The Sunday News
WE continue our interview with former Zipra guerilla Cde Karabo Mashasha Selome pseudonym Cde Ragai Matshudula. Cde Selome operated in Hurungwe District in Mashonaland West Province where he was deployed in 1977.
Last week in an interview with our Assistant Editor Mkhululi Sibanda (MS), Cde Selome spoke about his training at CGT1 then later on CGT2 where the camp commander was current Zimbabwe Defence Forces commander, General Philip Valerio Sibanda aka Cde Ananias Gwenzi.
Today Cde Selome narrates his deployment and subsequent operations in Hurungwe. Below are excerpts of the interview.
MS: You spoke about how you moved to be stationed along the Zambezi River ready for deployment, take us through that process.
Cde Selome: Maybe before I talk about going for operations, it is important to mention that we did not complete our training programme at Ground Combat Troops (CGT1) as the camp was moved to what was later on called CGT2. The reasons given were shortage of water while there was also the talk that the move was taken as a security measure. It was said the enemy spies had located the camp, so it could be attacked anytime, so that was the reason for moving to a new site, situated between 10 and 15km away. Also of importance is that I trained together with my brother Leavitt and the Wadenga brothers, the guys we had left our home area of Gungwe together, Wellington and Ezra.
On my deployment, what happened is that we made to cross the Zambezi River in batches. I think others have said before that crossing the Zambezi River and navigating through its escarpment was a mammoth task. It was very difficult and dicey. We were deployed in units of 30 each. However, moving from the river to the villages we were divided into smaller units of between 10 and 15 under the guidance of some guerillas who had been in operations before. They acted as our guides because they knew the terrain and routes to follow. However, what happened was that at first we started by moving our foodstuffs and ammunition inland. We cached the ammunition and foodstuffs such as tinned provisions. We should have made two or so trips from the base across the Zambezi on the Zambian side. After that we set to reach the villages and what a difficult period it was, navigating around the Zambezi Escarpment. It took us at least 10 days to reach the first villages and that was in Hurungwe District, Masanga area to be in particular.
MS: How were you received by the masses?
Cde Selome: We were in for a rude awakening. When we got there little did we know that the Rhodesian forces had instructed villagers that they should use the sound of drums as a signal to alert them of the presence of guerillas, terrorists as they called us. So what used to happen was that whenever we got to a homestead to organise food, an innocent looking old woman would go around her hut and beat up the drum, just once nje. Then an occupant of the next homestead would do the same and the third homestead would follow suit. The drums would be beaten in that systematic fashion until they reached the ears of the Rhodesians where they were camped. The Rhodesian forces would then pick the signal and come for us. The guerillas waiting to be served with food would then be hit by the enemy’s surprise attacks and that disturbed operations in a long way. It was very difficult to just sit down and eat. Their system was well choregraphed.
MS: So how did you manage to stem that?
Cde Selome: At first, we did not take the beating of drums as a signal because a villager would just hit it once and at first it was difficult to notice that. Then one day one of our units based not far from the homesteads went to the villagers to organise food. At one homestead which was the first to be visited, we heard the sound of the beating of the drum, once as usual. Then the sound was picked in the next homestead and we quickly pulled aside that villager and asked her what that meant. The guerillas roughed her a bit and she spilled the beans. She told us everything. Sensing danger we quickly re-organised ourselves and laid an ambush for the Rhodesian forces. On that day it was their turn to be surprised. We had a very successful ambush where the enemy suffered heavy losses. That battle brought us closer to the masses, who at first were very suspicious and sceptical of our activities.
MS: You are saying the masses changed their attitude, what do you think was the reason for that?
Cde Selome: After that battle where the enemy forces suffered a heavy loss the villagers were severely beaten up by the Rhodesian forces while some even had their homesteads burnt down. The enemy forces accused the villagers of harbouring terrorists. There was also the issue of the Rhodesians trying to play a tribal card, saying the locals had no reason of supporting Zipra forces as it was a Ndebele army. However, such cheap talk could not be sustained as we had Shona speaking comrades among us and also we had been told during training that we should try by all means to speak the language of locals wherever we had been deployed. When I left Gwanda I could not speak Shona but during training we had among our instructors Shona speakers like Goronga and they could give instructions using Shona, so that is how we started learning the language. In Zipra the language of instruction could be any, that was encouraged a lot. For me personally I had a Shona pseudonym, Regai and that made things easier. The other thing is that after realising that the Rhodesian forces could be killed the villagers gained confidence in us. They started viewing us differently, they were now seeing real freedom fighters, people who were capable of freeing them from the Smith regime.
MS: Any other operations worth talking about?
Cde Selome: There were so many and the people of Hurungwe can testify even today that we did a good job there. Personally I was in the unit that attacked a Rhodesian garrison at Masanga and that military outpost was totally destroyed. The planning and execution of that operation was excellent. For me it was also special in that among the 45 guerillas who attacked that facility, there was myself and my elder brother, Leavitt. We had left for the war together, trained together in Zambia and now in our operations we were fighting side by side. However, we were not in the same unit. The attack on Masanga Camp was a special operation, which demanded that we do it in large numbers as normally we moved in sections of between 10 and 15 men.
MS: Who commanded that operation and what type of weapons were used in the attack.
Cde Selome: The commander of that operation was Cde Simon Shoko and the last time I heard about him, he was living in the rural areas in Hurungwe. As for the weapons, the unit was heavily armed, we had at least three bazookas, mortars, PKs while other comrades had the usual assault rifles, the AK-47s.
The interview will be rounded up next week with Cde Selome talking about a special unit of guerillas who came to their sector and downed the Viscount on 3 September 1978. Don’t miss your copy of our next issue.
