‘We had become radicals’

Cde Parker Chipoyera continues his war Chronicles. This week, the liberation fighter narrates to our Deputy News Editor Levi Mukarati, his first arrest and eventual plan to skip the country and join the armed struggle.

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Question: You speak highly of Gondo, can you further explain how he shaped your understanding of politics?

Answer: In 1969, while I was in Form One, Gondo gave me books, by Kwame Nkrumah, to read.

The other books were given to my cousin brother David Madzure.

But, Gondo had warned me against giving the books; “kuvanhu vese vese.”

These books enlightened me on the political wave that was going on in Africa; that the continent was not free until all countries, including Rhodesia, were independent from colonialism.

But, I was to share the books with my trusted friends, who included, Shadreck Tsomondo, Ngoni Mujuru, Timothy Shangara, Clarence Pfumbi, Danious Nyika, Steven Raza and much later Ngoni Kundidzora as well as Agnes Jonasi.

When I was doing Form Three, my mother stumbled across some of the books and she confiscated them. I never got them back.

Each school holiday, I would go to Gondo’s home. He used to tune to Radio Moscow, Radio Tanzania External Services and Radio Zambia to listen to political broadcasts.

I should say, I became politically conscious at a young age and this saw me influencing my school friend, Edson Nyarambi or Cde Kennedy Taitezvi, to like politics.

My parents knew about what I was up to with Gondo. But, their warning was that I risked failing my school subjects if I devote; “nguva yakawanda kune zvinhu zvisiri zvezera rako.”

Question: With all this political exposure, what became of you?

Answer: In 1971, around May or June, we were involved in a demonstration over the huge disparities in salaries between black and white teachers.

Despite possessing the same qualifications, black teachers were earning $75 while their white counterparts were paid $105.

As such, University student activists mobilised students, who were active in debates, under the Student Christian Movement, to demonstrate against the disparities in teachers’ salaries.

But, I realised later, when I went for military training, that Simba Makoni and Dzinashe Machingura or Wilfred Mhanda Makoni were some of the people behind organising our demonstration.

We planned a joint demonstration with students at Mt St Marys, which led to our arrest at Makwarimba Business Centre together.

Some of the people who were close to me that were also arrested were Philemon Gunda, Philip Magunje, Victor Kunaka, Muza, I have forgotten his first name; and David Madzure, who was also my cousin brother.

At that time our principal was Mr William Eric Turner, who was a white liberal.

Father Marian was principal at Mt St Marys. He was Irish.

I mention these two because when we were arrested, they are the ones who secured lawyers to represent us.

We were released without charge after spending a night at Marondera Police Station.

The lawyers had successfully convinced the police that any case against us would collapse in court because we were under age.

After that, we began coordinating political conscientisation meetings between Mt St Marys and St Annes schools, which were disguised as debate meetings.

But, at that time, we had become ripe to join the war and some of our colleagues were beginning to run away from school to join the liberation struggle.

There was a teacher, Fanuel Mavhudzi, at Mt St Mary’s, who knew of our political activities.

He is the one who stopped me from joining the war in 1971. He advised me to first complete my Form Four studies.

While we were at St Annes Goto, we had Gibson Gondo who was to be known in the liberation struggle as Cde Giles Ruredzo.

Gibson was son to Aaron Gondo’s brother.

Gibson went to war with other school mates including Sare Kuhondo, Cleopas Zindonga, whose war name was Timothy Shangara. He died in Dodoma, Shongwa. There was also Arthur Magaya, known as Saul Sadza, who died in Chipinge.

My son-in-law, Gondo, had a hand in the recruitment of these comrades into the liberation struggle.

He is also the one that facilitated for my cousin brother, David Madzure, to go for the Chimbichimbi training programme in Zambia in 1971.

David Madzure had gone to Chimbichimbi together with Philemon Gunda, who is late, but was known as Cde Hondo. There was also Justin Mupamhanga cousin brother to Jonathan Mupamhanga as well as Philip Kunaka, he is now late.

Their joining of the liberation struggle was also being coordinated by some teachers, Mungate Mwale, he is still alive in Domboshawa, as well as Tazvishaya.

Towards the end of 1972, Ngoni Mujuru led a group to join the armed struggle.

The group included Arthur Mandoga, Stephen Raza, who later became Harare Polytechnic principal engineer before his death in 2012 as well as Milton Kunonga, young brother to Bishop Nolbert Kunonga.

The group left for Zambia through Botswana, but the Rhodesia Special Branch caught up with them and persuaded the Batswana authorities to deport them.

As this was going on, we continued with our activism at school, under the Student Christian Movement debates.

At one time we came to Salisbury and we were addressed, as debate clubs, by Reverend Cannan Banana at Stodart Hall in Mbare.

I did not not know the character, but what came out of him from other students was that he was homosexual.

There was no way of proving the allegations, but that was the rumour all over and when everyone discovered it, I said to myself; “rinemanyanga hariputirwe.”

I should mention that in the absence of the nationalists, who had been arrested and detained by Ian Smith’s regime, people like Banana were working with Muzorewa whilst representing the nationalists.

But in the process, they were also creating names for themselves.

The Student Christian Movement became a platform for these politicians to address us.

Question: You show that you were active in the student movement, but when did you go for military training?

Answer: I got to know about the military training programmes that were going on in countries such as China, Russia, Cuba, Algeria and Zambia from the likes of David Madzure and Philemon Gunda who had undergone training there.

These are the ones who told me that when people do not return from the Chimbichimbi, they would have proceeded for further training.

For us in school, the Chimbichimbi training used to take place during school holidays. It was conducted over a period of about four weeks in Lusaka.

The training mainly involved basic skills in gun handling, land mines as well as sabotage acts.

This was meant to ensure that when the ammunition came to the front, those transporting it would have enough knowledge of what they are handling.

The guys from Chimbichimbi would return and start operating underground.

I had managed to also penetrate the underground network and this is the same system that saw me go first to Botswana in 1972 just after finishing my Form Four.

I was with Taitezvi, Leonard Kunonga, brother to Milton; as well as Ngoni Mujuru.

Question: We understand it was not easy to skip the country to join the war. Please explain how you coordinated or organised your journey to Botswana?

Answer: We were assisted by Philemon Gunda, David Madzure and Philip Kunaka. They told us to travel, by bus, from Wedza to Harare.

We arrived in Harare in the afternoon and the three of us went to where my cousin brother – Chifamba – stayed.

I remember Chifamba showing great concern on what we were up to. He was suspicious of us, but we told him we were on our way to Thekwane High School in Plumtree, to secure school places.

We had lunch at Chifamba’s place and just before dark, we went to Kambuzuma to see Taitezvi’s uncle. His name was Nyamupingidza and he was a headmaster.

In the morning, we went to Camborne to see Nyamupingidza’s young brother. We had lunch there and in the evening we went to the railway station and boarded a train to Bulawayo.

The train left Harare at 8pm and arrived in Bulawayo at 6am. Those days the train service was efficient and reliable.

When we got off the train, our aim was to ask for directions to Mpopoma, where I had relatives, the Mutamiri’s.

But, we were lucky because the person we asked for directions came from our area, he was a teacher and he knew where we wanted to go.

So, he took us to the Mutamiri’s and we spent the whole day drinking beer.

We had been told by Gunda that, in Bulawayo, we should catch Matambanadzo bus to Plumtree.

As such, the following morning we headed for Plumtree.

Again, we were told we would arrive in Plumtree in the afternoon and should not get distracted by activities such as drinking alcohol.

The instruction was that after disembarking from the bus, we should get into the bush and find a place to hide until dark. We had food rations; canned beef, sandwiches and water.

From there, we were to jump the Ramokgwebane Border into Botswana at around 7pm and began walking parallel to the main road, which at that time was not tarred.

Another instruction was that we should not get out of the bush, and by dawn, we should be several kilometres into Botswana.

This was meant to ensure we do not encounter Rhodesia Special Branch, which was notorious for straying into Botswana.

In the morning, a male motorist offered us transport to Francistown and we were dropped off at Tartu Hotel.

From there, we surrendered ourselves to the police in Botswana as per instruction.

At the police, we declared our intention that we wanted to go to the war in LK, which was a code for Lusaka.

We were then taken to a holding camp.

There, we discovered the group that had left Rhodesia earlier, which included Arthur Mandoga and Stephen Raza were being held at another facility.

When they heard we were also in Francistown, they came to see us.

But, a week later, that is when we heard they had been deported. As I said earlier, the Rhodesia Special Branch used to clandestinely work with some Botswana police officers.

We suspected that we were likely to face the same fate and that led to our escape from jail.

Question: Jail, I thought you said it was a holding facility and how did you actually escape?

Answer: It was a prison. They would first detain all people seeking to go for training in Zambia in jail for 21 days. There we met several criminals from Zimbabwe and Botswana who had nothing to do with the war.

As such, the number of those who wanted to go to the war had reached about 20 and when we suspected we could be deported, we came up with an escape plan.

The officers had been paid their salaries and it was at the end of December. They had held an end of year party and most of them got drunk.

In the jail, there were some steel pipes and we managed to break one.

The windows of the facility were high, so one person would stand facing the wall and the other climb on his shoulders to reach the window.

We then took turns using the metal bar to deform the steel rails on the window.

After that, we used blankets to pull ourselves from the ground to escape through the window.

We wanted to show the authorities in Botswana that we were not happy with the continued stay in the prison and wanted to go for training.

We escaped together with the criminals and our mission was to go to Maun.

After about two days of walking, we were intercepted by Botswana police

However, Leonard Kunonga ran away and returned to Rhodesia. I was to see him after the war when he was working at Sugar Refinery.

But, the rest of us were arrested.

Continued next week