Vusumuzi DubeWe continue our interview with Zanu-PF Secretary for Administration Dr Obert Mpofu pseudo name Cde Mzandeki who at the age of 16 left then Rhodesia to join the armed struggle in Zambia in 1967.
Although at first he was deemed too young to undergo the rigorous military training Zapu guerillas were renowned for, on his insistence and through showing a lot of determination and valour which over the years has proved to be one of his traits, the then young Mpofu was allowed to join much older colleagues at the training camps and he did not disappoint.
After training the commanders noticing his eye for detail deployed him in the reconnaissance unit whose assignments was among other things to monitor the activities of the Rhodesian forces along the Zambezi River, feed intelligence to the rear and also identifying crossing points along the mighty Zambezi River for Zapu cadres when making incursions inside Rhodesia.
In fact in his memoirs first published in 2020 titled: On The Shoulders of Struggle, Memoirs Of A Political Insider, Dr Mpofu says he received early reconnaissance grooming through routine trips to Zambia which were mainly coordinated by Zapu cadres such as Cdes Luke Mhlanga and Phephezela Ncube.
He said it was during that time he was equipped with the ability to spy on the activities of the Rhodesians and their military formations. He says from that rudimentary state of reconnaissance his role later developed into sophisticated forms of military intelligence after completing a nine-month tough military training regime at Morogoro in Tanzania and during his deployment at the front.
Today Dr Mpofu continues his narration of his days in the armed struggle to our Assistant Editor Mkhululi Sibanda (MS).
In the first instalment last week he spoke about how he was initiated into the nationalist political activities while still in his early teens growing up in Jambezi, Hwange District, his skipping the border to Zambia with fellow youths after being tipped off that the Rhodesian security forces were closing on them for their role in Zapu activities.
Today he picks up the interview with his initiation into the military training. Below are excerpts of the interview. Read on…..
MS: You were talking about being allowed to go for military training despite initial suggestions that you were too young. So take us through that period.
Dr Mpofu: I was in Livingstone for six months and when I was allowed to go for military training we were moved in trucks to a joint Zapu-ANC facility called Luthuli Camp. That is where we met Umkhonto WeSizwe cadres such as Chris Hani and Joe Matthews.
The now late Cde Hani was the camp commander of Luthuli. From our side we had comrades like Khezwana. We were at the Luthuli Camp for six months undergoing rudimentary training with ANC comrades. It was at Luthuli that we experienced a lot of things, the military side of things.
Ukudla was in short supply but from time to time we will get supplies of course with now former Vice-President Phelekezela Report Mphoko bringing food there. Then one funny experience I will never forget is that one day while drawing water from a well just near the camp we saw a big snake sayitshaya sayibulala.
The comrades from uMkhonto thought we had gotten inyama yokudla. They skinned it and the whole camp sachazeka okubi. I am not sure whether it was a cobra or mamba but it was a big long snake.
That’s where I saw that people can eat anything. So after being there for six months we were moved to Tanzania and that was early 1968. The commanders like Dumiso Dabengwa came to the camp as we prepared to leave for Tanzania.
We were ferried in trucks with the drivers being the now Colonel (Retired) Thomas Ngwenya, umdala uMenu were Highlanders and Cde Danger. Our journey from Zambia to Tanzania took us three days. From Lusaka we went to Tunduma, Mbeya and so on. We could have been the second group to train at Morogoro, by that time it was a fairly new camp.
MS: How was the command structure of the camp like during that time?
Dr Mpofu: That time Morogoro was under the command of Cde Albert Nxele with Ambrose Mutinhiri being the Chief of Staff.
Our instructors whom I can say were very tough included Nikita Mangena, Lookout Masuku who dealt with the commissariat issues, Sam Mfakazi, Gordon Munyanyi, Elliot Masengo, Grey Mutemasango and some Arab instructors who came from Algeria. Our group was made up of three platoons, uRex Nhongo sasilaye and we were together in Platoon B.
In fact, I met Rex at Luthuli Camp. Other guys that we trained together were Gedi (late Colonel Richard Dube), Mangate and many other guys, some who went on to become generals after the war.
When our group left Morogoro after completing training we were succeeded by the group yabo Mazinyane (Abel), Jevan Maseko, Stanley Gagisa and Eddie Sigoge. We met them in Zambia bengama recruits.
MS: I remember Stanley Gagisa saying at some point you fooled them into eating zebra meat when they were still recruits. He said you told them it was meat from an animal only found in Zambia. In fact he wrote that in Sigoge’s obituary.
Dr Mpofu: (Laughing). Woo ingugama. There was a shortage of food and so because I was a marksman I would go with others hunting.
We shot a zebra and because we knew that a majority of our people don’t eat zebra meat we decided to come up with an animal that did not exist back home so that they could eat.
I then told the recruits that the meat was from an animal called ingugama found in Zambia.
MS: Then let’s look at the training, how was it?
Dr Mpofu: It was very, very tough. There were no Saturdays and Sundays. The instructors would take us through combat tactics, topography, obstacle crossings and weaponry handling.
We did a lot as we were also taken for political lessons to enable us to understand why we were waging the war.
We had tough instructors but we soldiered on and came out proper drilled soldiers ready to face the enemy on the battlefront.
After that we were taken back to Zambia for deployment. I remember safikela eLusaka. They then moved us to the eastern front, it was very far as we travelled the whole afternoon to
Chakwenga, eSeven Corners. The camp was under the command of Cde Muza, sasisithi ngu Gruscher. Also there were comrades like Mtombodzu. Then we were joined by igroup kaTshinga, the military communications troops.
I was then made in charge of the security, I became the security officer of the camp. While we were there operations were going on in Sipolilo (Guruve) being carried out by the Pyramid Detachment which was commanded by Cde Moffat Hadebe.
It was a joint Zapu-ANC military operation just like what happened during the Wankie or Hwange Campaign earlier on.
UTshinga Dube came with this group yabo Mzilethi, uZwelibanzi, Mashengele with these two going on to become senior civil servants in our Local Government structures after independence.
They served as Provincial Administrators here in Matabeleland. Others who also arrived with Cde Tshinga Dube were Bhekizulu Khumalo, labo Mthimkhulu, uWalter.
That was now 1969. So operations were hotting up especially in the eastern front. At that base we were being prepared to cross and join in the fray. However, problems started in Lusaka which affected Zapu in a big way.
-To be continued next week
derick.khumalo