‘We had several skirmishes early 1976’

28 Feb, 2021 - 00:02 0 Views
‘We had several skirmishes early 1976’ Cde Chidhakwa

The Sunday Mail

AFTER leaving Rhodesia in 1974 for Mozambique, in an arduous journey that saw him being detained and tortured from December till March (which, however, didn’t kill his resolve to join the struggle), Cde Rex Bongozozo, born Isaac Amos Marisa Chidhakwa, narrates how his group of 90 cheated being captured by the Rhodesians at Beira International Airport of all places. He speaks with GARIKAI MAZARA in this continuing conversation. Read on . . .

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Q: So when and how did you leave Mozambique, for training?

A: In early 1976 we were enlisted to go for training, taking over the Nachingwea base which had been used by Frelimo previously. There were two ways to get to Nachingwea, either by sea or air, of which the journey by sea took about seven days to Mutwara port.

My group, of 90, was selected to travel by air and we were hidden in some barracks in Beira. The instruction was simple: when the plane arrived, we were to get out of the hiding spot straight into the waiting plane. The Rhodesians, through their Special Branch, had got wind of this mission and brought exactly the same plane as ours. The Rhodesian plane landed first and within minutes, another plane, which was ours, landed and this raised suspicion as to how two similar planes could land within minutes of each other. The Rhodesians were subsequently arrested. They wanted to take us back home.

We then boarded our plane and landed at Mutwara airport and taken to Majimaji barracks then to Nachingwea, where there were about 5 000 of us. I was selected into a group, Songambele, which had about a thousand recruits. This was the first group to be trained semi-regular, unlike previous groups which were trained mainly guerilla warfare. We were exposed to heavy artillery — 72mm, 85mm, anti-air and so on.

Q: Back to the Rhodesian experience at Beira airport, this proves that the liberation struggle was always littered with sell-outs? How did the Rhodesians know about your manoeuvres?

A: Of course, they existed. There is no way you can wage a struggle without rebellious cartels, they were there and they will always be there. These Rhodesians, according to my analysis, were sending people through the routes that we were using. Some were sent to the borders, to check on how we were crossing, others to our bases, others to training camps and others right up to the operational areas. They studied our war doctrines, our tactics. Yes, sell-outs were there.

Q: Back at Nachingwea?

A: I was chosen into Regiment 4, that was about a thousand of us, of which we were about 20km from the HQ.

We were not trained by zanlas as such, because they had been withdrawn, if you remember the Vashandi rebellion. Yes, those instructors were withdrawn and we were left with Tanzania People’s Defence Forces (TPDF), thus the training was tough. The Tanzanians don’t use English, they speak Swahili through and through and it was difficult to grasp. If they gave you instructions on how to strip a gun, they expected you to do exactly as they had said and failure to do that would solicit some beating. After our training, Robert Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo came to address us.

Q: Meaning this was during the Zipa arrangement?

A: We were only zanla, the 5 000 of us. But I think Mugabe and Nkomo had to move around and address the different recruits, because the OAU had prescribed that, they wanted to see a united approach to the fighting.

We stayed a month after training, then flew to Mutwara, then Nasiyaya, somewhere in Tete and then Mukoba near the Malawi border where we were divided into Gaza, Manica and Tete operational provinces. We got our ammunition at Chingodzi, your AKs, bazookas, magazines, etc. Then we proceeded to Chitima where we met our field commanders. I was deployed into Mt Darwin and my first field commander was Cde Teddy Mapuranga.

Chigango, Bandimba and Kamutsenzere became my operational areas. This was late 1976 and in 1977 I was sent on a mission, with my section, which was led by Saul Vatema, to Pfunyanguwo.

The mission was to deliver arms to our comrades operating there but when we got there, we did not find them so we went to look for food at Pfunyanguwo.

But that time most villagers were now staying in keeps, so we cut the fence into the keep and got our food. But on retreating, the Rhodesian soldiers noticed us and fired towards us but we managed to get away. We went some five kilometres from the keep and the following morning, as we were preparing our breakfast, we came under attack.

Cde Chris, who was our security guy, was watching over us and he was shot in the leg and captured. After two days of searching for him, we then went to Karanda, trying to find out what could have happened to him. We met Mudhara Bhavhu, one of our reliable contacts in the area, who informed us that Cde Chris had, indeed, been captured.

He informed us that a certain white man stationed at Karanda had caused the attack and subsequent capture of Cde Chris as he was the one who supplied information on our whereabouts. We went on a revenge mission but we could not find the white man, he had probably run away.

Q: So Cde Chris was never found?

A: He wasn’t, but I remember sometime, must be around 1990 or 1991, his sisters came to my workplace and looked for me by name. They said Cde Chris was speaking through one of them, as a spirit medium, and he had told them where I worked. They wanted me to show them where he was captured and we drove to Pfunyanguwo. When we got there, and through the sister, he said it was exactly the spot where he lay. The family agreed that before they could do any excavations, they wanted to go back home and do some traditional rites. I am not sure if they went back to retrieve his remains.

After failing to locate the comrades whose ammunition we had brought, we moved to Hoya. Apparently we hid the ammunition and about $800 that we were supposed to give them and after independence I went back to the area to check on the ammo, but I could not find it.

We had several skirmishes there,  but one that I remember well involved Matambanadzo Bus Service. We used to get our supplies through the bus and I am not sure how the Rhodesians got to know about it. So one day the bus arrived and instead of the conductor alighting, as was the norm, he remained by the door.

For some minutes the bus remained stationary, no movement inside the bus. We became suspicious and started firing on the bus’ roof and true to our suspicion, the Rhodesians started firing back from atop the bus. Amid the firing, the bus drove off.

Then three days later, we planted a landmine at Kaungwe. Three army trucks came in front of the bus and our commander, Cde Duster Bazooka, ordered an attack on the leading army truck. It was hit by a bazooka and the two army trucks made a U-turn together with the bus. After that attack, we then we moved to Hwata. As it was time for Christmas, we had been promised goodies by villagers, it must have been Keep 30 that supplied us. The Rhodesians met the girls who carrying the food, drinks, cigarettes and some clothes. So the soldiers took the goods and destroyed them.

We had the likes of Cdes Vatema Tichatonga, Duster Bazooka and Mashiri in that detachment.

It was decided, again, that we launch a revenge mission and we went to retrieve mortar 82, recoilless rifles, and mortar 60 which were hidden in different places. By dusk, we had positioned ourselves near Musengezi camp, by the airstrip and we shelled the camp non-stop. There was not even a reply and for two days there was dead silence in that camp.

But the most painful contact that we ever had must have been the one at Patamukombe — we were about 32. We had been sold out by a certain old man who had a communications radio in his granary. We had gone to the village to mobilise for sadza and we heard the sound of the radio, the one commonly called “over-over”, and when we tried to capture the old man, he ran away.

Then we got into the granary, trying to retrieve the radio and little did we know that the Rhodesians had an observation point overlooking the old man’s homestead.

Within minutes, came four helicopters, a spotter plane and a bomber. They started bombing the base and then moved to the village. Cde Joze, who had an RPG7, hit one helicopter, which immediately fell and the Rhodesians thought we had a missile launcher and reinforced. They would drop drums of fuel and fire at the drums and the whole area was burnt. They were using the fuel and napalm to burn the area. The area was bombed for the whole day. We lost 12 comrades in that battle.

Around 7pm, we started regrouping. I was injured in that battle, through napalm and was sent back to Mozambique to recover, of which I spent some three months in the rear.

On my return to the front, I was promoted to platoon political commissar and was posted to Chitsungo area in Guruve. But we had been advised that before we start any operations, we had to see the spirit medium in that area so we sought Sekuru Chingoo who, instead, sent us to Sekuru Mutota. Sekuru Mutota gave us a number of things to observe, like we were not to shake hands with women, that our food was to be given to us by little girls or older women who had reached menopause. We spent that whole night playing mbira and sniffing snuff.

Then around 3am, he said he was going to take us across Dande River. When we got to the river, it was full to the brim but Sekuru Mutota knew some crossing point which had some stones. We crossed the river and went to some hill, which was to be our observation point. And by sun rise, Sekuru Mutota’s homestead was full of Rhodesian soldiers: on foot, on horseback and motorcycles.

We took cover in one of the contours and as the foot soldiers were coming, probably some 10 metres away from where we were hiding, we started firing at them. They fell like flies. And funny enough in that encounter, we never had any injured comrade. We spent about two weeks trying to get out of that area, as every opening that we tried to use, was occupied by the enemy. We regrouped back in Chitsungo.

In the next instalment, Cde Rex Bongozozo speaks of several encounters that happened between zanla and zipra forces during the liberation struggle. And soon after independence, he claims he was there when Funny Nyamukapa was murdered in cold blood at Ntabazinduna barracks, an act that could have fomented the start of civil disturbances that followed thereafter. Make a point not to miss it.

 

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