The Sunday News
We continue our interview with freedom fighter Cde Karabo Selome pseudonym Cde Regai Matshudula who operated in Hurungwe District in Mashonaland West Province from 1977 until the ceasefire period in December 1979.
It was in Cde Selome’s operational sector that a special unit of Zipra guerillas crossed from Zambia when information leaked that Rhodesian Army commander, General Peter Walls was to holiday in Kariba. True to the intelligence picked by Zapu intelligence department headed by now late national hero, Dumiso Dabengwa, the National Security and Order (NSO), General Walls indeed went for the holiday in Kariba. On 3 September 1978, the Zipra special unit armed with a Strela, Surface to Air Missile (SAM-7) brought down a Viscount which the guerillas believed Gen Walls on board. However, Gen Walls was travelling in another aircraft, which had left a few minutes earlier and was not hit.
Although Cde Selome was not part of the unit that brought down the Rhodesian Viscount, which was carrying civilians, he takes us through the mood that gripped Hurungwe after that incident. Below is the interview with our Assistant Editor Mkhululi Sibanda (MS).
MS: Cde Selome, you spoke about operations and a dramatic change of attitude by the masses towards you, tell us more. What was happening?
Cde Selome: By the beginning of 1978 we were well accepted in our area of operation and more troops were being deployed, some moving further inland. The enemy was also deploying its ground forces and aircrafts like what they did when we attacked Masanga. We failed to overrun Masanga because of the aircrafts, otherwise if it was not for them we could have had our meal there. By that time our units were all over Masanga area of course, Chidamoyo, Mzilawepi, Vuti and so on.
In fact the whole of Mashonaland West was Zipra throughout. Zapu structures were also active and one man I will never forget in supporting the armed struggle was one Cde Matiki, a businessman from Mzilawepi. His support for the country’s war against the colonial government was outstanding. As for the operations, we were guerilla units, very mobile. We would lay landmines and carry out ambushes. It almost became a tradition that whenever the Rhodesians travelled along the Chirundu Road they will definitely feel our fire. Such developments curtailed the movements of the Rhodesians. However, we had a very unfortunate incident when one of our sections was ambushed by the enemy and out of 10, only two of our men survived. One of the survivors is still alive and is here in Bulawayo.
MS: The attack on the Viscount, it happened in your sector. Were you part of that unit?
Cde Selome: No. I was not, that was a special unit that had crossed from Zambia after the NSO operatives under Dumiso Dabengwa picked information that Gen Peter Walls would be holidaying in Kariba. However, from what I later learnt it is that contrary to what is being said and has been written about, the plan was to attack both Viscounts.
There is talk that Walls switched planes, that might be true, but what we learnt from other comrades who interacted with the Strela Unit was that the order was to hit both aircrafts. The reason being that they were both legitimate military targets by the fact that Walls as the commander, definitely he had his bodyguards around him. The other issue was that the area around Kariba had become a well-known war zone. There was talk that the Rhodesian forces also used the Viscounts as troop carriers when launching their forays into Zambia to bomb our camps.
MS: You said you were told that both Viscounts were supposed to be attacked, then what were the reasons for attacking one then?
Cde Selome: From what I got the first was not hit because the unit was not ready, things like that. It had to do with the position of the Strela, that is what I heard. That is what I was told by those who had interacted with those guys.
MS: Like someone who was in the area or close to the action, how was the downing of the aircraft received?
Cde Selome: There was total chaos all over, the Rhodesians rushed to seal off the border with Zambia, but those Strela guys instead of crossing back to Zambia, moved inland into the villages so that the enemy lose their scent. However, from the masses or povo as we called them, it was as if we had won the war.
The villagers celebrated like nobody’s business, they were shocked and happy at the same time that the freedom fighters had downed a Rhodesians aircraft, they did not care that it was a civilian plane, they said the Rhodesians were killing and beating up civilians for supporting the freedom fighters. As if that was not enough the white commercial farmers fled from their farms and the villagers on the instruction of guerillas raided stores at the farms and got away with groceries and clothes. That incident further connected the guerillas with the povo. We continued intensifying operations until the ceasefire period.
MS: After the announcement of the ceasefire where did you go?
Cde Selome: We moved into Papa Assembly Point there in Mashonaland West. Later I was integrated into the Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) where I worked at Llewellin Barracks now Imbizo. I was in the medical corps. I was then moved to Four Brigade in Masvingo. I was at 4:9 Battalion at Jerera in Zaka District. I later did a course in electrical maintenance at Westgate Training Centre here in Bulawayo. I left the country and got a job in Botswana where I worked for many years till recently.
