Online Reporter
Happyson Kaponda
Correspondent
Today, September 11, 2025, is the 50th anniversary of the death of Florence Chipameso Chitonho, also known as Cde Pedzisai Mazorodze.
She and eight other freedom fighters died at Mboroma in Zambia when Zambian soldiers opened fire, and shot indiscriminately at a group of unarmed Zanla freedom fighters.
There had been a stand-off between Zanla and Zipra forces at Mboroma. The Zambian soldiers took sides with the Zipra forces leading to the massacre. That time there was a tiff between Zanla and Zipra.
At the time of her death Cde Pedzisai Mazorodze was a member of the Zanla General Staff, making her one of the highest — ranking female fighters.
And she had recently returned from China where she had gone through a two- month long training programme in leadership and guerrilla warfare.
She had undertaken the trip to China with nine other leaders Rugare Gumbo (group leader), Kumbira Kangai (deputy group leader), Rex Nhongo (Solomon Mujuru), Dzinashe Machingura (Secretary), Meya Urimbo, Justin Chauke, Sheba Tavarwisa, Tendy Ndlovu and Patrick Mupunzarima.
Pedzisai Mazorodze and her fellow comrades died at a time Zanu was going through a very difficult time in Zambia. Upon her return from China, Pedzisai Mazorodze and her colleagues found the house on fire. While they were away in China, two disgruntled Provincial Field Commanders who had been demoted, Dakarai Badza and Thomas Nhari lead a rebellion against Josiah Tongogara’s High Command.
Tongogara organised an operation to suppress the Nhari rebellion with the help of freedom fighters from Mgagao in Tanzania. But no sooner had they suppressed the Nhari rebellion than Zanu Chairman, Hebert Chitepo was killed in car bomb. The Zambian authorities falsely accused Tongogara and his High Command of assassinating their leader, Hebert Chitepo. Tongogara and other key figures in the external wing of Zanu were arrested and incarcerated.
This was also the time when Zanu was being pressured by the OAU to unite with other Zimbabwean liberation movements namely Zapu, Muzorewa’s ANC and Froliz (Front for the Liberation of Zimbabwe) to form the new ANC under the leadership of Bishop Abel Muzorewa. Froliz was a political party formed by politicians who broke away from both Zanu and Zapu. Among the most prominent were James Chikerema, the party leader, George Nyandoro and Nathan Shamuyarira. Mistrust among these liberation organizations was rife. Each movement wanted to be seen by the OAU as the main fighting force against the Ian Smith regime. And each liberation movement wanted to show the OAU that it had the largest number of fighters. Within Zanu itself Reverend Ndabaningi Sithole’s leadership of the organisation was being contested and challenged by both the leaders detained in Salisbury, and by the fighters in Zambia and Tanzania.
It was against this backdrop that a Zanla fighter, Cde Revai was kidnapped by Zipra/Froliz fighters at Mboroma Main Camp where Pedzisai Mazorodze was one of the commanders. Other senior officers there were David Todlana and David Gwauya. The Zanla comrades demanded the release of Cde Revai.
“While David Todlana was engaged in negotiations with the Zambian Commanding officer, Lt Libwesha, the Zambian soldiers opened fire shooting indiscriminately…”, writes Dzinashe Machingura in his book, Memories of a Freedom Fighter.
“The death of the Cde Pedzisai Mazorodze and her comrades, including Cde Tsitsi Tichazvipedza became the last straw in the push to remove Ndabaningi Sithole from the leadership of Zanu. Dzinashe Machingura continues his narrative, “ Matters came to a head after the massacre of Zanla fighters at Mboroma main camp on 11 September. Nine people were killed and about a dozen were wounded and taken to Kabwe Hospital. Among the fatalities were two female officers:
“Pedzisai Mazorodze, a member of the general staff with whom I had gone to China, and Cde Tsitsi Tichazvipedza. When we received the news, we immediately sought out Sithole, seeking clearance from Zambian authorities attached to the OAU Liberation Centre to go to the camp to calm tempers down and investigate the circumstances of the shooting. We needed his authorisation because the Mboroma area had been declared a security zone and only those with permits could access it. Besides, the Mkushi river was only passable by a ferry which was controlled by the Zambian army. Sithole flatly refused to engage with the Zambian officials; he did not even demand an explanation from them. He also refused to condemn the Zambian army for the shooting of unarmed Zanla fighters. We then appealed to him to make arrangements for us to visit the wounded in Kabwe Hospital. This again he could not or would not do. We could not understand his obduracy.”
Wilfred Mhanda, also known as Dzino, was one of the top commanders of Zanla. When Zanla and Zipra united in 1976 to form a joint army called ZIPA(Zimbabwe People’s Army), Dzino was the Deputy Political Commissar of the united army, with Rex Nhongo the overall commander. Tongogara was in jail in Zambia, accused of assassinating Hebert Chitepo by the Zambian authorities.
Without official authorisation, Dzino managed to visit the injured at Kabwe Hospital and got the details of what had transpired from them. “After my surreptitious visit to the hospital, we returned to Lusaka and went to brief Sithole. It was only then that he expressed regret over the loss of life, but he did not go beyond that. For us, this was the last straw.”
Born in Harare in 1950, Florence Chitonho, nom guerre Pedzisai Mazorodze, attended Chirodzo Primary School and Harare Secondary School, both in Salisbury’s Mbare Surbub. She joined the liberation struggle from Kaitano Village in Mount Darwin on June 6, 1973. Florence and her sister Phiona Maunidzo Chitonho, nom guerre Theresa Chauya-Chauya volunteered to join the liberation after their young sister Faustina Chitonho, nom de guerrilla Shingirirai Zvinodavanhu had been conscripted. The two elder sisters felt compelled to accompany their little sister, so they volunteered to go. The Zanla commanders, who included the legendary James Bond agreed.
But Florence and Phiona were naïve to think that their role would be limited to chaperoning their little sister. They were to be in the thick of things throughout. And of course Florence would not make it back home at ceasefire. Phiona and Faustina survived the war.
Pedzisai did basic military training at Mgagao Camp in Tanzania. Towards the end of 1974 she went through a training programme on leadership and guerrilla warfare in China with other Zanu leaders as detailed earlier.
Florence was buried at Kabwe cemetery, some 100km away from Mboroma, but her death, and that of her fellow comrades, had far reaching ramifications for the liberation movement.
The Mboroma Massacre formed part of the basis for the outer of Ndabaningi Sithole as president of Zanu, and the relocation of Zanu from Zambia to Mozambique. In the Mgagao Declaration issued the following month, October 1975, the freedom fighters in Tanzania declared: “We strongly condemn the cold blooded murder of our fellow freedom fighters at Mboroma and subsequent mendacious interpretation of the cause of the massacre given by the Zambian government. The blood of freedom fighters is sacred and precious and is never intended to water the soil of African states, but that of our beloved fatherland. In our opinion the shooting of our comrades at Mboroma was a calculated move aimed at eliminating the militants within the ANC army. It is for this reason that we seek for the cooperation of the OAU Liberation Committee, the Tanzanian government and the Mozambiquan government in ensuring the evacuation of our comrades from Zambia into a safer territory.”
Thus Zanu relocated its military and political operations from Zambia to Mozambique in 1975 following the death of Hebert Chitepo, the arrest and imprisonment of Tongogara and others, and the Mboroma Massacre. Mozambique had won her independence from Portugal on June 1975 making the relocation possible. Ndabaningi Sithole was removed from the presidency, paving the way for Robert Mugabe to take over, first in an acting capacity, and then as the substantive president of Zanu at the Chimoio congress in 1977.
When Pedzisai Mazorodze joined the liberation struggle she left behind two children, Brian who now lives in Centenary and Hezel who is based in South Africa. They and other relatives live for the day when they will be able to visit the place where their martyred mother, sister, cousin, aunt lies buried.
May Pedzisai Mazorodze’s soul rest in peace. May the rest of the comrades who fell at Mboroma on that fateful day in September 1975 rest in peace. But maybe they will not rest in peace until their remains are repatriated home, or at least until their relatives visit the graves and perform the final rites of passage into the spiritual world according to the ways of their people.
