‘Why ZPRA attacked Zidube Ranch’

Sunday News Reporter
THE six, who were part of pioneers of the armed struggle, led by Cde Moffat Hadebe attacked the Zidube Ranch in Matobo District, Matabeleland South Province in 1964 because they wanted to capture its owner, a Mr Roberts who was the Bulawayo Chief Magistrate as he was giving biased judgments against the nationalists.

The six were Cdes Hadebe, Roger Matshimini Ncube, Elliot Ngwabe, Keyi Nkala, Rhodes Malaba and Israel Maduma with their intention to take the war to the Rhodesian judiciary system as it was being used by the colonial government to deal with the nationalists.

In an interview carried by Sunday News on 1 October 2017, Cde Ngwabe said they had been given the mission when they were deployed by ZPRA from Zambia by their command element. They were ordered to attack Mr Roberts so as to silence him because he “was declaring state of emergencies in the country and sending our comrades to detentions without following due processes and that did not go well with us.”

“But I can tell you that the Zidube Ranch mission was to capture the Bulawayo Chief Magistrate Mr Roberts who was declaring state of emergencies in the country and sending our comrades to detentions without following due processes and that did not go well with us. We had a tip that he had a farm near the Zimbabwe and Botswana border.

“This farm is less than 15km from the border. We sent our intelligence to find out whether the information was true,” said Cde Ngwabe.

The objective was also to attack the judiciary which was determined to keep the colonial regime in power and frustrate efforts by liberation fighters and the general black population to puch for the country’s independence.