adminAT the mature age of 77 years he looks deceptively young and vivacious. He gazes into the empty blue void waiting for a lone customer to call at his business premises in Kelvin Industrial Area. He sells new and reconditioned old car batteries. Hardly anything reveals his track record as a pioneer of Zimbabwe’s armed liberation struggle from its very inception.
Misheck Velaphi Ncube was among the first Zapu cadres to undergo military training in Egypt in 1962. There were 12 of them in the ground-breaking group that was trained by the Arabs. He remembers a few names from that long time ago: Bobbylock Manyonga, David Mpongo Khumalo, Kenias Mlalazi, Mupfukacha (Solomon?) Mabika.
In his several errands when party administrator in Cairo Benjamin Madlela sent him back home he recalls bringing along with him George Mudukuti and Sakala from Fort Victoria (now Masvingo). At the time Tanganyika had not then gained her independence. Party operations were then being run from Cairo in Egypt. Soon after the training of the first group, a second group was trained, also west of Cairo in the same year, 1962.
Military training was undertaken early in 1962. It essentially comprised training in sabotage and reconnaissance. The short stint lasted three months. However, at the time there were no sources for weapons. It would take the politico-military instability in the Congo to yield what would turn out to be the very first weapons to be smuggled into Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe).
In 1962 a move was made to relocate the Zapu offices to Tanganyika. Madlela and his staff went to live in Dar-es-Salaam where a house was bought at Mutoni. At Mutoni there appeared two spiritual snakes called inyandezulu in SiNdebele. The cadres at Mutoni killed and burnt the two green mambas. Rather strangely, by the following morning there were two green mambas.
It took President Joshua Nkomo’s spiritual maturity and understanding to help the young ones appreciate the spiritual significance of this type of snake. Indeed, that type of snake and the lions were not to be killed during military operations. Snakes and lions provided security to the fighters. When Zapu went to operate from Lusaka the house at Mutoni was acquired by the South African National Congress (ANC).
Back in Southern Rhodesia there were men who had been identified who would liaise with the group that would be bringing in the weapons from outside the country. Stephen Jeqe Nkomo, Findo Mpofu and Thomas Ngwenya were the contact persons in Bulawayo. David Lupepe was the link person in the Midlands while Khesiwe Malindi was the point man in Marandellas (now Marondera).
In Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) there were Zapu stalwarts who acted as liaison persons: Desire Khupe, Chakabva at Matero and John Bhebhe who worked for a dry-cleaning firm. These men, together with Nathan Shamuyarira, were privy to the first weapons that were brought in through the Tanganyika-Northern Rhodesia border.
Political and military instability provided the rich ground for the acquisition of the first weapons. Patrice Lumumba, the Soviet Union-backed leader was facing a war/revolt by the likes of Joseph Kasavubu and Moise Tshombe who eventually took over the Katanga Province. The Congolese rebels were fighting from the deep forests near the Great Lakes region. Misheck recalls that their group, comprising himself, Kenias Mlalazi and two other cadres were literally nonentities in military terms. It was the Congo rebels that had access to weapons.
Necessity is the mother of invention. Misheck’s group found themselves having to prepare some favourite beverage of the region —mahewu from cassava. Hunger was taking its toll among the anti-Lumumba forces. Misheck and group hatched a plan; they were going to lace the mahewu beverage with an aphrodisiac known in SiNdebele as umligazigone (muligazwikono). The tuberous plant causes its victim to get into some deep sleep, in the process totally immobilising the victim who will be in that drunken stupor for quite a while.
The mahewu beverage was then fed to the hungry rebels who in due course went into a drunken stupor. It was time for Misheck and group to pounce! They got hold of the weapons and dispatched the rebels to the world of the ancestors. “We killed them,” says Misheck nonchalantly.
At that juncture only a few people knew about the acquisition of the weapons: Nkomo, Madlela and Khumalo. The latter two provided the schemers with 40 pounds that was going to be used to get the weapons to Southern Rhodesia. The journey was treacherous and would see the couriers of contraband having to resort to clandestine methods to secure more money.
Zapu, being under the sponsorship of the Soviet Union, was sympathetic to Lumumba. The latter’s supporters helped out as porters of the weapons to a Gomane chief’s village. The chief was a descendant of the followers of Zwangendaba Jele whose flight from King Tshaka in KwaZulu-Natal saw him get as far as Tanganyika.
The onus of transporting the weapons beyond the Gomane chief’s village fell on three men: Misheck. Mlalazi and Abraham Nkiwane. They used a Landrover (short base) to pick up the weapons. Nkiwane was the driver. Apparently, the Landrover had belonged to the National Democratic Party (NDP) and when that party was banned in 1961 the Landrover was driven across the border into Northern Rhodesia.
The border between Tanganyika and Northern Rhodesia had a very deep and wide trench dug along it. In order to get the Landrover across, wooden poles were laid over the trench with the assistance of the Gomane chief and his subjects. The Landrover developed a problem at Tunduma and had to be abandoned at the home of a man who lived in the vicinity. The man came from Shabanie (now Zvishavane).
The three couriers, with the assistance of the United National Independence Party (Unip) got to Nakonde where they sought assistance. At the time Unip was at loggerheads with Harry Nkumbula’s African National Congress. Unip, though not ruling in Northern Rhodesia then, were favourably disposed towards the struggle in Southern Rhodesia. Within the Unip offices the weapons were re-packaged.
A Zephyr Zodiac car was used to transport the weapons on the next stage of the trip. At Mpika the heavily loaded car broke down. The trio was driving through a heavy downpour. The gearbox hit a stone and was immediately disabled. For two days the threesome was bogged down with no one to tow their car. Misheck devised a plan to get some wire to use to tow the car to where they could get assistance. He went up a telephone pole and cut the telephone wire for that intended purpose.
Fortunately, at that point in time, there appeared a white man who worked for a construction company. The man happened to be a mechanic. A very deep trench was dug, deep enough to suspend the beleaguered car. He had the car’s gearbox removed and replaced with a new one. For his services the mechanic demanded and was paid 35 pounds. That meant the group had only five pounds left for the rest of the trip. There was a need for innovativeness. Their priority was obtaining mealie-meal. The journey resumed.
They got to Broken Hill (now Kabwe) and were desperate for fuel. The way out was to offer lifts to people wanting to get to Lusaka. The trio knew very well that there was no room in the car for the number of people that they were offering seats. To get out of the sticky situation they told the would-be travellers that they were still a while at Broken Hill.
Assured of delayed departure, the unsuspecting travellers began wandering off. Misheck and group seized the opportunity and drove off taking with them the collected fares. They were kind though, for they left behind their luggage. The scheming gentlemen managed, by hook or crook, to get to Lusaka.
They went straight to Nathan Shamuyarira’s house. Shamuyarira had escaped from Southern Rhodesia after writing a story in the Daily News alleging that Zapu Vice President Samuel Tichafa Parirenyatwa had been killed by the white agents somewhere beyond Shangani. His body and car were taken to the level rail crossing at Heany Junction where it was made to appear as if his car was involved in a collision with a train.
Sensing pending arrest, he escaped and went to Northern Rhodesia where he remained until 1964. He lived at Mnali College where he was writing for a newspaper.
At his house the weapons were repackaged once again. They were removed from leather suitcases and packed in nicely carved out wooden boxes. The empty suitcases were left in Shamuyarira’s house and Misheck collected them much later on one of his trips to Tanganyika.
The journey towards the Northern Rhodesia-Southern Rhodesia border at Victoria Falls resumed. At Mazabuka, between Lusaka and Victoria Falls, there was another Zapu contact person — Mai Kadindi, a Lozi woman. Victoria Falls Border Post was porous at the time. Misheck and colleagues were aware that the border police took part in parades at 1pm and again at 6pm. During the parades the border post was unattended. That was the time to get across the border into Southern Rhodesia. It was Federation days and security was not that tight. In any case, no arms of war had hitherto been infiltrated into Southern Rhodesia. There was thus understandable laxity in security.
From Victoria Falls the weapons were driven to Lupanda Native Purchase Area (NPA) where Nkiwane’s home was. The weapons were left there while the three proceeded to Bulawayo by the same car-but empty this time. The three headed for Socialist Nkomo’s house along 6th Street in Makokoba. Misheck remained behind at James Ndiweni’s house, also along 6th Street. Socialist Nkomo must have proceeded to inform Findo Mpofu. Mlalazi and Nkiwane went their own way in the car that had brought them from Zambia. Misheck was never to meet them till back in Mbeya in Tanganyika.
What Misheck saw was Mpofu coming in a car to pick him up so they could proceed to Lupanda to collect the weapons. The two did just that and were back in Bulawayo the same night. Once again, Misheck remained behind at Nkomo’s house in Makokoba. He was put up by Ndiweni as usual. The following day Misheck returned to Lusaka. Only Findo Mpofu was to know the subsequent fate of the weapons. That was a security arrangement so that when one got caught he would not sell out the other cadres involved.
He simply did not know who else was involved in the arms transportation chain. For example, at Bambazonke Motors a car laden with weapons would be left with its ignition key. A different person would drive it off to the next agreed point e.g. along Findo Road in Essexvale (now Esigodini). He did not know or see the person who had driven the car to Bambazonke Motors in Mpopoma South. Nor did the person collecting the car in Esigodini (Bobbylock Manyonga in this case) know who had parked it there (in fact it was Thomas Ngwenya!).
All that Misheck knew was that six of the Thompson guns were destined for Salisbury and six for Bulawayo. Six of the 0,38 revolvers were destined for Salisbury and the remaining six were to be distributed in Bulawayo. Bobbylock Manyonga, having picked up wind that a security roadblock had been mounted along the Bulawayo-Salisbury road, decided to go to Salisbury via Shabanie. He was arrested along the way and the weapons confiscated.
This, in a nutshell is the story of the acquisition, transportation and fate of the first batch of arms of war to be brought into Southern Rhodesia in what would turn out to be a long-drawn out armed conflict which culminated in the granting of independence in 1980.
Online Reporter