adminThe Southern Rhodesia African National Congress (SRANC) had no offices in Bulawayo. Farley was the place where they had operated from. Amos was then appointed administrative secretary for the Bulawayo Region. At that time, there were three political regions in Matabeleland, namely, Bulawayo (including Lupane and Hwange), Gwanda and Nkayi.
White politics was hardening at the time. The Dominion Party was formed which later transformed into the Rhodesian Front. Its leader, Winston Field, had to give way to the more radical Ian Douglas Smith. Zapu was banned in September 1962. Its leaders were restricted to their rural homes.
Amos was not spared either. He was restricted to Mambale. He reported to the police at Kezi. Initially he was reporting to the police at Mphoengs across the Semokwe River. One condition for his restriction was that he was not supposed to address or speak to the people, for fear of politicising them. In December, Amos completed his restriction term and was released.
By January, the Zapu leadership was out of restriction and free. Already three nationalist parties had been formed and banned: the SRANC, NDP and most recently Zapu. The nationalists decided to respond to the crises. A decision was made to the effect that they were not going to form another political party. It was imperative to review the position. Consequently, the leadership of the banned Zapu met in Beatrice Cottages, Salisbury, at Edward Pswarayi’s house.
Delegates from Bulawayo travelled to Salisbury by train. Vela and Isaac Mswelaboya Sibanda were among them. Joshua Nkomo travelled to Salisbury in Chinamhora’s Chevrolet. There was one item on the meeting’s agenda-to review the decision taken earlier not to form another political party in the event that Zapu was banned.
The earlier decision was re-affirmed, but not before there were bitter exchanges between Leopold Takawira and Willie Dzawanda Musarurwa. No party was to be formed. The ban on Zapu had happened just before the congress scheduled for Gwelo (now Gweru). That decision, not to form another political party, had to be relayed to the party faithful.
As a result, the leadership was dispatched to various regions to explain the party position. The person that was dispatched to the Nkayi region was party Vice President Dr Samuel Tichafa Parirenyatwa. During his travel to Bulawayo (he was driven by Danger Ncube) he was waylaid near the Shangani Railway Station and killed by the Rhodesian agents. Apparently, his body and car were driven to the level rail crossing near Heany Junction/Ntabazinduna to make it appear as if he was involved in a collision with the train.
If no other party was to be formed that did not mean there would be no more political agitation and struggles. Instead, Zapu was to go underground and fight at a different level. In line with the externalisation of the struggle, James Robert Dambaza Chikerema (since released from Gokwe where he had been detained since the Emergency Regulations in February 1959) and Joshua Nkomo travelled to Zambia to negotiate the opening of Zapu offices in Lusaka, Zambia. There they met Gore Brown and their request was acceded to.
It was against that background that Amos and Musarurwa were dispatched to Lusaka in Zambia on 8 March 1963. Tranos Makombe went to Cairo in Egypt while Noel Mukono went to London. Amos and Musarurwa were given the task to mobilise Zimbabweans in Zambia in preparation for the armed liberation struggle. Zambia was chosen on the grounds of its proximity to Zimbabwe and it was about to become independent.
In pursuance of the decision to go underground and fight, a number of groups were sent outside the country to undergo military training. That was going to mark, and indeed marked, the first phase of the armed liberation struggle. The dispatch of Zapu cadres to friendly countries took place in 1962, the very year when the banned Zapu took the decision to go underground and fight.
The first group went to China and was under the command of Charles Chikerema. David Mpongo was in this group together with several other people. Another group was sent to China and in it were men such as Luke Mhlanga, Gordon Butshe, Emmerson Mnangagwa, John Maluzo Ndlovu and Clark Mpofu, among others.
In 1963 still, yet another group was sent for military training in Ghana, and in this group were men such as Sikhwili Moyo (who had left the country at the time when Zapu was proscribed and headed for Tanzania), Edward Mzwazwa Bhebhe and Thomas Ngwenya, inter alia.
It was not until 1964 that the first acts of sabotage were reported, which acts were committed by these pioneers of the new phase of the struggle; men who had trained in sabotage. In 1964 the Crocodile Group which included William Ndangana and Emmerson Mnangagwa derailed a train, while at Zidube Ranch in Mambale the group under Moffat Hadebe and Elliot Ngwabi made an attack on the ranch, marking the very start of the armed liberation struggle in Rhodesia.
Amos set up the office along Stanley Road which, after independence, was renamed Freedom Way. At the time he was staying at Matero. Later he was to move to Emmersdale, where there was the Zimbabwe House, also known as ZH, the party house which housed both the civilian and military leaders of Zapu, before the Zipra High Command moved elsewhere. Later still, he stayed at Lilanda with George Silundika. The Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), the African National Congress (ANC), the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (FRELIMO) had houses in the area.
Amos was the Party Repesentative at the Headquarters in Lusaka and was responsible for administration. He became the Director of Administration after 1977. Musarurwa had returned to Rhodesia hoping to go back to Lusaka. He was netted by the Rhodesian agents and taken for incarceration in Gonakudzingwa.
From 1962 when Zapu was banned no political party came into being. The position changed when on 8 August 1963, at Enos Nkala’s Highfield house, the Zimbabwe African National Union (Zanu) was formed under the leadership of the Reverend Ndabaningi Sithole. In response to the move, the mainstream Zapu met at the Cold Comfort Farm outside Salisbury (now Harare) to form the People’s Caretaker Council (PCC) with Joshua Nkomo as president.
What then followed was political rivalry between the two political parties, a rivalry that broke into open violence. Meanwhile, both parties sent men and women to run the external offices and resume the armed liberation struggle. It was now a move from the stage of sabotage to open guerilla warfare.
The 1963 group that had trained in China split as soon as it landed in Cairo. The Reverend Ndabaningi Sithole had visited China while the group was undergoing training. The Chinese had got wind of the impending split. From Cairo the members of the split group chose to go with either Zapu or Zanu.
Online Reporter