Online Reporter
Wallace Ruzvidzo, [email protected]
PRESIDENT Mnangagwa has recounted his harrowing ten years of imprisonment, beginning at age 18 in 1965 for his sabotage activities against the oppressive Rhodesian regime.
He offered a poignant reflection on resilience and the fight for the country’s liberation.
In a recent interview with the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC), the President narrated how he had been at the mercy of Rhodesians after being sold out while writing an appraisal report meant for the late national hero Cde Herbert Chitepo.
He was arrested for being part of the Crocodile Gang, whose operations included blowing up a train at Fort Victoria, now Masvingo.
President Mnangagwa said, “Yes, Michael Mawema; I don’t need to hide it because Michael Mawema sold me out.
“I was on my way to Malawi, so I went to Michael Mawema’s house in Highfield. I was the head of operations in the country.
“So, I was busy writing my report at Michael Mawema’s house in Highfield so that it would be sent to (Cde Herbert) Chitepo. Chitepo was in Lusaka.
“Little did I know that Michael Mawema was a sellout; he went and told the special branch (and) Inspector Beans was the one who came.
“I was busy writing my report. It should (have been) sent to Lusaka (and in no time), my house was surrounded, and when I left the room, I wasn’t walking, they lifted me. I was VIP because they lifted me to the police truck.”
President Mnangagwa revealed that he endured gruesome torture at the hands of black officers in the Criminal Investigation Department, orchestrated by the Rhodesian regime, detailing various methods used, including waterboarding.
“You see, I don’t know now (but) Harare Central Police Station, at the west end of the Harare Central Police Station, there was a room called A20, Butcher House A20.
“That was the torture house, so, when you go there in this room, they would put leg irons on one leg, put the chain over the bar then you hang head down . . . then, the white man is standing there with a notebook and says ‘Emmerson, in this notebook, there is nothing written, here is a pencil, everything is new, what you are going to begin to write in this will come from you’.
“Some black CID is that side, another one is this side (so) you are hit this side (then) you go on the rail, but they were foolish because if you have your head down and the legs up you don’t survive long.
“So, I don’t know how long I was kept in that position, I only remember when I came round (and) when I came round, these chaps were getting water from the toilet onto my head (saying) amuka, amuka, amuka, hitting the door,” chronicled President Mnangagwa.
The President narrated how both his parents had travelled from Northern Rhodesia, now Zambia, to visit him during his incarceration, but he remained resolute in the fight for the country’s freedom.
“I enjoyed being a guerrilla person; I enjoyed it.
“Oh, yeah my father and my mother came, they cried and I said, ‘no, no, go back and plough, there’s no point of crying’.
“They came all the way from Northern Rhodesia, they saw me and they cried and I said, ‘go away, endai munorima muendese vana kuchikoro, ndichauya’. And it happened like that, I went to prison for ten years, finished my ten years and I went back home,” he said.
President Mnangagwa said after serving his sentence, he was released at the “no man’s land” on the Victoria Falls border between Zimbabwe and Zambia, where he was received by the late General Josiah Tongogara.
“We went to Bulawayo, we (also) spent the night in Hwange, then we went to Vic Falls, that is when I met Tongo for the first time.
“We arrived there, then they removed my handcuffs and the leg irons, then I walked free into Zambia . . . I was received by Tongo.
“They said, don’t ever come back,” he said.
