Chronicle Editor
Pathisa Nyathi
Once the Rhodesians instituted cross-border raids into Zambia on 19 October 1978, there were more equally vicious raids aimed at crippling Zapu/ZPRA and increase their burden on supporting the wounded and rebuilding the destroyed physical infrastructure. It was a morale-sapping campaign which created an increasing population of the disabled, including those that were injured during operations. Some of these were taken care of by the Zimbabwe Project in the post-independence era.
Zapu ran Workshop Camp located about 12 kilometres west of Lusaka. The Workshop Camp was devoted to the provision of skills to refugees as part of preparations for the period after Zimbabwe’s independence. The refugees were trained in technical and vocational skills such as: motor mechanics, welding, painting, electrical repairs and installations, plumbing and sewage maintenance, carpentry, building and construction, sandal making, shoe repairs, panel beating, etecetera.
Edward Ndlovu, who was Zapu’s Secretary for Research, Information and Projects (RIP) made an impassioned appeal to the world community to rally behind Zapu’s efforts to recover from the devastating bombings.
“We have never doubted that Smith and his army were capable of such atrocities. We are seeing similar horrors being perpetrated daily against innocent and defenceless villagers in Zimbabwe itself. For some time we believed that Smith’s black puppets in the “internal settlement” administration were helpless to prevent the slaughter. But now it is quite clear they are willing participants, rejoicing in the massacre of the sons and daughters of the people they claim to represent.”
Following the massive raids there were large numbers of casualties and the wounded who required hospitalisation with some of them needful of long term medical welfare and equipment for the disabled. “We are left to bury and mourn our dead. But meanwhile, the survivors demand our attention. More than 500 are in hospital in Lusaka and more than 100 in Kabwe Hospital. Zambian hospitals are doing their best despite the congestion and influx. We must carry food to these people daily. The cases consist of external and internal injuries, as well as cases of amputation. Some of these patients have already been discharged to our clinics. And, since we do not have space in our clinics, these cases are now being treated in some of our camps under trees as we do not have sufficient tents. Many of these cases need long-term medical care, others require armchairs, crutches, wheel chairs, armslings, and stretchers. We also need field hospitals.”
The suffering was just unimaginable and it took the likes of Edward Ndlovu to extend appeals for assistance. The range of needs was immense. “Besides the injured, there are also the uninjured survivors to care for. All the girls have had to be squeezed into another already over-crowded camp housing nearly 8 000 younger school age girls and mothers with babies. They require food, clothing, shelter, medical supplies, blankets, and footwear, since all supplies at Mkushi Camp and the general stores at FC have been completely destroyed. The care for these survivors along with the over 44 000 other refugees under our care in Zambia is a phenomenal task which requires large-scale support from friends and well-wishers throughout the world.”
Ndlovu also appealed for an emergency fund for which he was requesting for replacement. He further appealed for a Kwacha 44 000 fund to cover the cost of rebuilding the warehouse at Freedom Camp. He requested that relief be airlifted to Zambia. Financial assistance, he further appealed, should be sent to the Zapu National External Account Number 02-920, The National Bank of Commerce, Box 1767 Lusaka.
The appeal was made in November 1978, more or less soon after the raids. More bombings were launched in the same year with more coming in 1979. ZPRA, through its Intelligence Department, screened recruits arriving at Nampundwe Transit Camp. Those flushed out were sent to Mboroma. These were people that the Smith regime relied on for intelligence relating to the conduct of the war. The bombings that they carried out were based on accurate inside information and their agents were the sources for some of it.
On 22 December 1979 the Smith forces launched a raid on Mboroma. The primary aim was this time not so much to kill or destroy but to spirit out the Rhodesian agents who were languishing in underground pits. Some of these had developed long hair on their bodies and their skin colour become lighter as they were not exposed to the sun for long periods. It is true some genuine cases were also lumped together with agents. Four personnel were killed during the operation while 32 agents were spirited out.
There was a period of lull over the festive season. In February of the following ear there was resumption of the aerial bombardments starting with one at NTC on 23 February where there were 12 casualties, with Zambian civilian casualties numbering 66 and eight of them wounded.
In the same year, the bombings extended to Angola where there was training of ZPRA cadres at Boma and Luso in the Moxico Province.
Military training in Angola had commenced in 1977 and had continued till the end of the war. Some of the trainees arrived back home after the ceasefire, with some doing so in 1980. Easter Sebenzile Ndiweni was the Party Representative in Angola .
In April there were heightened bombings concentrated on Zambia. One of the Zapu residential properties that were targeted in April was that of Zapu President Joshua Nkomo. The Special Air Services (SAS) were involved in the attack. Rhodesians had some white agents masquerading as tour operators along the Zambezi River in as much as there were some of them on Mulungushi Dam where ZPRA was training some regular battalions. One such case is reported on by Stanford Sithole (Dumisani Tembo). The particular case was one of a white man who operated a trophy hunting facility on the Zambezi River water front near Siabuwa in Binga.
Not only was that man engaging in trophy hunting but operated a spotter plane with which he kept a watchful eye on the movements of ZPRA guerrillas across and along the Zambezi River. From time to time Rhodesian soldiers called upon him to receive intelligence briefing from the white man. The soldiers used speed boats along the water course to get to the white man’s well safeguarded business operation. The guerrillas watched over his activities and worked out operational strategies to deal with him. Indeed, one day ZPRA guerrillas pounced on him despite the tight security arrangements at his business quarters. All the gates were opened till the guerrillas got into the house where they found the man, not alone but in the company of Rhodesian soldiers and some white girls. For the rest, the readers may glean the details in the book Stanford has had written for him by this writer.
On 12 April 1978 the SAS attacked Nkomo’s house in Lusaka in which 11 comrades were injured. Two days earlier, on 10 April, the Rhodesians had attacked 3 Zapu residential homes. On 11 April there was an attack on Mulungushi where, as indicated above, regular battalions were being trained by the Zambians. One person was killed during the attack. On the same day, according to Ndlovu’s account, there was an attack on Workshop Camp in which 20 casualties were suffered. The Rhodesians were well aware of the regular battalions that were undergoing military training. They knew too that the battalions were to provide the light infantry in the proposed march on Rhodesia as part of the Turning Point Strategy scheduled for execution in December 1979. The regular battalions were the king pin in the whole proposed operation which was thwarted by the Western countries when the Lancaster House Talks led to the resolution of the Rhodesian constitutional impasse on a date earlier than that for Turning Point Strategy.
Bongani Ndlovu