Lest we forget. . .Difficult tales of Nampundwe — Part 2

IN this week’s edition we round up our interview with former Zipra instructor at Nampundwe Transit Camp, Cde Cetshwayo Sithole pseudonym Cde Tonderai Ngoma. In the past two weeks Cde Sithole related to us in an interview with our Assistant Editor Mkhululi Sibanda (MS) how he joined the war, training in Tanzania and touched a bit on Nampundwe itself. Below are excerpts of the interview:MS: Cde Sithole what was the first thing that was done to recruits at Nampundwe as the first port of call in Zambia.

Cde Sithole:  A lot of administrative work was done. First of all an individual was supposed to give his biography to the officers from the department of administration.

The recruit was supposed to tell them details such as his parents, village head (usabhuku), place of origin, next of kin and so on. These details were extracted from the recruits by the department of personnel which was headed by now late national hero, Cephas Cele.

Cele’s officers were embedded in the Nampundwe camp’s administration, which was headed by the camp commander, Cde Killion during the time when I was there.

There was also vetting done by the security arms, officers from the Military Intelligence to weed out those suspected to have been sent by the Rhodesian regime to infiltrate our ranks.

Through that biography it was also determined where the recruit would be deployed, so it was used as checks and balances on an individual. So the security personnel had to thoroughly check what kind of person that recruit was. Also if possible check with the people in the area of origin.

If an individual decided not to disclose some pertinent and crucial information like say when one had left his job in the Rhodesian government, then that person became a security risk.

MS: So what was done to such people who withheld such sensitive information?

Cde Sithole: They were put under further investigations, but not to say they were killed. No. They were further investigated and that’s all, not sent to be killed.

Some of the people who were part of the security among us the staff there were Cdes Teddy, Finish and the late Chief Charles Bango. There was a fully fledged department of security manned by officers from the Military Intelligence.

MS: You spoke about Nampundwe being a sorting facility of some sort. Elaborate on that.

Cde Sithole: Yes. That is where decisions were made on different individuals like sending the young ones to school, some for military training while the department of manpower planning would also say, some should be sent for further education.

From the military side as an organisation we were supposed to sabotage the economic infrastructure of the Rhodesian government such as bridges, railway lines, fuel tanks and other things, but we were also cognisant of the fact that after getting our independence we would need that same infrastructure.

So we had to have the personnel ready to reconstruct or repair those facilities. By the same token you needed to get the personnel to go and train to repair or even construct new infrastructure.

So Nampundwe was not just a military camp, there were other fields that were being catered for. After a crash military programme those people could be selected on the skills they possessed for further education in friendly countries.

For example, there was a group that was sent to do studies on the railway system in Egypt. Some of those people came back and worked for the NRZ after independence.

A lot of them were employed by the NRZ, although funny enough they were asked to go for retraining at the Bulawayo Poly, but were found to be adequately qualified.

I believe it was a way of frustrating them. Other comrades were sent to do medicine, veterinary services, media, engineering and all sorts of professions. In fact, we were truly a government in exile.

MS: On the political side, how were the people prepared there?

Cde Sithole:  There was a powerful commissariat department whose main purpose was to re-orient the recruits. It’s task was to knock sense into them about why we were fighting the Ian Smith regime, explained that we were fighting to liberate everybody, explained the importance of the masses to the struggle and gave guidelines on the behaviour of an armed Zipra in the communities they would be operating in.

It is important to note that people who were joining the war came from different backgrounds. Some of the people when went to the war, left the country after committing crimes, running away from the long arm of the law, so it was important to re-orient them.

At one stage we had Professor Enos Malandu, he visited the camp periodically to teach political economy, we had Khanda and Chris Nyenye also deployed straight to the camp.

We also had Prof Malandu in Morogoro when we were recruits, a learned guy and schooled somebody who despite all his education sacrificed his life to the liberation of this country.

Political commissars were also being trained and  sent to other countries to specialise in political science. So as Zipra and Zapu we had a programme that ensured that people knew why they had to carry weapons, people had to know the ideological concept, people had to subscribe to a belief that was going to unite them so that they would be loyal to the people of Zimbabwe rather than loyal to an individual.

MS: So Nampundwe was only for men?

Cde Sithole: Yes, Nampundwe was for men only and the women went to Victory Camp (VC). The only women that were there in Nampundwe were the ones who had trained with our group, that is the  group of 800, they should have been six or seven, the likes of Grace Noko and Vhundzai (Toriso Phiri).

The children were screened and sent to school as is the case with the demands of the UN that children who are 16 and below could not be trained to be soldiers but I’m not denying that no children were recruited into the war front but by law that was not allowed. The elderly, disabled as well as the children were not recruited to the war front.

The cut off age was 50, we had 40-year-olds who trained and their maturity was an important factor.

MS: Then as people who were in charge of Nampundwe how did you deal with the issue of language, you said you had recruits from all corners of Zimbabwe.

Cde Cetshwayo: You mean what language was used during our training?

MS: Yes, what was the dominant language, not only at Nampundwe, all the training camps?

Cde Cetshwayo: Zipra was an army for all Zimbabweans, instructors used the language of their choice. Some people might not believe that, but that’s what happened,  we had for instance Richard Mataure (Retired Colonel Richard Ngwenya), a Tonga, we had Busobenyoka, a Kalanga, Thodlana (Tshaka Moyo) a Kalanga, Doko or Stanley Gagisa, Kalanga also, Elias a Venda,  Benoni Dube a Sotho, Velaphi a Sotho, Sam Madondo, a Shona, Anannias (General Philip Valerio Sibanda), a Shona speaker, Rodwell Nyika, another Shona speaker, Goronga, Maseka, Majoki, all Shona speakers just to name the few instructors, they used their languages without any hindrance. Sam Madondo, who also became a camp commander could shout orders in Shona and all was well.

The instructors could of course use the recruit’s language when they noticed that the person did not understand, that was meant for emphasis.

We did not see each other through tribal lenses, we saw each other as comrades. For us tribalism was a punishable offence, any genuine Zipra would tell you that tribalism was a punishable offence.

Right from our leadership, the high command to the lowest rank there was nothing like a person being afraid to use his or her language. The commander, Nikita Mangena was from Mberengwa and could speak both Shona and Ndebele with ease, in fact he used both well.