The Sunday News
SOMETIME in 1974, the South African Army (apartheid) set up a base camp close to the Kazungula Bridge on the Rhodesian side. The South African soldiers patrolled between Kazungula and the Rhodesian side. The stretch provided ideal crossing points on the Zambezi because the water current was friendly to Zipra’s small boats. The cat and mouse with the South Africans was becoming a big hindrance to Zipra, a solution had to be found.
Cde Tendayi Nyamukapa was dispatched from Zipra’s Country House (CH) a plot established as a secret house west of Livingstone town. His mission (Tendayi) was to thoroughly monitor the South Africans, their daily habits, feeding time, size of their patrols, official visits and many other worth noting habits.
Cde Tendayi dressed up as a local peasant and set up a fishing spot on the Zambian side of the Zambezi River with a good view of the South African camp. For about a week, he was “fishing” without incident except that occasionally the South African soldiers would pass close to him in their boat calling him bobojaan (baboon), sometimes throwing some fruits at him, probably as a reward for not shouting back at baas.
Unfortunately after about a week, Cde Tendayi was visited by the Zambian Mobile Police. They suspected he was a South African army spy in Zambia. They had concluded that he was on the Zambezi to pass some information. When arrested Tendayi produced a Zapu card which guerrillas were given so that they be members of the party. The issue is that when Zapu was banned in Rhodesia most of the people who left for Zambia to join the armed struggle were not party members. Card carrying members.
One could not be a party member without belonging to a party cell. This was when Zambia was organised into a Zapu Province. That is how some Zipra members became card carrying members. To go back to Cde Tendayi’s case when the Zambian police saw the Zapu card, which had Dr Joshua Nkomo’s passport type photo then looked at Cde Tendayi who was very slim, they were puzzled.
They then commented, “apa unati wo nenepa (here you were fat)”. When Cde Tendayi responded that it was not his picture, “so iyi ni fojery,” so this is forgery, the Zambian police exclaimed. Cde Tendayi was not treated well by the Zambian police during that incident. The police then contacted Cde Matshimini who was the Zipra regional commander to come and explain.
When Cde Matshimini arrived Cde Tendayi then dug up a notebook in which he had been recording his observations of the South African army.
Cde Tendayi was then released to Matshimini but Cde Matshimini collected the bicycle and the notebook and ordered Cde Tendayi to walk back to CH as punishment of being arrested by the Zambian police.
After the Cde Tendayi whose pseudonym was David Todlana saga I was tasked to reconnoite or spy on the South African soldiers’ camp at Kazungula on the Rhodesian side. When I arrived in Livingstone, Zambia, I approached a party member who was tirelessly working with Zipra forces, Cde Mike.
Cde Mike organised two ladies to accompany us to Kazungula so that our mission would look like a couples’ outing. Cde Mike brought a cooler bag and some drinks and other goodies. (Remember we were local tourists so we had to look the part).
In Cde Mike’s Vauxhall Velox we drove to Kazungula as two couples. This was a distance of about 70km from Livingstone town. Before proceeding to Kazungula Border Post we visited Mambova a close by settlement to get a feeling of what was happening around Kazungula Border Post. I did not want us to be caught nosing around after something had triggered a security alert. Lucky for us the atmosphere was relaxed, even the immigration officers were very friendly that they even allowed us to take a ride on the pontoon (floating bridge) across the Zambezi.
As we were in the pontoon the South African soldiers playfully aimed at their rifles at us. My friends waved at them while I froze for some seconds with my brains going on an overdrive. However, I opted for joining the waving.
As we approached the other bank the South African soldiers started waving and making cat calls at our girls. This encouraged me to approach their base in Rhodesia. The young soldiers seemed to have forgotten their apartheid manners at home. I think it was the effect of the presence of our girls on the poor boys. (During the early 1970s, the Rhodesian soldiers used to have visits from their spouses on weekends). The South Africans did not have that system.
This gave me ideas. These tough looking South African soldiers had a soft spot in their armour after all. The rule of thumb by Zipra was to try and not antagonise our hosts in our activities. One of those rules was not to attack targets at international boundaries. The South Africans were camped on the Zambezi bank. This rule was strictly observed until some of our field commanders decided to write some rules.
As we were interacting with the soldiers, I was observing and recording the surroundings of the camp. The soldiers were taking photos with the girls. I had left my camera in our car in Zambia. It was a Soviet made camera. We then crossed back to Zambia and drove back to Livingstone. I gave my report to the Zipra High Command with my suggested possibilities. I had thought we could lure the soldiers using women as bait. However, the soldiers were later wiped out by one of our units that had Cde John Nyamupingidza (Retired Colonel Watson Tshipa) and Cde Chibhoyi.
This unit wanted to cross from Rhodesia to Zambia only to find the South Africans blocking their crossing point. They decided enough was enough and went against the rules and killed them all.
To think of the many hours I had spent with my other comrades watching Rhodesian soldiers swimming and having braai on the Zambezi bank. We watched in frustration with the aroma of boeurvoirs torturing our noses while we had dry Russian biscuits to quench our hunger. I suspect these guys took all the goodies after the attack. The lucky bastards. The High Command just gave them a verbal reprimand, some of which was “you were supposed to capture one of them”. However, the unit was disbanded and its members re-assigned to even more senior ranks.
