Chronicle Editor
We continue our interview with Brigadier-General (Rtd) Brave Matavire pseudonym Cde Ncengani Gumbo. Brig-Gen (Rtd) Matavire during the armed struggle rose through the ZPRA ranks to become Chief of Staff (COS) at Mazowe Training Depot (MTD) in Zambia. In last week’s interview, he told our Assistant Editor Mkhululi Sibanda (MS) that he was part of the delegation that accompanied Father Zimbabwe, the late Vice-President, Dr Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo when he returned home from exile in Zambia.
In this week’s instalment Brig-Gen(Rtd) Matavire also talks about the tensions that existed during the integration period between the former Rhodesian soldiers and the former freedom fighters from ZPRA and ZANLA. He said at some point he and nine other ex-freedom fighters drawn from both ZPRA and ZANLA were involved in a physical confrontation with the former Rhodesian Army soldiers at the Zimbabwe Military Academy in Gweru.
The Rhodesian soldiers were refusing to recognise the former freedom fighters as officers. During the confrontation after winning the first round of the fight, Brig-Gen (Rtd) Matavire and his nine colleagues were later on overpowered by the Rhodesian soldiers who had summoned reinforcements. They were then locked up and only to be saved by the arrival of the senior commanders who included Generals Solomon Mujuru and Lookout Masuku. Below are excerpts from the interview.
MS: Tell us about your arrival in Harare then Salisbury after so many years in exile.
Brig-Gen (Rtd) Matavire: Our arrival at Harare (then Salisbury) International Airport was thunderous.
When the Viscount plane that picked us up from Lusaka touched down, it seemed as if the whole population of the country had descended onto the airport. The whole airport was a sea of people.
Rhodesian soldiers were deployed around the airport in their armoured vehicles. The police were struggling to control the crowds who were swarming towards our plane. The atmosphere was really scary.
The multitudes of people who had descended on the airport were singing, chanting and waving Dr Joshua Nkomo’s portraits. We were quickly whisked away to the University of Zimbabwe then University of Rhodesia where we were to be accommodated. All roads leading to Mt Pleasant were lined up with singing and chanting people. Our delegation comprised some of the following, Big Josh, the late Dumiso Dabengwa (DD), the late Brig-Gen Mike Reynolds (Charles Grey), Brig Gen (Rtd) Kindness Ndlovu (Cde Single), and several of our supporting staff.
MS: But how was the situation on the ground?
Brig-Gen (Rtd) Matavire: The ceasefire was now in place but it was extremely dangerous to dare venture out of the UZ campus. Nobody needed to be told not to move out. Our ZANLA counterparts also arrived from Mozambique. We were now to be deployed in the bush to go and tell the guerrillas to move to the Assembly Points dotted around the country. I was deployed in Mashonaland West Province and I was to assemble the fighters at Papa Assembly Point. It was located at Rikomichi, just south of Chirundu in the Zambezi Valley.
MS: How did you find your new task?
Brig-Gen (Rtd) Matavire: That was a very difficult and also very dangerous assignment. We were working with officers from the Commonwealth Monitoring Force team. These would remain at the Assembly Point (AP), while I wondered through the villages in a bid to make contact with guerrillas.
My job became fairly easy after I had made contact with Cde Todd Mpisi who was the senior commander in the area. Cde Mpisi is still alive and lives in Gweru. Cde Mpisi instructed his junior commanders to move their men into the Assembly Point. They obliged albeit grudgingly. We stayed in the same camp with the Ceasefire Monitoring team. This gave us some sense of comfort with the hope that the Rhodesians may not dare bomb us fearing to harm the British.
My job as the liaison officer was to be the go-between, between the guerrillas and the monitors. I was also the link between the AP and the Joint Command Centre in Salisbury. The AP commander was initially Todd Mpisi and later on, Eddie Sigoge took over. We were tactically deployed to be able to thwart any possible attack from the Rhodesian Army. I was then withdrawn from Papa Assembly Point and assigned to go to the School of Infantry (now ZMA) in Gweru.
MS: What did the new assignment involve?
Brig-Gen (Rtd) Matavire: We were now to embark on the next stage which was the integration of the three armies. The three warring forces. We were sent being 10 instructors: five ZPRA and five ZANLA.
MS: Please tell us the names of the 10 instructors.
Brig-Gen (Rtd) Matavire: From the ZPRA side there was myself, Maj (Rtd) Oliver Hikwa, Capt Jack Mupwanyiwa (now late), Capt Eben Dube and Maj Bhebe (first name could be Freddie, I can’t remember properly). As from the ZANLA side we had now Brigadier-Gen Zitterson Sabeka, Warrant Officer Class 1 Matengo, a Cde Mazorodze, one comrade Mbumburu and a comrade Magweregwede. By then, we predominantly called each other by our pseudo names and that is why I cannot be very certain about the real names of some of these guys.
On our briefing before departure, we were told that we were to hold commissioned officers ranks. It was during the first week of April and before Independence. The Rhodesian Army was still very much in charge and still calling the shots. When we arrived at the School of Infantry we were told that we were not officers and as such we were supposed to go to the troops’ kitchen for our meals.
MS: How did you take that?
Brig-Gen (Rtd) Matavire: We refused and went to the officers’ mess in defiance. The military police were called in and after some fierce exchange of blows the military police retreated and came back with dogs and armed. We were overpowered and dragged to the guard room where we were locked up.
Meanwhile, in Harare some senior commanders got commissioned to senior ranks ranging from full colonel to full general. These were Gen Solomon Mujuru (Rex Nhongo), Gen Lookout Masuku (Lameck Mafela), Gen Jevan Maseko (Enoch Tshangane), then Brig-Gen Chiwenga (Dominic Chinenge), Brig-Gen Nleya (Dhubhu) and many others. They were moving around the country seeing where the camps were located. When they arrived at ZMA in Gweru we saw them passing by the guard room for the officers’ mess.
We stormed out of the guard room and followed them to the mess. We went straight to where Gen Mujuru and Gen Masuku were being briefed by the commandant and told them that we were under arrest for refusing to be non-commissioned officers. Gen Mujuru flatly told the commandant that we were to be treated like commissioned officers and enjoy the same privileges as all other commissioned officers. From the guard room, we spent that day wining and dining in the officers’ mess with the other senior officers. We did not, however, enjoy the support of the commandant and his staff in whatever tasks that any of us would be given to do. It was always war away from the battlefield.
Eventually, the commandant retired and Maj-Gen Gibson Mashingaidze, a former freedom fighter was appointed commandant. We started to enjoy our work.
Maj-Gen Mashingaidze was soon to be replaced by Maj-Gen (Rtd) Happyton Bonyongwe. The School of Infantry was unbundled. The barracks were to change the name to the Zimbabwe Military Academy. The Small Arms Wing was to be the School of Infantry.
I was then appointed the Officer Commanding the Small Arms Wing, which was now the School of Infantry. We were moved to Guinea Fowl School where I started training senior officers on a standardisation course. The course was meant to synchronise the different training doctrines that were obtaining in the three former armies namely ZPRA, ZANLA and the Rhodesian Army. When the school was eventually handed over to the Ministry of Education we were relocated to Imbizo Barracks formerly Llewelyn Barracks on the outskirts of Bulawayo.
To be concluded next week with Brig-Gen Matavire talking about his career in the Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA). He is the one who was given the responsibility of initiating the Hlalani Kuhle/Garikayi Housing scheme in Bulawayo’s Cowdray Park suburb. Brig-Gen (Rtd) Matavire says some council officials were vehemently opposed to the housing project.
Online Reporter