daniel chigunwe
Walter Muchinguri
Senior Researcher & Writer, Zimpapers Knowledge Centre
FORMER Senator, Member of Parliament and veteran of the Second Chimurenga, Vivian Mwashita Muchicho, whose nom de guerre was Cde Kundai Mabhunu died on April 8, 2016 at Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals after complications with hypertension and diabetes.
Cde Mwashita, who was 57, died on the same day that Cde Victoria Fikile Chitepo, widow of the assassinated Chairman of ZANU Cde Herbert Chitepo passed on.
The heroines made history as they were interred at a twin burial at the National Heroes Acre.
The late national heroine was born to Alban and Winnie Mwashita on September 26, 1958 at Rusape Hospital.
The first born in a family of nine, her family hails from Headman Nevanji’s village in Zongoro near Manica Bridge under Chief Mutasa.
Cde Mwashita did her primary education at Rukudzo Primary School in Kambuzuma, Harare, before proceeding to St Peters Kubatana High School in Highfields for her secondary education. The late heroine was one of the female cadres who crossed the border into Mozambique to join the liberation struggle under the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army in June 1975 in the company of comrades Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri, Winnie Nevanji, Susan Muchinguri and Tokodo Murinda.
The young cadres answered the call to be part of thousands of sons and daughters of the soil who committed themselves to free the country through the barrel of the gun.
The journey to Mozambique was highly risky as the young women were vulnerable to detection from the alert and brutal Rhodesian forces. Upon arrival in Mozambique, they went to Villa de Manica from where they were ferried to Nyadzonya Base.
They survived the Nyadzonya Massacre in August 1976. Cde Mwashita received training in guerrilla warfare in 1976 at Chimoio Training Camp in Mozambique.
Some of her instructors included former police Commissioner-General Augustine Chihuri whose nom de guerre was Cde Chocha, and Cde Lot Sibanda.
Cde Mwashita later went to Ethiopia for four months to train as a military instructor at Tatek Military base.
On her return to Mozambique, she survived the air raid of Chimoio by Rhodesian forces in 1977.
Cde Catherine Santana, who worked with her in Mozambique, testified that after the Chimoio attack, a large number of female instructors stayed behind in Chimoio, while an equally large group, which included the likes of Cdes Santana, Mwashita, Irene Zindi and Mupamhanga, went and gathered at Zhunda.
While there, Cde Mwashita and other comrades were directed by the then ZANLA Chief of Defence the late Cde Josiah Magama Tongogara to go back and assist with the burial of hundreds of comrades who had been killed in the Chimoio attack. Cde Mwashita was among the freedom fighters who witnessed the gruesome and painful scenes of the Rhodesian carnage, impressions which remained etched in her mind and that, until her untimely death, always moved her to tears whenever she tried to recount what she had witnessed.
Many comrades who witnessed the death and carnage that Cde Mwashita saw at a tender age are today burdened with stress, including manifestations of post-traumatic stress disorders.
After the incident, a caucus meeting of the ZANLA High Command decided that all assistants and female commanders were to be deployed in the frontline.
It was at this point in September 1978 that Cde Mwashita was deployed to the battlefront in the Tete Zanla Operational Province under the command of the late Air Chief Marshal Perrance Shiri. At the battle front, she served as an assistant to Cde Vatema Tichatonga, now Group Captain Gede of the Air Force of Zimbabwe, who was a Detachment Commander at the time.
Cde Mwashita saw active combat in the Precentile Sector in Hwata, Chitsungo and the Gota area of Guruve.
The biggest battles that Cde Mwashita fought included Hwata and Patamukombe where the fighting lasted from 7am to 9pm in which she lost four colleagues.
Between May and June 1979, Cde Mwashita left the frontline role to be part of a large contingent of female combatants responsible for carrying ammunition from Zumbo on the border with Mozambique via Chidodo to supply fighting formations deeper in the interior.
This was a very difficult operation characterised by pain and fatigue as these female comrades each carried loads of up to 50kg of ammunition, explosives, guns and landmines strapped on their backs and would walk non-stop for up to seven days, sometimes with little water and scant food supplies, crossing crocodile infested rivers under pressure to reach the frontline with the much-needed ammunition supplies.
The movement of these supplies to the frontline was one of the greatest contributions done by female combatants who were part of the task groups that endured difficult times with some of them suffering from backaches and later failing to conceive.
After the attainment of independence in 1980, Cde Mwashita first worked at the ZANU (PF) headquarters at number 88 Manica Road, now Robert Mugabe Road in Harare, where she served the party well under the mentorship of the likes of the late Dr Hebert Ushewokunze and Cde Tony Gara.
Later, she was attested into the Central Intelligence Organisation, where she served until 1995 when she retired. Thereafter, she pursued an illustrious political career under Zanu PF.
In the late 1980s, Cde Mwashita together with her colleagues, including Cdes Irene Zindi and Margaret Dongo, formed the Female Ex-Combatants Organisation, which sought to advance the interests of female ex-combatants.
Between 1987 and 1989, Cde Mwashita and her colleagues were instrumental in the formation of a bigger and more inclusive War Veterans Association, which included the likes of Cdes Shonhiwa, Pasipamire, Nyaruwata, Matanga and others.
The association was registered and launched in 1989 with the assistance of the then First Lady, Cde Sally Mugabe, who met the financial needs of the arrangement.
In 1995, Cde Mwashita was awarded a Liberation War Hero Bronze Award in recognition of her Liberation War credentials.
During the same year, she won the Harare South constituency parliamentary seat.
In 2005, she became the Zanu PF Senator for Mvurachena, which incorporated Harare South, Sunningdale and Waterfalls constituencies. She had a burning desire to develop her constituency and achieved a lot, through the construction of housing.
Cde Mwashita was also a founding member of various housing co-operatives, including Nehanda, Chenjerai Hunzvi, Chimoio and Hatidzokereshure, among others.
The late heroine was also an enterprising businesswoman, a great philanthropist and a passionate instructor of skills such as soap and bread-making that she imparted to members of her constituency. At the time of her death, Cde Mwashita was survived by her husband Cde Peter Muchicho, three children and six grandchildren.
◆ A Guide to the Heroes Acre: Some Basic Facts about Zimbabwe’s Heroes and the Heroes Acre. — Harare: Ministry of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services, 1986; 2019.
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