CDE NANCY MUSIYIWA, whose Chimurenga name was Muchaneta Mabhunu, last week recounted the tragic assassination of ZANU chairperson Cde Herbert Chitepo, in whose Lusaka residence she was staying at the time of his death. She also told Zimpapers Politics Hub’s KUDA BWITITI about her subsequent interrogation by Zambian authorities after President Kenneth Kaunda ordered a formal inquiry into the circumstances around Cde Chitepo’s assassination. This week, she details her abduction by members of the Nhari Rebellion — a mutinous faction that had launched an uprising against the General Josiah Tongogara-led ZANLA High Command.
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Q: How were you targeted by Nhari’s faction?
A: Sometime in November 1974, before Cde Chitepo’s assassination, Thomas Nhari and his mutinous faction targeted my residence at Number 93. Because they knew I served as Cde Chitepo’s secretary, they assumed I possessed critical intelligence they could use against the ZANLA High Command.
A group of roughly 100 insurgents, including commanders and their cadres, besieged my apartment. They physically assaulted and roughed me up, demanding detailed information on the whereabouts and operational routines of ZANU and ZANLA leaders.
Realising that complying fully would lead to the potential massacre of our commanders, I managed to secretly dispatch a warning to the leadership that the rebel faction was actively hunting them down.
Q: How did you manage to do this while under siege?
A: I was fluent in Bemba, the local Zambian language, and I used this to my advantage.
I enlisted the help of trusted Zambian friends to covertly relay a message to Cde Webster Shamu, who was then in charge of communications.
I warned him that the leadership needed to take immediate precautionary measures, as Nhari’s rebels were coming for them.
Fortunately, the information reached them in time, allowing the commanders to go into hiding before the insurgents could breach their locations. I believe that this tip-off saved their lives.
Q: What did the rebels do to you after you covertly sent the warning?
A: The rebels forced me into their truck to act as their guide. They needed my help because they knew that I knew Zambia well.
Under the direct threat of death, I had no choice but to comply.
Their grand plan was to round up the entire ZANLA leadership.
As a captive, I was forced to direct them to the commanders’ residences one by one. Their primary target was Cde Josiah Tongogara, the Chief of Defence. However, thanks to my earlier warning, he was already at another place by the time we got there.
His wife, Cde Angeline Tongogara, was at that time a nurse at Kamwala Clinic. She was present at the house, and she and her children were taken hostage.
The same fate befell the families of Cde Vitalis Zvinavashe, Cde Dauramanzi and Cde Robson Manyika, as their wives and children were all abducted.
Q: After all these wives and children were kidnapped, where did Nhari and his insurgents take you?
A: They loaded all of us captives into their truck and headed towards Mumbwa. It was now night-time, and we soon approached a police roadblock. Because I was fluent in Bemba, Nhari ordered me to do the talking. As a hostage under the direct threat of execution, if I disobeyed, I had no choice but to comply.
Q: What did you say to the police officers at the roadblock?
A: Thinking quickly, I told the officers that we were ZANLA comrades travelling to a farm that President Kaunda had generously allocated to us in Mumbwa. My calm delivery in their native language convinced them, and they waved us through.
Q: What happened after you passed the police roadblock?
A: Once we reached a secluded, bushy area, thick with tall grass, they bound the hands of all the captives.
They ordered one of their men to siphon fuel from the truck.
Nhari then declared that their previous negotiations with Cde Chitepo had failed to satisfy the cadres left at the front, and they now needed to complete their coup by capturing him and other key figures.
They ordered me to guide them back to find more victims. It was in that terrifying moment that I formulated an ingenious plan.
Q: What was the plan?
A: I deliberately directed them onto Addis Ababa Road, convincing them it was the safest route to travel at night. What they did not know was that this road led directly past President Kaunda’s residence.
My objective was to ensure we would be intercepted by the Zambian military, who could rescue us.
Sure enough, we inevitably encountered a military patrol checkpoint. The kidnappers panicked and immediately turned to me, demanding I explain our presence.
I feigned surprise and offered to translate for them in Bemba, claiming they couldn’t speak English. Seizing this critical opportunity, I switched to Bemba and gave the Zambian soldiers a rapid and urgent briefing that we were hostages who had been violently abducted.
Upon understanding the dire situation, a Zambian soldier immediately took control of the truck, disarmed the rebels and drove us straight to the military barracks.
That was how the Nhari rebellion was aborted. But I was also taken into custody and held at the central prison, as the Zambian authorities sought to carry out extensive investigations of what had transpired.
Q: How did you manage to explain to the Zambian authorities that you were just a victim?
A: Yes, I was able to fully explain my ordeal and prove that I was a hostage, not a conspirator. More importantly, I urgently alerted the authorities that the other group of captives we had left behind, including the wives and children of the commanders, were in imminent danger of being executed.
The rebels had issued a chilling directive to the cadre they left behind that if their mission failed or they did not return by 5am, he had to set the tall grass alight and burn the bound victims alive.
Because of my urgent warning, the Zambian authorities launched an immediate rescue operation, saving those comrades from what would have been a horrific fate.
Next week, Cde Musiyiwa speaks about how the Nhari Rebellion was finally and permanently crushed and the aftermath of the mutiny.
