Chronicle Editor
BRIGADIER-GENERAL (Retired) Levi Mayihlome pseudonym Cde Lizwe Ndebele is an indefatigable figure who believes every minute counts in his schedule and does not leave anything to chance. A Soviet Union-trained intelligence operative during the armed struggle, Brig-Gen (Rtd) Mayihlome cut his political teeth in the ZAPU structures while a youth in Tshabalala suburb in Bulawayo after leaving his rural home in Umzingwane District in Matabeleland South Province to look for employment in the country’s second capital, just like a majority of his contemporaries then. It was while in Bulawayo that he faced the colonial injustices while working for radio companies and true to his nature, Brig-Gen (Rtd) who many believe does not take things lying down did not bow to the white racists’ whims but took them head-on, a move that was to see him being locked up in prison. His political activities affected his career as he was at that time an artisan in radio manufacturing after attending the then Bulawayo Technical College, now Bulawayo Polytechnic. Upon his release he continued his political activities and was assisting now National Hero, Cde Misheck Velaphi Ncube in the ZAPU underground structures, recruiting youngsters for guerilla training in Zambia. On realising that the Rhodesians’ dragnet was closing on him again, he crossed the border to Botswana to join the armed struggle in Zambia. That was in 1977. The instructors at Nampundwe Transit Camp noticed something in him and recommended that he be fused into an intelligence arm, PRO which was headed by the now late National Hero, Dumiso Dabengwa. At Nampundwe he became part of cadres that were deployed to screen the new arrivals and that was because he deemed strategic enough as he had worked with a number of ZAPU underground structures. Later on, he was sent to the National Security and Order (NSO) Training School at Mwembeshi to do intelligence training. From there he led a group of 20 intelligence recruits to the Soviet Union where they spent nine months training as intelligence officers with special emphasis on border frontier security. Their training covered areas such as immigration, customs, intelligence gathering, etc. On Thursday last week, the veteran freedom fighter now Member of Parliament for Umzingwane opened up to our Assistant Editor Mkhululi Sibanda (MS) about his stint in the armed struggle. As an NSO operative Brig-Gen Mayihlome also touched on the much-touted sibling rivalry between NSO and Military Intelligence Division (MID) and not holding back said: “We were not authors of the problems that afflicted MID”. Brig-Gen (Rtd) Mayihlome said NSO evolved into a modern intelligence unit which recruited the best brains available. He said it is not surprising that some former NSO operatives are now doing well in various fields in the country. Those who come into mind are Harare lawyer, Cde Francis Chirimuta and Midlands State University Vice-Chancellor Professor Victor Ngoni Muzvidziwa. After his intelligence training in the Soviet Union, Brig-Gen Mayihlome was appointed commander of the Border Guards (physical security), initially reporting to Cde Nephat Madlela and then now late National Hero, Cde Swazini Ndlovu.
Brig-Gen (Rtd) Mayihlome is also a technocrat in his own right as he is a holder of a number of academic qualifications such as a Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Economics from the University of Zimbabwe and a Master of Science in International Resource Planning and Management from the Naval Post-Graduate School Monetary, California in the US. When he left the Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) he was the army’s Financial Director. Below are excerpts from the interview. Read on . . .
MS: Brig-Gen Mayihlome many people know you as the Member of Parliament for Umzingwane, but where were you born and when? Give us a brief background of yourself.
Brig-Gen (Rtd) Mayihlome: I was born on 4 November in 1953 at Bonjeni area of Umzingwane District, Matabeleland South Province. It was under Umzinyathini communal lands then. I started my schooling at Bonjeni Primary School up to Standard 3, then moved over to Mzinyathi Mission for Standard 3 again as we couldn’t get places for Standard Four. So I went to Mzinyathi for Standard 3 and continued up to Standard 6. I then left Mzinyathi Mission in 1967 for Mzingwane High School where I did two full years of secondary education. During my third year that is at Form 3 I left school because of financial challenges, I couldn’t raise money for my fees. That was because it was myself and two brothers and my sister who comes after me who was at Mzinyathini Secondary School. So my father could not afford to pay fees for four children going to secondary school at the same time, so we all dropped out of school. That was in 1970 and I then came to Bulawayo to look for work and I got temporary work from one company to another until 1971 when I got a job at Supersonic which was a radio manufacturing company. Initially as a line operator working until 1972 when I was promoted as a line fault inspector working under the now vice-president of Chief Council, Chief Mtshana Khumalo. Chief Mtshana Khumalo was the head of all inspectors at Supersonic Radio Manager during that time.
MS: What did your job entail?
Brig-Gen (Rtd) Mayihlome: We would be inspecting the components of the radio that we would put together and the fittings of the actual components to see that there would be no faults. Khumalo was in charge of all radio inspections and we all fell under him but my immediate boss was Mr George Moyo and is in Gwabalanda here in Bulawayo. I worked there until I left Supersonic in 1975 to join another company, Premier Electric Radio Manufacturing. They were doing Tempest and Marlyn radios. I worked there until 1977 when I was fired for political activities because I had been to detention and came back, so the whites were very conscious about my political activities. So came a time when they didn’t want to see me talking to anyone. Even during production time a man called Julius would come over to see whether I was talking to anyone. So I was not allowed to talk to anybody throughout the working day. I will only be allowed to talk to colleagues at lunchtime or break time. Even the termination of my service I was not told beforehand, I only saw the letter when we were getting our pay package on a Friday. That’s how I left my job.
MS: When was that?
Brig-Gen (Rtd) Mayihlome: That was May 1977. However, I had been actively involved in politics and my political life started when I was very young, around 1959. My father, Gule Mpofu was an active member of NDP and later on ZAPU. Each time he attended political meetings he would never miss an opportunity to tell us about the politics of that time. We even got to know where he was hiding his party cards. I and my brothers would then sneak in and look at the cards, admiring the picture of Joshua Nkomo. That on its own had a motivating and inspiring influence on us as youths. That was before I went to Mzingwane High School. My older brother who was four years older than me, Josphat Mayihlome was a senior at Mzingwane when we went there. He had been active politically and had been arrested soon after the declaration of UDI by Ian Smith in 1965. That was after Mzingwane Secondary School boys marched from their school and were arrested when they were about 20 kilometres from Bulawayo. They were coming to protest against the declaration of UDI. So when we got to Mzingwane we found it a very fertile place for politics. Political activism by the seniors excited us and we got entangled in it. In the Tiger and Fearless Talks that Smith was involved in we paid attention to them. That’s how politically conscious we had become as youngsters at Mzingwane Secondary. With the older boys politicising us that fell on fertile ground as already I had an understanding of what Joshua Nkomo stood for.
MS: When you had moved to Bulawayo how was the political situation then?
Brig-Gen (Rtd) Mayihlome: In 1971 when I had joined Supersonic I found out that I was being discriminated upon. I had good qualifications but I found out that I was discriminated against. In the Junior Certificate that I had sat for at Mzingwane I had seven distinctions. At work I found white young men supervising us because of their skin colour. I was one of the few, in fact the only one with a Form Two certificate who was allowed to go to Bulawayo Technical College to do an apprenticeship because I was understanding science and they gave me an aptitude test and I passed it very well. The other guys had O-level passes but I was allowed to do that course which was radio servicing theory and practice. I passed it very well. These young men (whites) we were together at college and I would do better than them in our studies. I would also do better than them at work, but still they were my bosses, just because of the colour of their skin. Such conditions then radicalised me. I started questioning them why they were foremen or my supervisors when I was more intelligent than them and was outperforming them at work. With the influence of other workers, the workers at Supersonic engaged in industrial action, strikes which were deemed illegal. Those are the things that had an influence in my political activities.
To be continued next week
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