Online Reporter
WE continue our interview with former freedom fighter and Highlanders Football Club goalkeeper, Cde Smart Moyo, whose wartime pseudonym was Cde Makhakhi Zondo. Cde Moyo was among a number of promising Highlanders players who abandoned their football careers to join the armed struggle for Zimbabwe’s liberation. In our previous instalment, he recounted how, as a 10-year-old boy growing up at Sotshangane Flats in Mzilikazi suburb, he joined the Highlanders Under-14 side under the guidance of legendary coach Ali “Baba” Dube.
Last week, he told our Assistant Editor, Mkhululi Sibanda (MS), how he left the country in November 1976 shortly after completing his Junior Certificate examinations at Sobukhazi Secondary School and embarked on the perilous journey to join the liberation struggle. This week, the former Bosso goalkeeper recalls the secret preparations for his departure, his escape through Rhodesian security checkpoints and his first taste of military life in Zambia’s Nampundwe camp. Below are excerpts from the interview.
MS: Cde Moyo, last time you told us about your journey to join the armed struggle. May we continue from there?
Cde Moyo: Oh yes. I mentioned that we travelled to Botswana and eventually to Zambia. However, there is something important that I left out and would like to mention.
MS: That’s perfectly fine. Please go ahead.
Cde Moyo: From Bulawayo we did not go straight to the Botswana border as it might have appeared. My cousin, Evaristo Ncube, who was then a student at Mpopoma High School, and I first travelled to Silobini in the Matopos area. A few days earlier, we had played a match for the Highlanders reserve side and received an allowance of $12. That money became our travelling fund and covered our immediate needs.
When we arrived at Silobini, where my mother came from, we were warmly welcomed by my grandmother. We deliberately concealed our true intentions and told her that we had secured jobs and needed traditional charms to bring us luck and success. My grandmother gladly assisted and gave us some herbs. The following day we left and stopped at a nearby river called Zhowe. Following instructions that had been given to us, we bathed using the herbs and we had been told not to look back as we walked away. We obeyed those instructions. Afterwards, we proceeded to Silobini Shopping Centre where we boarded Pelandaba Bus Services’ famous Number 22 bus. Coincidentally, my brother’s wife was also travelling on that same bus from Bulawayo. She immediately became suspicious when she saw us heading in the opposite direction from Bulawayo. Later, she informed the rest of the family that we had probably left to join the war. By that stage, we had been joined by two cousins, Power Dube and Longa.
We were now four young men travelling together. Interestingly, the bus conductor quickly realised what we were up to.
MS: What did the conductor say?
Cde Moyo: He advised us not to sit together. He said that if police officers or members of the Rhodesian security forces boarded the bus, they would immediately suspect us because of our ages. We followed his advice and sat separately.
We travelled through Gwanda and continued beyond the town. Along the way, we encountered a roadblock that had a fearsome reputation among those planning to leave the country. To our surprise, the security personnel simply waved the bus through without conducting any searches. That was how we managed to evade the Rhodesian forces. From there, we eventually crossed into Botswana, as I explained last week.
MS: That’s fascinating. Tell us what happened when you finally reached Zambia. Last week, we ended with you describing the flight to Lusaka.
Cde Moyo: We landed at Lusaka International Airport sometime between 5PM and 6PM. It was a commercial flight. Only 30 of us had been selected from a much larger group waiting at Selibe-Phikwe to be transported to Zambia for military training. It was my first time on an aeroplane and I was excited.
During the flight, I kept telling myself that a better life awaited us. Little did I know what lay ahead in the ZPRA camps. Upon arrival, we were ordered onto large military trucks that I later learnt were called amaKraz. The trucks drove deep into the bush. We had no idea where we were being taken. Eventually, after dark, we arrived at Nampundwe. As new arrivals, blankets were simply thrown in our direction and we were told to find somewhere to sleep. That was my first encounter with the famous Nampundwe camp, a place that stripped away civilian life and transformed recruits into fighters. Nampundwe was no place for the faint-hearted. Recruits went through extremely tough conditions under instructors commanded by Cde Killion. Among the instructors were Cdes Tonderai, who is still in Bulawayo, Teddy, Finish, Caleb and Mandebvu.
They introduced us to military discipline and rudimentary training.
MS: You arrived at night. What happened the following morning?
Cde Moyo: At around 4AM we were awakened by loud chants and the sounds of recruits doing toyi-toyi drills. Although it was still dark and we could not clearly see them, we heard voices shouting slogans and chanting “hawu, hawu” as they disappeared into the distance. We wondered what was happening. Later we were told that it was part of the toyi-toyi exercises. As for us newcomers, we were assembled and taken through the registration process by comrades from the Department of Personnel. That was also when we were given our pseudonyms. I was told that I was no longer Smart Moyo. From that moment onward, I became Makhakhi Zondo. The registration process was closely monitored by intelligence personnel.
MS: What sort of information were they collecting?
Cde Moyo: They recorded details such as one’s place of birth, village of origin and what one had been doing before leaving for Zambia. When my turn came, I simply said I had been a pupil at Sobukhazi Secondary School in Mzilikazi. I did not mention that I played football. However, it wasn’t long before people began calling me “Highlanders”. Many recruits from Bulawayo already knew me as a Bosso player. I had also brought along a Highlanders tracksuit and because it had the club’s name on it, even the instructors began referring to me as Highlanders. I often wore that tracksuit during drills because military uniforms had not yet been issued.
Whenever sports activities were organised, I played football, although not as a goalkeeper. I usually played in central defence, wearing the Number Five position.
MS: How did you cope with the physical demands of military training?
Cde Moyo: The training was tough, but my football background helped me tremendously. Running and endurance exercises were not a problem because I had already developed fitness through football. By the time I arrived at Nampundwe, other former Highlanders junior players such as Jabulani Mbambo and George Nkomo, the elder brother of long-serving Highlanders goalkeeper Peter Nkomo, had already left for military training in Angola. They were among the first groups sent there.
MS: How long did you remain at Nampundwe?
Cde Moyo: I spent three months there after arriving in December 1977. After that, I was selected to proceed to CGT1 for full military training. At Nampundwe we had only been undergoing basic preparation. The purpose was to get recruits ready for proper guerrilla warfare training. At CGT1 we came under instructors such as Stanley Gagisa, Velaphi, Siboza, Sigoge and Magedleni, better known as Thambolenyoka, whose real name is Tennyson Ndlovu. Training became much more intensive. We learnt weapon handling, obstacle crossing, map reading, landmine deployment and many other military skills. Among all the instructors, I particularly admired Thambolenyoka. He handled judo and bayonet-charge training. He was exceptionally fit and capable of performing feats that seemed impossible.
He would demonstrate a technique and then demand that we replicate it perfectly. He did not tolerate mistakes. Stanley Gagisa was equally impressive. He specialised in tactics and battlefield manoeuvres.
We completed our full military training after six months. After graduation, I was among a small number selected for a further three months of specialised military engineering training.
MS: How were you selected from such a large group?
Cde Moyo: The command element mainly chose recruits who had attained secondary education. That was the key criterion used in selecting candidates for military engineering.
To be continued next week as Cde Moyo recalls his specialised military engineering training and eventual deployment to Northern Front Two (NF2), an operational zone that covered areas including Binga, Lupane and Nkayi
