peterTHIS week we conclude our interview with Cde Mitsho Mlobi Ndlovu whose pseudo name during the armed struggle was Cde John Sidambe. Cde Ndlovu, the younger brother of former Zipra instructor, Cde Tennyson “Thambolenyoka” Ndlovu operated in Gokwe, Midlands Province.
Today Cde Ndlovu runs down the interview by narrating how they carried out operations in Gokwe where at first they faced hostilities from the people, which he attributes to lack of political orientation.
MS: Last week you were talking about the challenges that you faced when you got into Gokwe such as the hostile response from the villagers. So how did you manage to deal with that?
Cde Ndlovu: Like I said we first got into the Chief Chireya area but we did not base there.
We moved to kwaGumunyu but the situation was almost the same although there some people accepted us.
We pushed to Nembudziya where we had brief contact with the enemy.
We moved out of Nembudziya and pushed to Binga, that is in the Siabuwa area. From there we moved to Dandanda in Lupane where we came across a Zipra unit under the command of the now late, Lipson.
The Zipra comrades there had killed a woman they had accused of practising witchcraft.
We were told that the woman’s husband had warned them against doing that as it was going to bring a devastating spell on them. Indeed, some comrades who were involved started dying mysteriously.
When we got there three had died and we saw one frothing from the mouth. It was a terrible sight. Such things happened during the war. We left Dandanda and headed back to Gokwe.
My unit was still intact, we were 11 as I said last time we had lost one comrade when we came under attack from the Rhodesians while we were in Chief Chireya’s area.
MS: You returned to Gokwe and what had changed?
Cde Ndlovu: We had unfinished business there, we told ourselves that we had to fight the war from there.
When we returned to Gokwe we got into the Bvuma area where we found another section of 13 Zipra comrades operating there.
They were under the command of Cde Frazer.
That is when we started embarking on serious political orientation of the masses and mobilisation. From the unit ekaFrazer there were comrades such as Dominic who had been working in South Africa before joining the armed struggle and Cotton, the younger brother of former Bulawayo Mayor and Zanu-PF provincial chairman, Cde Dennis Ndlovu. Hayi kwasentshenzwa-ke.
But we will split into smaller units, in fact Cde Frazer maintained his unit and I did the same.
We will combine forces when going for bigger raids. In one of the incidents Dominic and Cotton raided Nemangwe Clinic where they got away with a lot of medicine and they left the place driving off in an ambulance they had found there. The ambulance was later dumped near a river.
From there we made inroads and more troops started pouring in from Zambia.
We mined some roads and the enemy forces found it difficult to use their vehicles.
However, we were wary of the fact that the ordinary people had to travel and during those days there was a heavy presence of the Kambashe buses on Gokwe routes.
However, despite the intensification of the war there were still some people who were against the liberation struggle. Some of them included traditional leaders.
One of the chiefs in Gokwe (name supplied) even attempted to shoot us with his revolver.
MS: Take us through that incident.
Cde Ndlovu: We went to the chief’s homestead as a way of paying courtesy to him.
I entered the homestead with two other comrades while others deployed outside.
We found the chief’s two wives seated outside and we exchanged greetings.
At first nothing seemed amiss. However, it looks like they might have prior knowledge that we were around.
We then asked the chief’s wives about his whereabouts and they told us that he was in the main house and was not feeling well.
We suggested to them that we wanted to see him and they said there was no problem with that.
We proceeded to the main house which was a two-roomed structure.
In between the two rooms there was a veranda, the door on the left was locked while the other on the right was covered with a curtain.
We then moved into the room whose door was covered with the curtain and right at the corner there was the chief pointing his revolver at us. He had the courage to pull the trigger but the revolver did not fire.
It looks like he had not cocked his weapon. In a flash of a second I was on him, having dived at him.
MS: What did you do to him?
Cde Ndlovu: After jumping onto him, I quickly took away the revolver.
At first I wanted to give an order that he be killed but decided against it.
We searched his house and took away 10 rounds of ammunition together with the weapon.
That chief lived up to independence and the chieftainship still exists up to now and it’s a prominent one in Gokwe.
My point here is that not everyone who claims to support the Government today supported the liberation struggle.
Quite a number of people were apologists of the Smith government, they worked so hard against the revolution.
MS: What was the chief’s reaction?
Cde Ndlovu: He was dumbfounded and very confused.
When I recall that incident I regret that we left those people unharmed especially the wives who had led us to the slaughter house, what if there were Smith soldiers there.
We should have killed those people; I regret that we did not do that.
However, despite such incidents we continued with the war.
We were applying purely guerilla warfare, mining roads, setting up ambushes and so on.
The enemy ended up changing tactics, they were no longer using their vehicles especially along the Nemangwe-Gokwe Centre Road.
The enemy would now move into villages on foot and at night in a bid to launch surprise raids on us.
Then during the time of the short-lived Internal Settlement which saw Abel Muzorewa becoming the Zimbabwe-Rhodesia Prime Minister, there was a heavy deployment of amadzakudzaku.
Those ones moved in large numbers and we had a field day whenever we encountered them because they were poorly trained.
I remember a unit commanded by Cde Mthunzi captured between 20 and 30 G3 weapons after overrunning those people.
Some just dropped their firearms and fled as they could not withstand the Zipra firepower.
MS: After capturing such weapons what did you do to them?
Cde Ndlovu: We used them to train the T and F, which stands for Trained at the Front.
Instead of taking the youths to Zambia we started training them at the front.
I remember in my unit I operated with two of those youths whom I code-named Six and Seven.
Unfortunately, Seven died in combat together with a senior guerilla. Six went on to be integrated into the Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) after the attainment of Independence.
MS: At the ceasefire period where did you go?
Cde Ndlovu: We moved to St Paul’s Assembly Point in Lupane which was also called Mike Assembly Point.
I was later integrated into the Zimbabwe National Army at Llewellyn Barracks.
I was deployed into 4:3 in Masvingo Province. Later on I joined One Commando.
I served in the army for seven years after which I returned into civilian life.
I then joined the Zimbabwe Radio and Television Workers Union.
I was later recommended to go for a nine-month course in trade unionism in Czechoslovakia.
I used to sit in the general council of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU). When the decision came to form the MDC I left together with veteran trade unionists such as former Bulawayo Mayor, Enos Mdlongwa and Isdore Zidonga.
I then became active in the land reform programme moving around with the late war veterans chairman and national hero, Dr Chenjerai Hunzvi. Joseph Chinotimba and I were very close to Hunzvi.
I moved from Bulawayo to live in Harare during that period. I was part of Hunzvi’s campaign team in Chikomba during the 2000 elections. I should also mention that I wrote Ordinary Level examinations after the war.
Online Reporter