Chronicle EditorOUR interview with former ZPRA front commander for the Southern Front (SF), Cde Irvine Khulekani Sibhona pseudonym Cde Barberton Muzwambila has generated a lot interest and feedback. SF covered all Matabeleland South districts, Mberengwa and a bit of Zvishavane in Midlands as well as Mwenezi in Masvingo Province. Cde Sibhona’s narrations attracted a lot of attention with the feedback being in sync with the column’s objectives which besides being informative and educative is also meant to be interactive. After reading about some names, a couple of readers related with the incidents and names of guerillas mentioned by Cde Sibhona.
One of the people to come forward and identify with the Sibhona story is Cde Artwell Mahlangu, who as a war collaborator at the age of 15 in 1979 in his rural home of Seula in Kezi “worked” with some of the guerillas. That was at a time when ZPRA was deploying its conventional forces and a big unit that was heading to Mberengwa and Mwenezi passed through Mr Mahlangu’s village. Below he tells our Assistant Editor Mkhululi Sibanda (MS) about his experiences with freedom fighters. Read on…..
MS: Cde Mahlangu you met some of the guerillas that we have been writing about in the past few weeks, tell us how you met them.
Cde Mahlangu: It could have been between January and February 1979 and we were working in our fields. We were spreading manure using our scotch-cart, it was myself, my father, now late, Joseph Mahewu Mahlangu and my younger brother, Dominic. It was towards the evening and we were just rounding up when from between 10 and 15 metres some armed men emerged from nowhere so to speak.
They caught us off-guard and I almost took to my heels as I thought they might be the District Assistants, amaDAs. That was because of the khaki camouflage they were wearing. I then noticed that their firearms had a magazine that was banana shaped, which is the AK-47, I then relaxed a bit. However, when taking a close look at their uniform it was very different, that was the popular Russian rice, ZPRAs were known for. The guerillas who approached us were Cdes Thathani Nyathi (deputy commander of SF2 region), Alex Khumalo, who was a coloured, Desire who looked elderly among the rest and Josphat who was a local, he came from our area and we knew him as Noja. That big unit that arrived at our village was on its way to areas like Mberengwa and their commander was Cde Revees Nyandoro whose deputy was Thathani. We had seen guerillas before, but in small units of three, five and seven. However, on that day they were too many, too many, they were in their hundreds. Babebanengi kakhulu. When they came to where we were Thathani called my father aside and they had a brief chat. It was then that Noja wako Mathimba came to me and said ‘do you know me; and I said ‘yes hanti ungu Noja’. He then asked where my brother Du (Onias Dumisani Mahlangu) was and I told him that he had gone to join the war. My brother, Onias trained at Morogoro in the Group of 800 and currently lives koSeula. On that day we slaughtered two goats and cooking went up to around midnight. My father as the Zapu chairman for the area and that night he only told his secretary, Solomon Moyo, usaBhe about the presence of the guerillas. Otherwise other villagers were not brought into the picture on the first day.
MS: Then on the second day?
Cde Mahlangu: On the second day the guerillas told my father that they could announce their presence to other villagers. Then people from others areas started descending on our village. They came from as far as Ntabansimbi, Beula, Shashe and David’s Gorge. The guerillas had given my father and his committee the go ahead to spread word to their structures that obhudi (brothers) or abafana (the boys) as guerillas were referred to in coded terms were around. That was a first for us because all along we had been used to being discreet about their presence. However, these ones even said sell-outs could even go and tell the Rhodesian forces at Kezi or Legion Mine that they were around. They were the conventional forces who were prepared for a blow to blow combat with the enemy. It was no longer a case of hit and run.
MS: With all those people coming to your village, what were there for, I mean the other villagers?
Cde Mahlangu: They were bringing food and other provisions. Like I said those guerillas were too many to be fed by one village.
MS: From your observation what do you think was going through the minds of the villagers as it seems people had just thrown caution into the wind.
Cde Mahlangu: When I look back that is when it dawned on our people that independence was within touching distance. To me we became free that day. There was excitement and joy all over. The villagers felt secure and protected by this large army they were mixing with. It was as if there was no Rhodesia. However, on the second day at night heavy rains pounded the area. Thathani and a few were in our homestead and my father asked the commanders to let the guerillas seek shelter in homesteads, but Thathani and other commanders were reluctant to do that for security reasons of course. As the heavy rains continued, my father again asked the commanders that ‘singeke sifelwe ngabantwana, libayekele becatshele izulu emizini’. The commander then relented and Thathani ordered me to go and tell the troops and I said I was afraid. We then went together and the guerillas entered homesteads, at our homestead all the huts and houses were filled up. I should also mention that as they moved from their deployment positions, when one looked at their footprints after the rains, he or she could have been forgiven to think that a heavy truck or tractor had moved on that ground. Those foot marks remained until 1981.
MS: So how long did they remain in your village?
Cde Mahlangu: They camped at our village for a week. After that they moved on as they were going to Midlands and Mwenezi. However, they left a few behind. Those they left behind could have been around seven and they included a medic, Richard Pelepele, Alex Khumalo, umkharadi who later died in action in Kezi, Thomson, Victor, Donald Ngwenya who came from Kafusi and Gift. These ones also started spreading their operations and joining those who were already on the ground such as Mabhidliza, Amin, Nkundla, Rixi, Sadaratara, Nzimande, Sikhumbuzo and Madlozi. However, that experience of seeing regular troops had excited me so much that after independence and when I had started working I looked for those guys. I was fortunate to track and see Thathani whose real name was Gibson Dube who came from Brunapeg in Mangwe District. After the war he went back to South Africa and worked there. I found him at his house he had bought after independence at Barham Green in Bulawayo and we had a braai and drinks at a popular tshisa nyama spot along Plumtree Road. However, at that stage he was no longer feeling well and he eventually passed on and was laid to rest at the Bulawayo Provincial Heroes Acre in Nkulumane. I had also wanted to meet Revees Nyandoro their commander but I could not. I am told he is also late.
MS: As a war collaborator how is easy was it to carry out those tasks?
Cde Mahlangu: You were always on the edge. At times I was being sent to go and collect material from far away places and that was literally inviting danger. My father as the Zapu chairman was once arrested when he and other villagers apprehended stock thieves and beat them up. Those people later on went and reported him at Kezi Police Station that he was harbouring Stanley Ndlovu, a local who had gone to war. You once featured Ndlovu on this column. My father spent a month in detention at Kezi where he was also tortured. However, I should salute Pelandaba Bus Services management and its crew especially Robson Dube, who was a conductor for the role they played in transporting provisions for the freedom fighters.
MS: Then who is Artwell Mahlangu, your brief background.
Cde Mahlangu: I was born on 24 April 1964 at Antelope Hospital in Kezi where the late national hero Samuel Parirenyatwa was once the resident doctor. I started Grade One at the local Seula Primary School in 1972 and when schools closed because of the war I moved to Lobengula Primary School in Mzilikazi in 1978 and by that time I was in Grade 7.
However, I only did first term as when the schools closed for that term I went home in the rural areas for the holidays. My sister, Mildred was already at boarding school at Ekusileni Mission in Filabusi. When it was time to go for the second term our father told us that we could not continue with school. He told us that other villagers were said to be complaining that he as the Zapu leader was encouraging other people’s children to go and join the war while his were continuing with their education. Young as we were we understood his concerns and stayed at home. What people failed to realise was that already two of our siblings had left to join the war, my brother Onias whom I spoke about above and my sister, Coleen Mahlangu who survived the Mkushi bombing and was known as Fungai Sibanda.
MS: After the war you went back to school?
Cde Mahlangu: Yes, yes. I went during the second term of 1980 at Seula Primary after which I moved to Wanezi Mission in Filabusi where I completed my Ordinary levels with flying colours. I then went to Founders High in Bulawayo for Advanced Level where I shared a desk with now politician Gabriel Chaibva who came from Mutare Boys High.
The little SiNdebele, Gabriel speaks I am the one who taught him. I and Gabriel did the then famous combination, Maths, Physics and Chemistry (MPC). Others in our class who went on to do well in life are Ignatius Maingehama, Alex Millin and Tasara Muguti, the younger brother of Dr Edwin Muguti. From Founders I proceeded to the University of Zimbabwe (UZ) together with Gabriel but myself I enrolled for a Bachelor of Science Degree in Agriculture. After UZ I worked for the Ministry of Agriculture and later on went to the private sector as a marketing practitioner as I had also done the Institute of Marketing Management (IMM) programme. I have worked for different entities including yours, Zimpapers here in Bulawayo where I was the circulation manager. I am still in employment for a private company. However, I am proud beneficiary of the land reform where I do mainly cattle ranching in Bubi District in Matabeleland North Province.
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