Online Reporter
WHEN President Mnangagwa entered the Parliament of an independent Zimbabwe in 1980 representing the Midlands Province, he did so alongside the icons of Zimbabwe’s struggle for independence; Dr Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo and Cde Simon Vengai Muzenda who also represented the Midlands Province in Parliament.
Without doubt, the independence flame, the national flag and the national anthem will today bring to Gokwe’s Nembudziya footprints from the whole tapestry of the Zimbabwean story, the story of the pioneering generation of the armed struggle and the story of the cutting-edge generation of the struggle.
It is also the story of the warriors of King Lobengula, the story of the battle of Pupu and General Mtshana Khumalo, the story of Mbuya Nehanda and Sekuru Kaguvi.
The decision by President Mnangagwa to move the Independence Day National Celebrations from the capital and rotate them from one province to another in line with the spirit of leaving no one and no place behind saw Bulawayo Metropolitan Province being the first beneficiary, followed by Mashonaland Central, Manicaland, with this year’s celebrations hosted by Midlands.
Zimbabwe is arguably as strong or as weak as its provinces. In the spirit of devolution, provinces carry a considerable amount of responsibility towards national development which must start from their own door steps.
To borrow from the late former President of USA, John F Kennedy, every province is challenged to “Ask not what Zimbabwe can do for it, but rather ask what it can do for Zimbabwe”. Ask not what Zimbabwe can do for you, but rather ask what you can do for Zimbabwe. One swallow cannot make a summer, it is the 10 swallows that make the Zimbabwean summer.
The Independence Day whose national celebrations this year are hosted by the Midlands Province did not come on a silver platter but through sacrifice, blood and sweat through a bitter and painful armed liberation struggle. The decision to take up arms which saw volunteers being sent for military training abroad in the early 1960s saw President Mnangagwa being among the first generation of pioneer freedom fighters to go for military training in Egypt in early 1963 before going to China during the same year.
After the dissolution of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland in 1963, Zambia and Malawi started moving towards independence but for Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) the clock was moving backwards towards the Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI). The Zhii violent campaigns under the National Democratic Party (NDP) with General Chedu and General Hokoyo as leaders were overtaken by the more militant attacks on the white economic and political symbols of oppression with Zapu still using the NDP war cry “Forward Ever, Backward Never” while Zanu at its inaugural Gweru Congress of 1964 came up with its new war cry, “None but Ourselves will Liberate Us”.
This gave birth to the famous Crocodile Gang of which President Mnangagwa was a member. Without any weapon but armed with resourceful ingenuity acquired from military training in Egypt and China, President Mnangagwa befriended a Siziba, a young man who worked at a mine and knew about explosives and where to get them. Thus, having acquired the explosives, young Emmerson and his friend proceeded to plant the explosives on a goods train locomotive leading to an explosion a few seconds later damaging the engine, a blow to the Rhodesian economic infrastructure.
The Crocodile Gang had earlier ambushed and killed a white man in Manicaland. The two incidents led to a manhunt for members of the Crocodile Gang resulting in the capture of President Mnangagwa and other gang members. William Ndangana managed to evade arrest and escaped to Zambia while President Mnangagwa served a 10-year jail term with others being hanged.
Two months later in September 1964, six Zapu guerillas led by Moffat Hedebe attacked Zidube Ranch in Kezi next to the border with Botswana armed with Thompsom Submachine guns and Pepesh rifles. They had come all the way from Zambia with a mission targeting a white magistrate who was notorious for sending political activists to jail. On arrival in Bulawayo, the guerrillas were transported to Zidube Ranch by businessman Tafi Moyo, a relative of JZ Moyo. After the attack, three guerrillas were ordered to return to Zambia while commander Hadebe and the other two remained lying low in the countryside leading to their capture in a security scoop.
With Zambia moving towards independence at the end of 1964 and Southern Rhodesia moving in the opposite direction to UDI, the British government under Harold McMillan, famous for his winds of change speech, ironically gave the Salisbury Rhodesian government a UDI as an early Christmas present by transferring the Federal Royal Air Force from its Second World War air power as if to spite not only the Zambian blacks but also the Zimbabwean people too. Ghana opposed this move at the UN Security Council but Britain used its veto power to ensure that Rhodesia, not Zambia inherited the Federal Air Force.
However, opposition to the UDI grew louder and stronger the following year of 1965 with Ghana under Kwame Nkrumah calling for the formation of a Pan-African force to stop Ian Smith from moving to UDI with even the opposition in the British Parliament calling the British government to send its AirForce to bomb Rhodesia in the event of a UDI, a rebellion against the British crown.
However, with less than two weeks before Ian Smith declared a Unilateral Declaration of Independence, the new British Prime Minister Harold Wilson shocked the world by declaring that Britain would not intervene by force against Rhodesia in the event of a UDI.
“If there are those who are thinking in terms of a thunderbolt hurtling from the sky and destroying their enemies, a thunderbolt in the shape of the RAF, let me say that that thunderbolt will not be coming, and to continue in this delusion wastes valuable time and misdirects valuable energies”.
It was on 30 October 1965 in Salisbury and on 11 November 1965, that Ian Douglas Smith declared the UDI, ending with “God save the Queen”.
To Zapu and Zanu the red line had been crossed.
Meanwhile, Josiah Magama Tongogara from Selukwe (Shurugwi) and fellow cadres were undergoing military training in China, while Rogers (Nikita) Mangena from Mazetese was in a group of 90 undergoing training in the art of modern warfare in Algeria. The following year in 1966, Zapu deployed about a section of armed guerillas including Cde Tshinga Dube who had trained in the Soviet Union in 1964 and Cde David Mongwa Moyo who had trained in North Korea for operations in Tsholotsho. Zanu deployed an almost similar number for operations in Mashonaland West. The Zanla group met the Rhodesian security forces in Chinhoyi resulting in the famous battle of Chinhoyi on 28 April 1966.
In August of 1967, a combined force of about 94 guerrillas from Zapu and the ANC’s Umkhonto we Sizwe was deployed into Rhodesia for operations by James Chikerema and Oliver Tambo, with most of Umkhonto we Sizwe fighters enroute to South Africa. The field commander for the combined group named Luthuli Detachment in honour of Chief Albert Luthuli, the President of the ANC who had died on July 21, 1967, when the group was ready to cross the Zambezi River, was John Dube (Charles Sotsha Ngwenya) from Izimnyama in Plumtree who trained in 1965 in Algeria) deputised by Chirs Hani of Umkhonto we Sizwe, who trained in the Soviet Union. Zapu’s military wing, the Department of Special Affairs had its commander as Akim Matthew Ndlovu from Mberengwa in the Midlands Province who had trained in the Soviet Union like others such as Dumiso Dabengwa, Robson Manyika, Ambros Mutinhiri, Report Phelekezela Mphoko, Ethan Dube, Joseph
Nyandoro and Tshinga Dube. The ANC’s Umkhonto we Sizwe was under the command of Joe Modise who had also received military training in the Soviet Union.
The group fought the Rhodesian forces who were later joined by the South African forces in Wankie at Inyantue, at Sinamathela, at Siwubu, at Mabhongane and Lupane.
The following year in 1968 on New Year’s Day, the second combined group of Zapu and ANC fighters entered Rhodesia through Mashonaland Central for operations with almost a similar mission as the Wankie group. This group had 120 fighters led by Moffat Hadebe who had escaped from Grey Street Prison in Bulawayo on New
Year’s Day in 1965 after capture following the Zidube attack.
l Full story on www.chronicle.co.zw.
On his return to Zambia, he had led a group of 20 to join the earlier group of 90 in Algeria. This group fought the Rhodesian forces for an extended period in Sipolilo, now Guruve.
The decade of the 1970s saw Josiah Magama Tongogara becoming the Zanu Chief of Defence and Zanla Commander while Alfred Nikita Mangena became the ZPRA commander until his tragic death on June 28, 1978 with Lookout Masuku the ZPRA commissar who had trained in the Soviet Union in 1964 taking over as the ZPRA commander, Sam Zwafa Moyo was in charge of ZPRA communication until his tragic death from the Rhodesian bombing of ZPRA Headquarters while Assaf Ndinda (Alexander Mutema) was the second Deputy Chief of Operations until his tragic death on 26 June in 1978. Saigon Ananias Gwenzi (General P.V Sibanda) was the ZPRA Chief of Reconnaissance while Abel Mazinyane was the Deputy Chief of Military Intelligence. Rodwell Nyika, late Brigadier General Collin Moyo commanded ZPRA at the battle of Kavalamanja in 1977 and stormed the Mana pools Rhodesian Army Garrison in 1978. He was ZPRA commander for the Northern Front. All the above have their roots in the Midlands Provinnce.
Jane Ndlovu also from the Midlands commanded the ZPRA Women Brigade until she was killed in the Rhodesian bombing of Mkushi Camp in 1978. Dr. Milton Chemhuru (alias Cde Mbeya) also from the Midlands was a medical officer and a fighter in the ZPRA ranks.
By taking the decision to rotate the National Independence Day Celebrations to all provinces, which had hither to been the preserve of Harare, the capital city, in the spirit of leaving no one and no place behind, President Mnangagwa is sending a clear message to the entire nation that one swallow doesn’t make the Zimbabwean summer. The ball is now in every province’s court in the letter and spirit of the Government’s devolution agenda to develop its provincial economy. Among many opportunities is the development of the liberation struggle tourism for both domestic and international tourism by putting up appropriate infrastructure to preserve those historical sites.
President Mnangagwa has shown the way through the building of the Pupu War memorial in Matabeleland North Province to preserve and celebrate the battle of Pupu where on December 4, 1893, King Lobengula’s warriors, including Hlupheko Mnangagwa, the President’s grandfather, under the command of General Mtshana Khumalo (uNdindikuyasa) wiped out the entire Major Allan Wilson’s force on the Northern bank of the Shangani River in Lupane.
Bayethe Midlands, Bayethe Nkabayezwe
1. His Excellency, President ED Mnangagwa
2. Ackim Matthew Ndlovu
3. Josiah Magama Tongogara
4. Rogers Alfred Nikita Mangena
5. Sam Zwafa Moyo
6. Henry Muchena
7. Herbert Mahlaba
8. General PV Sibanda (Gokwe)
9. Lieutenant-General E Matatu
10. Retired Chief Air Marshal Elson Moyo
11. Lieutenant-General Sibusiso Busi Moyo
12. Dr Chemhuru
13. Brigadier-General Abel Mazinyane
14. Colonel Eddie Sigoge
15. Brigadier-General Collin Moyo
16. Dr Chipo Mabuwa
17. Chiratidzo Mabuwa
18. Assaf Ndinda (Gokwe)
19. Jane Ndlovu
20. Capt Sithabile Sibanda
21. Sobusa Gula Ndebele
22. Johnston Ndebele
23. Victor Mlambo
24. Major-General Thomas Moyo
25. Rugare Gumbo
26. Webstar Gwauya
27. Cletus Chigowe
28. Obert Matshalaga
Lives of great men
All remind us we can
Make our lives sublime
And departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time.
(HW Longfellow – The Psalm of Life)
l Ezekiel Hleza is an educationist and published author in Zimbabwe’s liberation literature.
