The Sunday News
LAST week we carried an interview with former Zanla detachment commander under Sector 2, which fell under the Gaza Province, Retired Major Simoni Muyambo pseudonym Cde Mambo Mlambo, during which he spoke about how he joined the armed struggle, training at Tembwe in Mozambique and deployment to the front.
In this week’s instalment Rtd Maj Muyambo speaks to our Assistant Editor Mkhululi Sibanda (MS) about how he survived a poisoning incident in his operational area in Zvishavane District in the Midlands Province, which was under Sector 2. Rtd Maj Muyambo was among the 24 freedom fighters who consumed poisoned food and miraculously he was the only survivor from that callous incident.
Below are excerpts of the interview:
MS: You spoke about how you opened up operations in Mberengwa and then later on spread them to Zvishavane. So tell us how the operations went on.
Rtd Maj Muyambo: I still remember vividly, it was on 4 June 1976 when we decided to cross the Shabanie-Selukwe (Shurugwi) Road to lay an ambush to destroy a goods train near Banakubana Railway Station.
The goods train was from Shabanie Mine. We took off from our base at Madiro at around 3pm and arrived at Ruware Sinvanga Base at about 6pm. The security officer checked the base while the comrade in charge of logistics, whom we also called the quartermaster went to the masses to organise food for us.
So within two hours of our stay there tea and food was served. The villagers had also prepared ama-fat cooks, which we liked very much. We then started eating and at about 10pm we started vomiting while some started dying.
MS: So that means the food was laced with poison?
Rtd Maj Muyambo: Yes, we had eaten poisoned food. Among the villagers was a sabhuku who unknown to us had worked for the Rhodesian government. That man had worked with the ama-district assistants (DA) and he is the one who poisoned us. So we were taken by surprise. So by early morning of 5 June 1976, which was the following day we had lost and buried five comrades.
I could hardly walk but I forced myself to approach Chief Mapanzure to organise transport to ferry us to cross the road to Fizho Mountain, which is under Chief Masunda’s area.
We wanted to go via Nyama Township and Chief Mapanzure gladly accepted and got into action. The chief agreed and rushed to Msiphani Shopping Centre to collect his friend, who was a local photographer and owned a truck to help transport us to the mountains. By 1pm nearly all of us were unable to walk unaided.
MS: That was tricky.
Rtd Maj Muyambo: As the one in charge but also in a difficult situation I instructed the villagers to rebury the comrades, the five who had died the previous day.
This was because we had hurriedly buried them, we had dug using bayonets. We were later loaded into two trucks and by the time we arrived at Nyama Business Centre the Rhodesian forces also passed through the township on their way to the base, where we had been evacuated.
One vehicle had a canopy while the other did not, so I instructed those in the vehicle without a canopy to lie down in the truck so that they could not be seen and we crossed the road to Fizho Mountain. After a distance we stopped the vehicles and looked back at the township, we observed the convoy heading towards our previous base.
When we got to Dominic Store Chief Mapanzure drove for a further kilometre, they then organised the masses of Nhondo Village to ferry us on scotch carts, bicycles and some even on their backs to the nearby highland along Fizho Mountain. Chief Mapanzure and his friend then left going back to their homes, however, that time they were not so lucky as they were blocked at Nyama Business Centre by the enemy forces.
MS: So what happened to them?
Rtd Maj Muyambo: They were taken to Zvishavane at 5 Mile Camp where they were tortured and after some days the chief returned home but in a critical condition and he later died. His friend, the photographer who was based at Mashaba Mine disappeared and its possible he was killed. Meanwhile, the enemy forces bombed our base with mortar bombs and also helicopters for about an hour. They then drove back to Nyama Business Centre.
MS: Then in that tricky situation how were you coping and the rest of the comrades?
Rtd Maj Muyambo: At Nhondo base a majority of the comrades died and that was on the same day we had been evacuated from our previous base.
The senior command element in the detachment died on the same day and they were Cdes Jimmy Chidhoma, who was the detachment commander, Cde Velaphi the detachment political commissar and Cde Stan Twat Mutombo the detachment security and intelligence officer. Cdes Jimmy and Velaphi were from Mash Central while Cde Mutombo was from Manicaland.
By then two sections had been dispatched before the poisoning incident to Mozambique to collect ammunition and reinforcements.
That was taking time as they were going via detachment 1, which was in Mwenenzi and they had to go through Gonarezhou both in Zimbabwe and Mozambique along the Limpopo River to Mapai Town in Mozambique around 200k from Malvenia/ Villa Salaza now known as Tshikwalakwala.
Comrades could take two to three months walking to and from the rear at the same time facing deadly wars along their way back to Rhodesia. Comrades from the two sections dispatched were the ones who survived in our detachment 2, which was covering upper Mwenenzi, Belingwe (Mberengwa), Chivi, Shabanie (Zvishavane) and Selukwe (Shurugwi) under Sector 2 of the Gaza Province.
At that time I was a section commander, my political commissar being Cde Job and the security officer, Cde Mabhunu Muchapera. So from those who had remained behind I am the only one who survived the poisoning incident. The sections dispatched to Mozambique were led Cde Kays Core of Section 1 and Cde Muroyiwamabhunu of Section 2 with Cdes Bvumazvipere and Balembanzou being seconds in command of those sections.
Balembanzou was also a Major in the army when I retired while Bvumazvipere was also a soldier. Among those was Cde Fastmove who later took control of Chivi District.
MS: Then let’s go back to the poisoning incident, tell us more about it.
Rtd Maj Muyambo: Ok. Back to our story by the 10th of June 1976 I was the only surviving comrade. The remains of my comrades are lying at Sivhanga, Nhondo, Madiro, Madhamwa and Marira bases under chiefs Mapanzure, Masunda, Shiku and Matenda areas. The last comrade to die in that incident was my deputy, Cde Job. He died at Marira base at about 5am.
When he died a song by Thomas Mapfumo was playing on our radio, he stretched his left hand, pushed his weapon and magazines to me and said “pamberi nehondo.” He then shivered and passed on. After that the first povo to arrive at our hideout was a herbalist called Mr Tshuma who went to call the elders to bury Cde Job.
MS: As all this was happening how was your condition?
Rtd Maj Muyambo: I was still in a bit stable. So Tshuma came back in the afternoon with some herbs and boiled milk. I then sent him to go and call four elders across Lundi River. The elders were Mr Makonese, a businessman from Chamini School,
Mr Ezeliel Masvisi of Masvisi Kraal, Mr Pavari of Pavari Kraal and Mr Madhibha from Munangagwa Kraal. Those four were appointed elders to bury me in the Fizho area as I thought I was going to die and never wanted to be buried by all the masses, but the four so that I will release my secrets to them.
MS: What were the secrets Major?
Rtd Maj Muyambo: The secret was for the four elders to know where all the guns were hidden so that they will hand them over to the next incoming comrades who had gone to the rear to collect arms of war and reinforcements.
Mr Tshuma came back with Mr Makonese, who by the way was the father of the current judge of the Bulawayo High Court, Justice Makonese and said the other three could not be reached because enemy soldiers are all over trying to get the last terrorist by the name Mambo Mlambo, the witch doctor for the terrorists who was not dead despite consuming the poison.
Mr Makonese then organised other masses together with Mr Tshuma and they took me across Lundi River and left me at Chamini with Mr Makonese. Around 4am Mr Makonese drove me to Mwenedzi stream dip tank from where he went to call Mr Pavari and the two men made a stretcher and carried me along Mwenedzi River towards Fizho, an area where I had instructed the four elders from Nhondo to conceal the weapons from our dead comrades, I didn’t specifically know the place but the areas they described were near where I asked the two men to leave me.
It was under a big tree with a nice shade and there was an anthill by the side and a stream by the side. My aim was to remain there giving the four chosen elders instructions of how I should be buried and reveal all the information pertaining to the war material such as ammunition and weapons we had left at other bases.
MS: But how was your condition, were you still able to see things considering the effects of the poison?
Rtd Maj Muyambo: From the elders I was told that in the morning of 13 June 1976, when they arrived at my hiding place they found me having passed out, to them I was dead, so they went back to collect picks and shovels to bury me. After digging the grave they said Mr Pavari washed my face and cried.
They put a mat in the grave, wrapped my body and placed me there, they then started putting the soil over my body. They said they covered my legs and head and when they put the soil on my chest, my chest flashed the soil to Mr Pavari’s face who was busy putting the soil and that affected his eyes for some minutes.
The incident shocked the elders. The four men decided to walk away, leaving everything like that because they were not sure whether I was dead or not. The following day they returned to my burial site hoping to complete the process only to see me out of the grave in the company of two baboons.
They said it seemed as if the baboons were trying to breastfeed me and my side had marks to show that I was pulled out of the grave and up to now I still have those marks on my side. They tried to come closer to me and the baboons increased in their numbers as if they wanted to eat me.
They left me at the mercy of those baboons in the bush. In the afternoon they returned only to find all the baboons gone. Mr Pavari said my body was of a dead person, it was now black and had a bad smell. But my chest was showing signs of life as I seemed to be breathing slowly.
They tried to open my eyes, saw that I was not alive but were confused as my heart was beating. Again they left me and the next day they found me leaning against a big rock but again there were signs that I had been dragged to that rock. They went home to collect some water and washed my body, wrapped me with clean material and started giving me boiled milk and that went on for two days.
By the end of the week they said I started casting my skin like a snake and at the same time I started opening my eyes and my heart was beating normally although I was still unconscious.
The elders went as far as Gweru to look for a medical doctor who could assist, they were tasked to take my waste and mucus back to Gweru where they were told that I was poisoned by an anthrax type of substance and were given three types of medicine. It took almost two months before the arrival of the comrades who had gone to Mozambique to get ammunition and recruits. During that period I was under the care of the masses that were moving me from place to place to evade the enemy.
MS: So that is how you survived?
Rtd Maj Muyambo: That is how I survived.
To be continued next week with Rtd Maj Muyambo giving us the operational structure of the Zanla forces in the Gaza Province and battles fought. In that interview he speaks highly of one of the sectorial commanders, Cde Willie Devedeve (Retired Colonel Shumba) who is now living in Shurugwi. He describes him as one of the outstanding performers during the war.
