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When Brig-Gen Mutinhiri returned to rejoin Zapu from Frolizi [Front for the Liberation of Zimbabwe], around 1973-74 Vice-President Landa John Nkomo, and the late Vice-President Simon Muzenda were administrative secretaries running the Lusaka office. The two were coordinating all political parties with the Frontline Heads of State. Cde Muzenda was from Zanu and was deputising John Nkomo so Cde Mutinhiri’s statement suggests that the two were junior to him, yet he (Cde Mutinhiri) only became ZPRA Chief of Staff long after the collapse of Zipa [Zimbabwe People’s Army] in Mozambique in 1977.
Yes, Cde Mutinhiri, was a founder member of the military wing of Zapu, which shaped and directed the armed struggle. He is one of the first seven commanders of the Military Planning Committee of Zapu, formed on 5 March 1965 as shown in the Military Planning Committee Command below;
l Akim Ndlovu: Commander
l Robson Manyika: Chief of Staff
l Abraham Nkiwane: Chief of Transport
l Ambrose Mutinhiri, Gordon Bushe; and Walter Mbabo — Training
l Phelekezela Mphoko: Logistics
I and Cde Mutinhiri trained together in the Soviet Union in 1964. He was in group one and I was in group two and the groups were the first to train in the Soviet Union in Military Science. Before that only academic scholarships were offered.
Cde Mutinhiri first lost his position as a member of the High Command when he became Chief of Staff, first in Kongwa and then Morogoro training camp under Albert Nxele who was the Commandant. In military norms, all strategic units are subordinated to the general military headquarters, so was Morogoro training camp.
Cde Mutinhiri further lost his entire military rank and his membership to Zapu, when he left Zapu to be a founder member of Frolizi, at its formation in 1972, to become its Chief of Staff. When Zipra was formed in 1972, Cde Mutinhiri was not there, he had already left Zapu to form Frolizi. The first Zipra military command structure confirms that.
Rogers Mangena: CSO Chief of Staff; Lookout Masuku CS1 Political Commissar; Tapson Nkomane: CS2 Chief of Military Intelligence; Charles Ngwenya: CS3 Chief of Operations: Phelekezela Mphoko: CS4 Chief of Logistics and Supplies: Cephas Cele CS5 Chief of Personnel and Training.
Cde Mutinhiri and Chirinda only rejoined Zapu, after the collapse of Frolizi while Cdes Charles Goromonzi, Tshinga Dube and Shelton Siwela went overseas for further studies. The Revolutionary Council resisted readmitting Cdes Mutinhiri and Chirinda into Zapu on the grounds that they had previously led an attack at Zimbabwe House where they suffered casualties and ended up in hospital. During that attack, Cde Edward Ndlovu, a member of Zapu national executive was injured.
After the Zimbabwe House attack they decided to raid Nkomo Camp which was housing recruits from Zimbabwe and that raid also failed. They then put pressure on the Zambian government through some ministers, and got the recruits deported to Rhodesia, an act considered to be counter-revolutionary by the Revolutionary Council.
However, the chairman of the Revolutionary Council Jason Ziyaphapha Moyo, the secretary, Dumiso Dabengwa and the Zipra Command decided to approve their return into Zapu and to be allowed to join Zipra as ordinary soldiers.
Cde Mutinhiri then became one of the five senior commanders of Zipra that formed Zipa in Mozambique in 1975 as Chief of Personnel and Training with other Zipra commanders like Rogers Mangena as political commissar; Charles Ngwenya deputy to the late Solomon Mujuru, Tapson Nkomane Chief of Military Intelligence and I as Chief of Logistics and Supplies. After Zipra operations in Mozambique, Cde Mutinhiri was then formalised as a member of Zipra and was appointed Chief of Staff.
He is aware that after the death of Mangena, I as the most senior Zipra commander was appointed to take over from Mangena. As a formality the president of Zapu, Dr Joshua Nkomo informed President Samora Machel, in a meeting in Maputo that he was withdrawing me as chief representative to become Zipra commander.
President Machel said there would be no problem of assistance to my family. The president allocated a house in Maputo, Number 1230 Avenida do Zimbabwe, where my wife and two children were to stay and to receive rations from State House.
Cde Mutinhiri is also aware of what happened and how Lookout Masuku came into the picture after that agreement of me taking over from Mangena had been public information and had been endorsed.
Cdes Mutinhiri and Chirinda were not the only ones that were left out in the cold at independence in 1980. All Zipra commanders were left out. Those who were attested into the Zimbabwe National Army were given junior military ranks, including Cde Mutinhiri himself, Tapson Nkomane and others.
I had become a peasant villager at Hope Fountain, growing vegetables, when I was also called by the Prime Minister to lead demobilisation with Fibion Shoniwa. A new history on Zipra was being written as new faces appeared, and all former Zipra commanders who were left out were subjected to the Zero-hour speculation engineered by the Rhodesians. As a result most senior Zipra commander’s ranks and the history of the armed struggle are in the hands of imjiba, who do not know anything about the history of Zipra and of the armed struggle. Rtd Brig-Gen Mutinhiri can be Vice-President of the Republic of Zimbabwe like anybody else can be through other considerations. But not that he is the most senior surviving member of the former Zapu.
l Phelekezela Mphoko is Zimbabwe’s Ambassador to South Africa and previously served in the same capacity in Botswana and Russia.
Online Reporter