Chronicle Editor
Mashudu Netsianda, Senior Reporter
ANOTHER veteran nationalist, Cde Elliot Ngwabi who was among the four heroic freedom fighters who dramatically escaped from the tightly guarded Grey Street Prison — now Bulawayo Prison — in 1965, has died due to Covid-19.
He died aged 85 on Saturday at the United Bulawayo Hospitals (UBH) where he was admitted. His death came barely two weeks after his colleague and co-jailbreaker, Cde Keyi Nkala passed on due to Covid-19 related complications.
Cde Ngwabi whose war name was Cde Okello, was part of the seven combatants who launched an attack at Zidube Ranch in Kezi, Matobo District in Matabeleland South in September 1964 during the liberation struggle.
Cde Ngwabi dramatically escaped from prison in January 1965 in the company of three other combatants, Cdes Moffat Hadebe, Nkala and Clark Ngiyo Mpofu, who is also late.
The quartet had been detained at Gwanda Prison before being transferred to Grey Street Prison.
They were detained for fighting injustice and oppression against blacks by the Rhodesian government.
Zidube Ranch belonged to Bulawayo senior magistrate, Mr Francis Fairwell Roberts who was part of the judiciary that oppressed black people by issuing out detention orders to the nationalists without any justification.
The attack, which they executed together with Cdes Israel Maduma, Roger Matshimini Ncube and Rhodes Malaba, was their first target in the country upon their deployment to Rhodesia.
Cde Hadebe, who commanded the unit, described the late veteran freedom fighter as a brave freedom fighter who dedicated his entire youthhood to the liberation struggle.
“I learnt with great shock the news of the passing on of my colleague and comrade-in-arms during the liberation struggle. He was a brave soldier who sacrificed his life at a young age to liberate our country from colonialism,” he said.
Cde Hadebe said he first met Cde Ngwabi in 1964 in Zambia where they both underwent military training.
“After our training, we both returned to the country and participated in the Zidube Ranch attack together with five other colleagues. We were later arrested after the attack before we escaped from Grey Prison and skipped the border to Botswana,” he said.
“Unfortunately, Cde Ngwabi together with Cdes Nkala, Mpofu were rearrested in that country, but I managed to escape and proceeded to Zambia. Only recently, I visited him and we shared our memories of the liberation struggle, but sadly he is no more and I am now the only surviving cadre of that group, which escaped from Grey Prison.”
Family spokesperson Ms Khulani Ndlovu said they have lost a pillar and unifier.
“We have lost a pillar of strength, a man who sacrificed his life towards the liberation of the country. As a family, we have been dealt a heavy blow following his death,” she said.
Ms Ndlovu said burial arrangements are underway.
Cde Ngwabi was one of the early veterans of the country’s struggle for independence. He was influenced to join the liberation struggle by other young men that he used to meet and play with in Makokoba.
During those times, youths were doing a lot of sabotage by throwing stones at the colonial government buildings and white people’s cars.
During one of his interviews with our sister paper, Sunday News, Cde Ngwabi said he got involved in politics at18 years when he became part of the Southern Rhodesia African National Congress (SRANC) in Makokoba.
In 1963 when he was part of the team that was at the airport to welcome Dr Joshua Nkomo, police tried to manhandle him because he had brought some weapons into the country from Algeria.
He was arrested and spent the whole night at the main police station in Bulawayo. The other comrades visited him the following day with the party’s lawyer.
Upon his release soon after that incident, he went for military training in Zambia.
From Zambia, he went to Algeria for further training together with Cde Hadebe and others.
After training, they came back from Algeria via Lusaka and they were welcomed by the likes of Cdes Jason Ziyaphapha Moyo and Lookout Masuku.
Upon their return, they had weapons from Algeria hidden in a suitcase, which they managed to smuggle to Zambia without any problems.
The same guns sparked the Second Umvukela/Chimurenga.
When they arrived in the country, they were lucky not to be searched because security was lax.
Born on October 10, 1935 in Esiphezini in Umzingwane District, Matabeleland South, Cde Ngwabi attended Esiphezini Primary School and Mzilikazi Primary School where he completed his primary education.
He was detained at Grey Street Prison and Khami Prison where he met some fellow comrades from the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA) who included President Mnangagwa.
After independence, Cde Ngwabi became the deputy chairman of Zanu-PF at Esiphezini for 10 years and that was after the Unity Accord of 1987.
He is survived by wife, Wilda and five children, four daughters and a son.
Mourners are gathered at his homestead in Esiphezini.-@mashnets
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