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Zimbabwe today bids farewell to one of her makers, Retired Lieutenant-Colonel Harold Chirenda.
Rtd Lt-Col Chirenda was one of the pioneers of the liberation struggle, campaigning on the Zipra side.
Since his retirement from the Zimbabwe National Army in 1995, he maintained a low profile, for a man of his weighty credentials. He passed on at the United Bulawayo Hospitals in Bulawayo on New Year’s Day in silence after a long illness. He has a glittering profile as one of the first cadres to be trained to fight colonialism before he became a Zipra instructor at Morogoro Camp in Tanzania.
He was one of the 90 Zipra cadres who attended basic military training in Algeria from 1964 to 1965. After training, he was deployed to Tanzania where he worked with other senior Zapu cadres who included Cde Albert Nxele, the late Lookout Masuku and Rtd Brig-Gen Ambrose Mutinhiri.
In 1966, Rtd Lt-Col Chirenda, together with the late Zipra commander Cde Nikita, Tapson Sibanda and Brig Gen Mutinhiri were deployed to Morogoro as instructors under the command of Cde Nxele.
At Morogoro, he and his three colleagues gave the first military training to cadres, some of whom later became his seniors at Independence, such as the late General Solomon Mujuru. Others that he tutored include Zanu-PF Politburo member, Cde Obert Mpofu, the late Major-General Jevan Maseko, and Rtd Brig-Gen Abel Mazinyane. A person, who was senior to such a parade of fine military men, cannot be a small man himself. This is Rtd Lt-Col Chirenda, a big man who did so much for his country. Therefore, his interment at the National Heroes’ Acre in Harare today is richly deserved; that facility is meant for people like him.
As we report elsewhere in this issue, one of his students, now a minister of government and a senior Zanu-PF official, Cde Mpofu said: “I am actually one of the people who went through his hands in military training under Zipra. He was a fine instructor who produced one of the best cadres in the liberation struggle such as the late Zimbabwe National Army Commander General Solomon Mujuru and other senior officials in government. He was a consistent and persistent fighter for justice, which saw him join the liberation struggle to free Zimbabweans from oppression. He was one of the people who pioneered the Zipra military camp in Morogoro in Tanzania.”
Rtd Lt-Col Chirenda was born on August 1 1944, in Harare and attended Shingirai Primary School from 1950 to 1956 where he did Standard One to Six before going to Fletcher High School for his secondary education.
Rtd Lt-Col Chirenda’s low profile over the past 19 years does nothing to diminish the high profile role he played in freeing this country from the shackles of colonialism. He did not stop serving the country after freeing it, but was in the army, occupying senior and sensitive positions for 15 years.
At independence, Rtd Lt-Col Chirenda was attested into the Zimbabwe National Army where he held several positions such as chief instructor at the Zimbabwe Military Academy. He was also responsible for the integration of Zanla, Zipra and the Rhodesian Security Forces officers into the Zimbabwe National Army, a difficult task considering the natural differences between the nationalist forces and the former instrument of oppression, the Rhodesian army. In 1982 he was appointed head of operations at army headquarters at KG6 Barracks.
Rtd Lt-Col Chirenda was the author of the operational order called the “Sledgehammer”, which marked the beginning of the involvement of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces in the Mozambique campaign in 1982.
In 1983, he became the first Zimbabwe Defence Forces Chief delegate to the International Military Sports Council. Rtd Lt-Col Chirenda successfully lobbied for admission of the ZDF into the world military sports body the same year in Lagos, Nigeria.
In 1986, he was appointed commanding officer 43 Infantry Battalion and during his tour of duty with the battalion he took part in operation Chipoko, a joint operation by 43 Battalion, 1 CDO and Para BN which dealt a major blow to Renamo’s fighting capability south of the Beira corridor in the area of Espungabeira.
In 1990, he was posted to and attached to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as Zimbabwe’s advisor to the Republic of Botswana where his areas of responsibility included Angola and Namibia. Some curriculum vitae speak for themselves.
We send him off today, with pride knowing that Rtd Lt-Col Chirenda served his motherland with distinction, from the period when it was easy to just recoil and let colonialism flourish, through the gaining of political Independence in 1980, to the time when there is a lot of work to consolidate that political freedom with indigenous control of the economy.
It is a deserved rest for the liberator and career soldier.
Online Reporter