendekwa was putting on a camouflage, an Arabic camouflage, I can’t readily recall which country, but it was easily noticed by Cde Chimedza, who was then the national PC (political commissar), as he was going to take his bath. He started talking to us and then went to where the others were.
When he left us, he went to the others, who were curiously looking over at us, the new arrivals. Then Cde Mupunzarima, the late, came and instructed us to go where others were.
We were over 30 in that cell, there were the Zanla High Command element, the Dare reChimurenga. We stayed there for 18 months, and then we were released, must have been in September, towards the Geneva Conference. That must have been 1976, if I am not mistaken.
Q: What were you doing in those 18 months?
A: We were not idle. We were having political lessons; analysing news. There was a small radio which was smuggled in. Cde Webster Shamu was a journalist and in the evenings he would listen to the news from all over the world and he would unpack the news for us so that we stayed abreast of developments around the world.
When we were released, we stayed in Makeni for a few days, before being transported by OAU trucks to Tete, Mozambique.
Q: Sorry to take you back a little, Cde. You talk of 1973, having crossed to Mozambique. Your next mention is 1975 when in Chifombo, when Chitepo had died. What happened in-between? 73-74?
A: In-between those years ndakambojibhura-jibhura.
Q: Kujibhura-jibhura kuita sei?
A: Kuita mujibha. I was a mujibha here, this side, before crossing into Mozambique. Which means there is a point of correction, I crossed into Mozambique in 1974. Point of correction there. I was transferred now into Mozambique, end 1976. When we got there, there was this Vashandi turmoil.
We started our training, specialising in the recoilless rifle. After training, I was moved from Tembue Base 1, which was under the command of Cde Sipho, to Base 2, which was under Commander Blackmore.
Then after that, we were moved to Chimoio, which was a larger base which drew its recruits from holding areas like Chibawawa, Nyadzonia and Espungabeira.
At Chimoio, it was a training department. Here I was under the command of Cde Stephen Chocha, the former police chief, Augustine Chihuri . . .With the passage of time, there was need for a specialised base which was more advanced in terms of training.
I was chosen to open that base, under the command of Cde Everisto Nhamo, me being his deputy, Don Carlos (who was a specialist in motor 82 weapons); we had Levis, we had Cde Chinotimba, who was a political commissar.
Q: You mean our present-day (Joseph) Chinotimba?
A: No, no, no. He was someone else. I last heard about him early 80s, when he was said to be in Headlands and I was in Rusape. There was also Cdes Dracula and Maspara, who was the chief instructor and knew quite a lot in the field of war-craft. This base was more advanced in training than all the previous ones. This is because war starts small and grows.
Then the Chimoio attack happened.
But before we get to the Chimoio attack, in the morning we would send comrades on a 360º patrol, you would make them four cardinal points, a group to the north, south, east and west, to ensure all had arc of operations. This was to ensure that surroundings were free of threats.
One particular day, the boys returned and reported some unusual sightings.
Q: And these were?
A: An area had been cleared in the bush and fuel had been stored. It could have been jet A1 and power paraffin or it could have been an ammunition dump which they didn’t detect, I think. They also saw quite a number of spoors of men, moving in the direction of Chimoio, which was the southern direction from our angle. From the spoors, we could tell these were Rhodesian soldiers.
We sent the boys on a mission to inform Chimoio of what we had seen but I think we were a bit late because the boys got into crossfire of the Chimoio attack. And as we sat there at Pungwe base, pondering what to do next, three planes came above us.
Q: Did these planes spot your base?
A: We could not tell whether they had seen us or not. It seemed they did not see us.
Q: Give us the geographical location of Pungwe Base from Chimoio?
A: Pungwe was to the north of Chimoio and the distance between them was some 100km or slightly more. As such, we could hear the bombings and could see the planes attacking Chimoio if they went high enough.
Then some comrades came from Chimoio to inform us about what happened there. We dispatched teams that went to help, burying the dead and getting those who had been injured to hospital.
It is important to note that when Chimoio was attacked, Tembue was also attacked on the same day and same time. They had this stupid idea of having simultaneous attacks on our bases so that no reinforcements could come from another angle to assist.
If you check, when they attacked Freedom Camp in Zambia, they also attacked Mkushi at about the same time.
Then a decision was made that a revenge mission had to be done; that Chimoio had to be revenged. Thus the attack on Grand Reef was planned.
In the next instalment, Cde Gidza narrates the planning and execution of the attack on Grand Reef, then one of the Rhodesian’s strong air force bases and what this meant to the morale of the comrades, as well as the course of the liberation struggle.
