Chronicle Editor
Brig-Gen Edgar Dube
THE first time to set up my eyes on Colonel Kenny Mabuya pseudonym Cde Kenny Ridzai was at a Zanla camp, about 22km outside the Zambian capital city of Lusaka in 1974.
Col Mabuya, a revolutionary par excellence, brave field operator, military intelligence officer and a stalwart of our armed struggle passed on at the West End Hospital in Harare after a short illness at the age of 72 last week. It is said Col Mabuya collapsed on Friday, 19 January, resulting in him being rushed to hospital.
I was a green horn who had just joined the armed struggle, coming from neighbouring Botswana where I had been recruited by Cde Dick Moyo, a Zanu official who was based there. I had been on a visit to Botswana from my home village of Tokwana in what is now Bulilima District of Matabeleland South Province. My father who was into construction was working in Francistown.
While I was still wet behind the ears in the armed struggle, not having been taken through my paces in the rigourous military training, Col Mabuya was already an accomplished guerilla fighter who had seen action at the front. In fact, Col Mabuya was one of the earlier guerilla fighters who together with the likes of the now late army commander, Cde Rex Nhongo (General Solomon Mujuru) and Cde Kenneth Gwindingwi were part of the group that opened the Centenary area in Mashonaland Central Province in 1972, which laid the ground for the intensification of our armed struggle.
Col Mabuya had been deployed from Zambia under the command of Cdes George Rutanhire and Gwindingwi. As recruits Col Mabuya is the one who took us over to Mgagao in Tanzania for our military training. He was to later be promoted to the Zanla High Command while working under the now late National Hero, General Vitalis Zvinavashe (Cde Sheba Gava) in our Military Intelligence Department. Before, the Zanla Military Intelligence was under the stewardship of Cletus Chigowe.
After I had completed my training and deployed to Mozambique where I became an instructor and then rising through the ranks to become a member of the Zanla General Staff, I continued interacting with Col Mabuya.
Because of the nature of his duties in the intelligence department, it meant that he worked closely with our State President, Cde Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa, who was the Special Assistant to the now late former President, Cde Robert Mugabe.
For the uninitiated readers and members of the public, Col Mabuya’s rise to the Zanla High Command was an exhibition that Zanu did not look at ethnicity in its recruitment and promotions. That debunks the notion that Zanla was a military wing of Shona speakers only. Such thoughts are far from the truth and should be treated with the contempt they deserve. The same was with ZPRA, where people from all origins rose to prominence.
I Brig-Gen (Rtd) Edgar Dube came from Tokwana in Bulilima and rose to become a senior instructor and member of the Zanla General Staff. There I was a son of Matabeleland South, so was Col Mabuya also from the same province, who hailed from FiIabusi, although his family had relocated to Zambia where he grew up and joined the armed struggle from.
It also should not be lost in our national memory particularly that of our nationalist politics, that the Zanla Chief of Military Training was the now late, Cde Mark Nuda Dube (known as Cde Joshua Mirihairambwi), another son of Matabeleland South, who came from Longfield in Umzingwane District. After Indepedence Cde Dube went into politics and became the Governor of Matabeleland South.
Our Defence attaché to South Africa, Brigadier-General Sibanda also fought on the Zanla side during the armed struggle. However, what was of interest during the armed struggle, which we found amusing between myself and Col Mabuya was the use of Shona language. While he spoke with a Ndebele accent and myself with a Kalanga accent, we used Shona more, even while conversing between ourselves.
Besides his talent as a fighter, Col Mabuya was a down to earth individual, a simple character who could mix with anyone. I take this opportunity to thank President Mnangagwa for recognising the role played by Col Mabuya in the fight for our independence and his contribution in the development of our country after we had won our freedom by conferring him with the National Hero status. He really deserved that.
To Col Mabuya I say “hamba kahle Godlwayo omnyama, mahlaba ayithwale.” It would be an anomaly not to say these praises to the Filabusi people, who all like to be referred to be as oGodlwayo, which was a Ndebele regiment in the Ndebele pre-colonial State.
λ The writer, Brig-Gen (Rtd) Dube who worked under the pseudonym Cde Lot Sibanda was a member of the Zanla General Staff and he spoke to our Assistant Editor Mkhululi Sibanda. Brig-Gen (Rtd) Dube is now a farmer and businessman and lives in his home town of Plumtree.
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