adminThis week we conclude our interview with former Zipra deputy chief of operations Cde Stanley Nleya whose pseudo name was Cde Elish Gagisa. For the past two weeks Cde Nleya has spoken about how he left school to join the armed struggle, his time as an instructor, problems that affected Zapu in Zambia, transformation of Zipra, his attachment to the PLO where he fought against the Israel army and his time with Zipa at Mgagao where he commanded decorated soldiers like the Airforce commander Air Marshal Perence Shiri who served as his deputy when he was chief of staff for the training camp. Today Cde Nleya takes us through his promotion from Zipra chief of staff at Mwembeshi to deputy chief of operations and why Zipra deployed a large contingent of troops in Mashonaland West and parts of Mashonaland Central Provinces. Below is an excerpt of his interview with our Assistant Editor Mkhululi Sibanda (MS). Read on . . .
MS: Last time Cde Nleya we ended our conversation when you were speaking about your attachment to PLO and your return to Mwembeshi. So what happened on your return?
Cde Nleya: I resumed my duties as chief of staff at Mwembeshi and we continued with our training programmes churning out well trained soldiers who went on to do well in our operations. Some of them even went on to become excellent soldiers in our Independent Zimbabwe and I am glad I played a big role in shaping their military careers. There was a particular group which came after my return from PLO and today some of them are senior military people in the defence forces.
MS: Who are some of those people?
Cde Nleya: I am talking about decorated soldiers such as the country’s current Ambassador to Mozambique, Retired Major-General Nicholas Dube who was known as Buzhwa. In his group there were others like the former commander of Four Brigade, Brigadier-General Chancellor Diye and Brigadier-General Matute. I should point out here that after training a group of recruits I will select the best, about 40 or so. Those people would undergo a semi-commando which covered urban warfare. I usually did those drills on my own, although at times I would be assisted by a colleague from MK who was good in engineering.
MS: So how did you leave Mwembeshi and when were you promoted to deputy chief of operations?
Cde Nleya: We got intelligence that the camp was about to be attacked by the Rhodesian forces and we decided to shift base to eMagojini. At eMagojini we set base at a camp which we gave the name Moscow. The commander of the camp which was heavily fortified with anti-air weapons was Cde Jack Mpofu. At that camp they were 3 000 trained men. We had more than nine detachments of 200 soldiers each. I did not stay long at the new camp because I was moved to Zipra HQ at Kasupe, about 10km west of Lusaka where I was given the rank of deputy chief of operations and that was in 1977.
MS: After spending years training soldiers, how did you find your new duties?
Cde Nleya: All the years I had joined the armed struggle in 1968 I had got used to living under trees and here I was being taken from the bush to live in a housing structure and at times work from an office. I found that very odd and at first I was disoriented.
MS: Tell us about your new role as deputy chief of operations. What did it entail?
Cde Nleya: My new duties involved planning operations and deployments. We would plan with the other two deputy chiefs of operations. Zipra had three deputy chiefs of operations, that was myself, Richard Mataure (Retired Colonel Richard Ngwenya) and the late Brigadier-General Mike Reynolds who at one point served as the commander of Four Brigade in Masvingo. After planning with the other two deputies we will then present our plans to the chief of operations who at that time was the late Matshinini (Richard Ncube). Matshinini had taken over from Cde John Dube who died in Nigeria from suspected food poisoning while accompanying the then Zapu Secretary-General the late VP Joseph Msika. Before executing the plans the commander, Cde Lookout Masuku was to approve first. We also had among us comrades from the Soviet Union and Cuba who worked closely with us. We also worked closely with comrades like Retired Colonel Eddie Sigoge who was the deputy chief of personnel and training. We also had to re-organise the fronts.
MS: How many fronts did you have and if you can also explain how they functioned.
Cde Nleya: We had two fronts, the northern and the southern. The northern front stretched from around Tsholotsho that is within Zimbabwe right up to Feira, it ended in Mashonaland Central in the then Sipolilo, that is Guruve now. When viewed from the the Zambian side it stretched from Livingstone to Feira. As for the southern front it started from Plumtree, that is across the Botswana railway line up to Mutare. However, in some parts of the southern front we had not deployed by the time of the attainment of Independence.
MS: To take you back a little, how was the command structure and who were the commanders of those fronts?
Cde Nleya: I was about to say each front was divided into three regions, each with its own commander. Under a region there were zones with their commanders as well, for example in Northern Front One, which was the area between the boundary with Botswana and the Bulawayo-Victoria Falls highway the last regional commander was Cde John Nyamupingidzi who is now into safari business in the Hwange area . His region covered areas such as Tsholotsho, Hwange and Umguza. As I have explained that under a region there was a zone with its commander reporting to the regional commander and then came sectors with their commanders as well. As for the commanders, the Northern Front was commanded by Cde Rodwell Nyika (Retired Brigadier-General Collin Moyo) with one of his deputies being Gilbert Khumalo (Nicholas Nkomo). In the Southern Front, there was once Mahlole (Consent Maphosa) as the commander but he died in combat, then came in Carlos Mudzingwa and then later Barbatone.
MS: Then as deputy chief of operations were you also involved in combat?
Cde Nleya: Definitely. The three of us, myself, Mataure and Reynolds, used to visit operational areas and get first hand information from the field commanders. Cde Mataure knew the terrain well especially in Mashonaland West as he had operated in the area for a long time before his promotion to deputy chief of operations.
My first visit was in the Feira area where upon arrival the guerillas were very excited to see me. I understood the excitement to mean that here was a man who had taught a majority of them the skills of warfare joining them on the field, it was something big to most of them. So I became a regular visitor especially in areas like Hurungwe, Karoi and Chinhoyi and that meant I became involved in combat. However, as time went by guerrillas started complaining that whenever I was around it meant heavy fighting.
MS: How?
Cde Nleya: This was because my presence attracted the Rhodesian forces, whenever information leaked that Gagisa had crossed the Zambezi River, the enemy forces would start looking for me with the intention to kill or capture. Some guerillas even told me in my face that I should stop visiting because my presence meant that they were on their toes every time. There was an incident when I had crossed with some troops but I did not stay long in the country and returned to Zambia. What happened is that the same unit that I had brought from Zambia came across Selous Scouts in Karoi. The Selous Scouts had brought with them a decoy, someone who looked almost like me. When they learnt about the presence of our boys they sent information to them that Gagisa was around looking for them. In our unit there were 15 guys who had escorted me to the Zambezi and were cocksure that I had returned to Zambia, so they were surprised how come Gagisa was in Karoi. However, with caution they set to meet this Gagisa. They stopped at a distance facing the Selous Scouts who showed them this Gagisa, they were almost fooled but because they were clever boys among them, they pretended as if they were falling for the ruse. Then all of a sudden they opened fire and in that incident some Scouts were killed including the fake Gagisa. So it shows the extent to which the enemy had gone in its quest to get me.
It was also the same with visits by the current commander of the army, Ananias Gwenzi (Lt-Gen Philip Valerio Sibanda) who as Zipra’s chief of reconnaissance also made regular forays to the operational areas, the moment the enemy learnt about his presence they would also hunt him down trying to make a big catch. But for a soldier, especially a commander that was exciting.
MS: Cde Nleya you are talking about the deployment. How many Zipra guerillas were operating in the country by the time of the ceasefire?
Cde Nleya: We had more than 13 000 guerillas operating in the country, a majority of them in Mashonaland, that is parts of Mashonaland Central especially in Guruve but the biggest contingent was in Mashonaland West. Zipra was all over Mashonaland West. Areas like Hurungwe were called Lebanon because we had driven the enemy out while some of our troops had reached Norton.
MS: So in other words you are saying you had more troops in Mashonaland West than for example in Matabeleland South. If so any reasons for that?
Cde Nleya: Three quarters of the Zipra guerillas operating in the country were not in Matabeleland. The reasons were political and military ones. In any war the biggest prize is the capital city, we would have been foolish to deploy more troops far away from the capital city, we had to be closer to Harare or Salisbury as it was called at that time because to us the war was going to be settled through the barrel not at the round table. By deploying more troops in areas like Hurungwe we were creating a corridor for our regular forces to move with speed to the capital. Remember we had planned the Zero Hour Operation but I will not talk about it now, it is for another day. The other reason is that it was going to be unreasonable to deploy more troops in drought stricken areas where the population was going to struggle to feed the soldiers. There is a lot of farming activities in Mashonaland West compared to any other province in the country. I can tell you that all those guerillas did not even one day go without a meal because of the active participation of the population in the armed struggle. There are also big agricultural farms there and we also assisted the villagers by raiding the white farms and driving away the cattle to give them to the villagers.
MS: After driving away the cattle you would simply give them to the villagers just like that?
Cde Nleya: We looked at the size of the family, some were given five beasts while some got more. Those cattle were the ones which were at times slaughtered for the boys. We had created a good rapport with the villagers and mind you, a number of people from Mash West had joined Zipra and were operating in their area.
MS: Cde Nleya the Zambezi River was your biggest obstacle. How did you manage to cross it?
Cde Nleya: At first it gave us problems but we psyched it into our troops that they should “befriend” that river. They should not fear the waters of the Zambezi but make it their second nature in their activities, so at the end I am glad that our troops overcame that psychological barrier. The other issue was that we destroyed all the garrisons that were set up along the Zambezi to make our work easy. We reduced to zero the Mana Pools Camp, in an operation that was commanded by Rodwell Nyika. There was fierce fighting there and Rodwell got injured but at the end the Rhodesians fled from the scene never to return again. We also destroyed other camps such as Rekomesh, Makuti and Mushumbe Pools.
MS: In conclusion, Cde Nleya after the attainment of the ceasefire which Assembly Point did you go?
Cde Nleya: I was at Papa AP near Chirundu where I was the second in command to Rtd Col Sigoge who was the camp commander. We had about 7 000 guerillas. I then joined the army before leaving to work as a buyer with Hwange Colliery Company. At the moment I am working for a liquor franchise based here in Bulawayo.
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