Andrew
This is the penultimate instalment of our discussion with CDE HAMUNYARI MAKADZANGE (HM), who was a prominent war collaborator in Rusape during the liberation struggle. This week, CDE MAKADZANGE recounts to our Deputy News Editor LINCOLN TOWINDO (LT) how the deployment of Selous Scouts into the theatre of war threatened to turn the tide in favour of the Rhodesian army.
She explains how she undertook acts of espionage to help prevent a clash between different groups of freedom fighters at the instigation of the Selous Scouts.
LT: You mentioned that the outlook of the war took a dramatic turn when the Rhodesians deployed Selous Scouts into your area. Can you explain how this development played out?
HM: Sometime towards the end of 1977, the Rhodesians deployed Selous Scouts into our area.
What was distinctive about the Selous Scouts was that they dressed in guerrilla uniforms.
So, it was difficult to distinguish genuine freedom fighters and the Rhodesian soldiers.
I remember this one morning, when we asked the comrades for permission to go to the river to bath after finishing most of our morning chores.
We were given the green light and proceeded to the river.
There were always some comrades who stood at strategic places around the base, who were on the lookout for the enemy.
As we were bathing, a woman from our village who was passing through told us that Mr Mupengeranwa, a popular local village elder, had been killed.
She said he had been killed by a group of freedom fighters.
LT: But why did the freedom fighters kill this village elder?
HM : We were all perplexed because we knew the comrades would do no such thing to a village elder.
Unbeknown to us, Mr Mupengeranwa had been killed by a group of Selous Scouts who had been deployed into our area.
They had come in from the neighbouring Tangwena sector around Macheke.
Unfortunately, comrades in our area were unaware that a detachment of freedom fighters had been deployed covertly into the Tangwena sector.
So, they all thought there was a new group of freedom fighters in the area and they were responsible for this heinous murder.
The Rhodesians had strategically deployed Selous Scouts in the Tangwena sector, a sparsely populated farming area where whites owned large farms.
The scouts would carry out raids in the villages and retreat to camp on white-owned farms.
We later found out that the Selous Scouts had killed Mr Mupengeranwa and left his corpse in his front yard.
They then ordered the villagers to leave his body in the open and threatened anyone who would dare move the corpse with death.
They wanted to use the body to entrap the freedom fighters.
LT: How did the comrades react to this development?
HM: From the river, we quickly dressed up and rushed back to the base to tell the comrades of the murder of Mr Mupengeranwa, ostensibly at the hands of their fellow freedom fighters.
The comrades immediately sought to investigate what had exactly happened.
Several mijibhas were sent out to follow up on what had taken place.
It was then established that the Selous Scouts were responsible for the killing of Mr Mupengeranwa.
Again, it was discovered that the scouts were now at the Dedzo Police Camp, which was some distance away from our area.
The comrades immediately directed my aunt, Sarah, and myself to go on a spying mission at the police camp.
We were required to find out how many Rhodesians were at the camp and the type of military hardware they had.
As was protocol, we were dressed in school uniforms from the local primary school and told to go and find out as much as we could about the people who were camped at Dedzo.
As we were walking through the bush, passing through a school called St Rita in the Masvosva area, we were caught by a group of mijibhas.
They accused us of being Rhodesian spies.
They took us to their local base to surrender us to their commanders.
The commanders were certain that we were Rhodesian spies.
They then ordered we be interrogated to ascertain our real mission.
We were both given a thorough beating.
They wanted us to tell them who had sent us on this mission.
We were saved from certain death after we surrendered to them a letter written by the commanders who had sent us, which was addressed to the local traditional leader, Chief Kashiri.
So, our mission was not just to spy on the Rhodesians but to also deliver a message to the local chief.
The letter was requesting the chief to confirm whether there were freedom fighters deployed in his area.
The comrades from my area wanted the chief to confirm the presence of fellow freedom fighters.
This was done to make sure the two respective groups of freedom fighters would not run into each other’s paths, a situation that could lead to clashes between friendly forces.
After they were sure that we were not spies, they ordered us to chant war slogans before drafting a reply to the letter, which they gave us to deliver to the commander from our area.
We then left the following morning at the break of dawn; I think it was around 3am.
Upon arrival in our area around 6am, we were told that the comrades had already left the base.
No one knew where they had gone.
We started looking for them at all the local bases.
We then came across mijibhas who were on a reconnaissance mission for the freedom fighters.
We asked them about the whereabouts of the comrades.
They accompanied us to the base.
We then surrendered the reply letter to the comrades.
Again, we were interrogated.
They wanted to know if we had not been recruited to work as double agents by the Selous Scouts.
We told them about our ordeal, how we had been beaten up by the freedom fighters when we were delivering the letter.
Despite telling them about all this, they also wanted to beat us up just to make sure that we were telling the truth.
One of the comrades then decided that we were telling the truth.
They then took the letter and read it. They wrote another letter in response to the one we had just delivered and ordered us to deliver it back.
This particular letter was requesting a meeting between the two groups, so that they could work out how they would operate collaboratively in their respective areas.
The following morning, we took off again to deliver the letter.
On arrival, we were met by the likes of Cdes Maropa, Desmond and Kojak, who was the detachment commander.
After reading the letter, they drafted another response and ordered us to take it back to our local base.
Back in our area, unbeknown to us, the comrades had again shifted base from the Mandaza area to an area called Zembe.
No one would tell us where they had shifted their base to because releasing that kind of information was not allowed.
So, we went home and waited for the comrades to make first contact.
Within no time, a mujibha came to our home and told us that the comrades wanted to see us at their new base.
We then went to the base, where we duly surrendered the letter.
Just to put everything into perspective, the distance between these two areas, where we were delivering the letters, is similar to the distance between Harare and Norton.
And we were travelling on foot.
After reading the letter, they wrote another one and asked us to deliver it back.
LT: Why were there so many correspondences between the two groups?
HM: This was done because these people were operating in the same area. But their areas of operation were demarcated accordingly to avoid a situation where they could run into each other, possibly with unfortunate consequences.
We went back to Dedzo, where the comrades were waiting for our return.
The back-and-forth movement went on until a meeting was finally agreed on between the two groups.
The comrades then met and discussed among themselves how they were going to prosecute the war and deal with the emerging threat of Selous Scouts who were impersonating freedom fighters.
Next week, Cde Makadzange concludes her narration, recounting how the freedom fighters mounted a massive pushback against an emboldened enemy, leading to the end of the war.
Tinaye Agere
Online Reporter