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WE conclude our interview with former ZPRA first deputy Chief of Engineering, Lieutenant-Colonel (Rtd) Binoni Benjamin Dube pseudonym Cde Velaphi Nyoni. As Lt-Col Dube (Rtd) brings the curtain down on his narration of his exploits in the armed struggle, on Thursday he told our Assistant Editor Mkhululi Sibanda (MS) that he was one of the privileged senior ZPRA commanders who accompanied the late Vice-President, Dr Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo on his return from exile in Zambia after the ceasefire.
-Col (Rtd) Dube also spoke about the role he and now Commander of the Presidential Guard, Brigadier-General Fidelis Mhonda played in convincing both ZPRA and ZANLA forces, especially in Gwanda District in Matabeleland South Province to put down their arms and move into Juliet Assembly Point in Beitbridge. Lt-Col (Rtd) Dube and Brig-Gen Mhonda were se
nior liaison officers representing ZPRA and ZANLA respectively, working with the Commonwealth Monitoring Force (CMF). The guerillas were suspicious of the ceasefire agreement, thinking it might be a trap by the Ian Smith regime to lure them out of the bush and then attack them. Below are excerpts from the interview. Read on….
MS: We are rounding up the interview, but let us continue from last week when you were talking about the opening up of a fully-fledged training facility for engineers.
Lt-Col (Rtd) Dube: We were training those who had already completed guerilla warfare training. They were coming to us to specialise. We recruited mainly from those who had trained in Angola as they had covered advanced guerilla warfare and from MTD, which had become the largest training ZPRA camp in Zambia where we were training big numbers unlike before at other camps. Before we created an independent training camp for engineers I had been sent to MTD when it was opened for its first intake of recruits. The first camp commander was Cde Busobenyoka, I came in as the Chief of Staff.
That was in 1978. At MTD, people who were being trained there could be of brigade strength at any time. At that time, people were pouring into Zambia to join the armed struggle with thousands awaiting training at the nearby Maheba. I was then withdrawn from MTD and redeployed to the ZPRA Headquarters. That’s when I joined Kenneth Murwira (Jeffery Ndlovu) as his first deputy, Cde James Savanhu coming in as the second deputy and Cde Elliot Mahlole as the third deputy.
MS: So,how many were you training at a time at the engineers camp?
Lt-Col (Rtd) Dube: We were training about a company that is three platoons at a time and because they were people who were already trained, our programme was just for three months. We were no longer concentrating on tactics as they would have covered that. We were putting into practice what they had covered at the camps where they had done their initial training. We were teaching them in detail how to use mines and explosives in the demolition of the targeted structures. We also taught them how to handle and carry explosives, so that they don’t endanger themselves and others. We also went into detail in mine laying and sabotage. While training them, we were not using blanks but live explosives. In fact, in ZPRA, we used live ammunition in our training exercises.
MS: What about operations?
Lt-Col (Rtd) Dube: Like I said last week, we infiltrated a number of engineers with infantry units. Kenny Murwira our Chief of Engineering will take them to our forward bases along the Zambezi River where arrangements were made to take them to the intended areas. That was done to avoid confusion and the engineers also needed the guidance of the troops on the ground as those were the ones who knew the routes well.
The most important thing was to avoid contact with the enemy forces while on the way to the operational zones. However, for those we deployed through Mash West and Central, the main target was Harare, then Salisbury. As for Bulawayo, a unit of our engineers attacked Donnington Police Station. They shot at the station to send panic to the Rhodesians as it is situated within the industrial sites. You know, when carrying out sabotage missions, the aim is to send a message. When we deployed in urban areas, the biggest unit of our guerillas was made up of four men. Those were specialists.
MS: Then came the ceasefire period, what happened to you?
Lt-Col (Rtd) Dube: Before going to the ceasefire period we had moved our camp to the CGT Artillery Camp where we were housed as there were threats of being attacked by the Rhodesian forces. This was because at our camp we were only armed with AK-47s and machine guns compared to the CGT, which was heavily fortified.
Then when the ceasefire was announced and it was time for us to return home I was one of the senior ZPRA officers who came with our Commander-In-Chief and party President, Dr Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo. You couldn’t believe the number of people who were at the airport in Harare to welcome Dr Nkomo, the numbers were amazing. However, we the soldiers were taken to Mt Pleasant from where I was deployed to Matabeleland South Province as a senior liaison officer.
When deployed to Matabeleland South, I was paired with a colleague from ZANLA, the current commander of the Presidential Guard (PG), now Brigadier-General Fidelis Mhonda. With us, there were some officers from the Commonwealth Monitoring Force (CMF) with our security provided by the local police and soldiers. One of the officers under CMF was from New Zealand.
MS: What were your terms of reference and please tell us more about that role.
Lt-Col (Rtd) Dube: Our role with Cde Mhonda was to go to the ground and explain to the guerillas that the war was over and they should move to the APs, in the case of Matabeleland South, there was Brunapeg in Mangwe and Juliet at Zezani in Beitbridge. So, from Harare, we set up our base at Mtshabezi Mission in Gwanda District.
We then sent word to the villagers whom we were much aware were in touch with the guerillas that we wanted to meet the guerillas. As you might be aware, both ZPRA and ZANLA had been deployed in Matabeleland South, which is why I and Brig-Gen Mhonda were there.
MS: How did the guerillas respond?
Lt-Col (Rtd) Dube: We spent two days without hearing anything from the guerillas. Then after two days at around 11pm a villager, an obvious contact of the guerillas walked through the gates of Mtshabezi Mission and told us that he had been sent by the guerillas who wanted to talk to us. When asked where they were, the villager said he could take us to them. Those guerillas were ZPRA and we agreed with Cde Mhonda to go and meet them.
We told the other officers that they should remain behind while I and Cde Mhonda went to them. It was a bit of a tense situation while we followed the guerilla’s contact, sweeping through the darkness. The villager led us to the guerillas’ ambush. As we were walking, someone shouted in the darkness “Hold and put down your arms”. We responded accordingly with Cde Mhonda, laid down our AK-47s, and magazines and waited for the next instruction.
They then started asking us who we were and we had agreed with Cde Mhonda that I would do the talking as those were ZPRA comrades. Then from the group, someone recognised me as I had been an instructor and it was someone I had trained. They then asked us to move to where they were, still without our weapons. They said “buyani lapha”. We obliged.
We then had a meeting and still the guerillas were adamant that we had sold out, they accused us of being sellouts. They also told us that they believed the ceasefire was a ruse by the Rhodesian forces to lure the freedom fighters out of the bush and then attack them. We did a lot of explaining and I then introduced Cde Mhonda to them. They also told us that they had been following news on the radio about the ceasefire. We told them there would be pick-up points as vehicles would be availed to take them to Juliet AP.
MS: How many were they?
Lt-Col (Rtd) Dube: There were eight of them. A day or so after meeting the ZPRA guerillas, another contact came to the camp and told us that a unit of ZANLA guerillas was eager to meet us. The contact said those comrades were on a mountain, some distance from the mission. We then drove there with Cde Mhonda.
Like what happened with the first group, the situation was a bit tense and Cde Mhonda diffused it by chanting some slogans first to show them that we were also guerillas like them. Like all the guerillas, those ZANLA colleagues who numbered about 20 were very suspicious of the ceasefire. Cde Mhonda spoke passionately to them and I also came in as I could speak ChiShona well
. After a week the comrades started coming out of the bush to board trucks to the AP at Zezani. Zezani was very unusual as it housed both ZPRA and ZANLA To the credit of the comrades there, they never clashed. We are talking about people who at times would get into skirmishes whenever they came across each other during the war.
MS: Who were the commanders there?
Lt-Col (Rtd) Dube: I became the camp commander of ZPRA, but there were commanders who had been on the ground while the war was on such as George Chavunduka (Fortune Moyo), Baberton Irvine Sibhona who commanded the whole Southern Front (SF3), but Barberton didn’t still stay long as he went back to Zambia. Also, there was Cde Reeves Nyandoro who was the regional commander for SF2 that covered Mberengwa, Mwenezi and Zvishavane and his deputy Thathani as well as now Colonel (Rtd) Buster Magwizi.
On the ZANLA side, they started with Brig-Gen Mhonda as the overall commander, but was later replaced with Rex Tichafa. Cde Tichafa was also redeployed from Zezani and another Comrade whose name I can’t remember took over. But, this Comrade, although I can’t recall his name, once won a car in the OK Grand Challenge competition. Like most of the guerillas, I was then attested into the Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA), working at Mt Darwin, Ntabazinduna, Defence HQ and later on at
2 Brigade Headquarters in Harare where I was the brigade’s chief accountant.
That was after I had completed the Chartered Institute of Secretaries (CIS), a prestigious and much sought-after qualification at some point. I later asked for a transfer to One Brigade here in Bulawayo, when I lost my wife.
MS: Lastly when did you leave the army?
Lt-Col Dube: I retired on 31 January 2005. After some time, I then joined my elder brother, Alfred Dube, who had set up an accounting services company after leaving his job at Tregers. That is the company (Fedral), which we are jointly running, it’s a consultancy in accounting as both of us are accountants. We offer services in taxi issues, accounting, company registration,and drafting of business proposals.
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