Supplement: Col Ngwenya — The man who saved Dr Nkomo

28 Jun, 2015 - 06:06 0 Views

The Sunday News

IT has been 36 years since it happened but Retired Colonel Thomas Ngwenya remembers it like yesterday — it is the day he personally saved late Vice-President Dr Joshua Nkomo and other senior Zipra and PF-Zapu officials from a bomb attack by the Rhodesian forces.
Working as part of the Zipra High Command, as the Chief of logistics, Rtd Col Ngwenya intercepted communication by the Rhodesian forces of an impending bombing on Dr Nkomo’s house and a raid of all suspected residences of the senior officials in Zambia.

In an interview with Sunday News in Bulawayo’s Paddonhurst suburb, Rtd Col Ngwenya narrated how up to this day he has been regarded as the man who saved Dr Nkomo after relaying a warning to Zimbabwe House. The warning saw Dr Nkomo’s security personnel immediately moving him to another house.

“The message I intercepted was simple: ‘We are ready to hit’, I trusted my source very much hence I relayed the message to Zimbabwe House in Lusaka that every leader, including Dr Nkomo, should not sleep in their usual residence.

“When Dr Nkomo related the story he told me that he was reluctant to believe the intelligence I had sent. It had to take his head of security, Cde Albert Nxele, to threaten him that if he did not want to comply they would have to lift him and force him into the car,” said Rtd Col Ngwenya.

The former freedom fighter revealed that true to his warnings, that very day Rhodesian forces descended on Zambia, bombing all bridges leading to Livingstone and even sent out an order for the capture of Dr Nkomo, “dead or alive”.

“Dr Nkomo told me that Cde Nxele initially did not inform him of the warning but he saw them packing all his personal belongings into a car. When they eventually told him, he refused to move. He only complied when they told him that they would be forced to literally lift him into the vehicle. Up to the day the old man died, he would say I saved his life on that day.

“I remember that the mood was quite tense on that day, the Rhodesians bombed all the bridges leading to Livingstone, it was the day Cde Lookout Masuku was injured in the battlefront,” he said.

Rtd Col Ngwenya on recalling the day revealed that he was immediately ordered to travel to Lusaka but due to the nature of the situation, he had to avoid the normal sleeping bases along the way by sleeping in the bushes.

“While we were driving towards Lusaka we passed a car that had been burnt and some comrades killed in cold blood. I told my driver to stop and hide the car in the bush while my security detail and I went to try and identify the bodies but as we approached the scene, we spotted helicopters just close by. That’s when we saw that the area was compromised hence we retreated.

“As we continued we met the current commander of the Zimbabwe National Army Lieutenant General Philip Valerio Sibanda, who then was commanding the Northern front while I commanded the Western front. He was going towards the place where we had come from. I warned him to turn back because he was walking into an ambush. So you can safely say that on that very day I also saved the life of Lt Gen Sibanda,” he said.

On describing Dr Nkomo as a leader, Col Ngwenya said the late Father Zimbabwe was a leader to emulate who never exchanged harsh words with any individual.

“If he was angry, he would tap you with his knobkerrie which he was always carrying with his left hand but he was a great leader. A good individual, a true man of the people.

“After independence and even after I left the army, I would go see him at his home or office without setting an appointment; even if he was not in he would tell his security to allow me in so that I wait for him. He never forgot of that day in 1979 and would tell everyone how I saved his life by relaying that message,” he said.

Born on 10 June 1935, Rt Col Ngwenya is divorced and has five sons. He retired from the Zimbabwe National Army in 1990 after which he embarked on contract work with the United Nations, where at one point he was sent to Iraqi where he was in charge of logistics.

He is a holder of six medals including the Independence and Outstanding Performance During the Liberation Struggle medals.

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