The Sunday Mail
LAST week, Cde RICHARD CHIRONGWE (RC), who is the Secretary for Administration of ZANU PF’s War Veterans League, detailed how, in early 1979, he and other troops defeated Rhodesian soldiers and rescued the povo who had been captured by the enemy. This week, he tells our Political Editor KUDA BWITITI (KB) about more battles he fought against the Rhodesia security forces.
******************
KB : What was memorable about the battle you won in Nyahunda, Bikita?
RC : For me, this was really the first battle I had been involved in with the enemy. I had spent much of the time from 1974 to 1978 doing training and working as an instructor. This was now about fighting the war and putting all the military expertise that I had learnt at Mgagao, Lebanon and Romania into practice.
Cde Chirongwe
What was also special about that battle was our sheer willpower to win. The comrades had travelled for four days and four nights from Mozambique.
During those four days and four nights, we hardly had any food or water. In fact, some of the comrades had to drink their urine after failing to get water. We had been through so much hardships that we were mentally prepared to win at all costs. I was also determined to fulfil the special mission I had from General Tongogara.
KB : What happened next after winning the battle in Bikita?
RC: We continued with our journey and arrived at Zimuto, in an area commonly referred to as Kwa Stan, near Mandava. There was a school located there. As we were approaching, we heard the sound of a grader fixing roads.
We knew that the grader had Rhodesian forces accompanying it. We were against grading of roads because these cleared bushy areas disturbed our guerilla type of warfare. We agreed with my comrades to go and burn the grader.
KB: Why did you decide to embark on such a risky mission?
RC: Indeed, it was a risky mission, but in a war situation, at times, it is good to make the first move. We convinced ourselves that we would win the battle.
As we got nearer to the grader, we heard gunshots. The enemy had seen us and they started to fire at us. We exchanged gunfire — the enemy had NATO guns, while we had LMG guns.
The gunfire was explosive, banging from all directions. I am not sure how many people died on the enemy’s side, but they had a number of casualties and they retreated. We decided not to burn the grader, as originally planned, but we retreated and set up a base not far from where we had fought that battle.
KB: Did the Rhodesian soldiers come back for you?
RC: They did come back for us, hours later, in the evening. They had reinforced, both in terms of numbers and their ammunition. But what they did not know is that we had seen them coming because of the signal system that we used.
KB: What was the signal system all about?
RC: We used it to detect the enemy when they were coming. We had our signal persons among our group who had flags. Raising the red flag meant the enemy, a yellow flag meant the enemy’s vehicles and a white flag indicated that it was a civilian approaching.
Our signal persons were posted several kilometres away and they saw the enemy coming. We also used several guerrilla tactics. One of the tactics was hiding under water. We used reed plants to help us breath while under water. We would make holes in the reed plants and use those holes to breath. So, the enemy would assume that we disappeared, yet we were hiding under water.
KB: Did you defeat the enemy during this battle?
RC: It was a protracted battle that lasted for over two hours. They were well-equipped with their Puma infantry vehicles and aircraft. We were also heavily armed with bazookas and other weapons. The exchange of gunfire was really intense.
We lost a few of our men while the enemy had more casualties than us. To show you the ferocity of this battle, even the school and the nearby Mandava Shopping Centre in the area were both closed due to the impact of that battle. I later learnt that the school and shopping centre only opened after independence in 1980.
KB: What happened next?
RC: We were able to leave that area and headed towards Chirumanzu, as we still wanted to continue our mission. We then arrived in an area called Chinyunu. In this area, locals were not familiar with war combatants.
They were quite surprised to see us at first, but they later warmed up. From there, we proceeded to Chizvinyire, close to Zvinyaningwe.
When we arrived that night, there was a traditional event taking place and people were drinking beer at this bira. We joined the povo in drinking beer whilst still carrying our guns.
We drank what we called seven days’ beer and got quite inebriated. But, as we were drinking, we got a shocker: the enemy appeared and started shooting at us.
KB: So, the enemy approached you when you were still drunk?
RC: Yes, we were still a bit inebriated, but we had no choice, but to fight. Even in our drunken state, we were still determined to win the battle. We saw their positions. Many of them were firing from a nearby school. We decided to go right to where they were. That was quite a fearless act because they continued to fire at us, but we were dodging the bullets whilst approaching them.
There was a groundnuts field and we used it to take cover, while continuing to advance towards the enemy. Gunshots were banging from both sides, but we came up with an idea to outwit the enemy.
KB: What was this idea?
RC: We had our Mortar 60 ammunition and we fired it, aiming beyond their positions. This confused them, as they assumed that we had fired from behind. Amid that confusion, they started to run towards our direction and this gave us an opportunity to aim at them.
There were 14 of them and nine of us during that battle. We later learnt that we killed seven of them, while four of them were seriously injured. Amazingly, there were no injuries or causalities on our side, despite the fact that they outnumbered our men.
There was one particular soldier from their side whose bullets missed my head by a whisker. I advised one of my soldiers, named Tambaoga, to aim at the troublesome soldier.
He was like the last man standing for the enemy, as others had fled. We managed to aim at him and he was killed. After this victory, we returned to where we had left our beer, took it and proceeded with our journey.
