A brilliant STEM student who turned into a guerilla

17 Feb, 2019 - 00:02 0 Views
A brilliant STEM student who turned into a guerilla Rtd Col Reuben Mqwayi

The Sunday News

STUDENT activism cut short a promising academic career for a then young man from Mateme in Bulilima District, Matabeleland South Province, the now Retired Colonel Reuben Mqwayi. After acing the much coveted Science subjects at Advanced Level at Thekwane Mission in 1972, the young Mqwayi found himself at the then University of Rhodesia (now University of Zimbabwe) doing a Bachelor of Science Degree in Physics.

However, he did not last long as a strike by students organised by Witness Mangwende who was the Student Representative Council (SRC) president then, resulted in Mqwayi abandoning his studies for personal safety. A firebrand student leader the late Dr Mangwende was to become the second Zimbabwe Foreign Minister and went on to occupy a number of other Cabinet posts.

This week our Assistant Editor Mkhululi Sibanda (MS) spoke to Rtd Col Mqwayi pseudo name Phineas Moyo or Makepesi about student activism and how he ended up joining the armed struggle in Zambia. After independence in 1980 Rtd Col Mqwayi was sent to the United Kingdom by the Zimbabwe Defence Forces to study for a degree in Electronic Engineering, a move that opened avenues for him to rise through the ranks to become a senior officer in the Signals Squadron in the Zimbabwe National Army.

Below are excerpts of the interview:
MS: Rtd Colonel Mqwayi may you please tell us your brief background.

Rtd Col Mqwayi: I was born on 5 July 1952 at Mateme in Bulilima District, Matabeleland South Province. I grew up in Bulilima having attended my early education at Ndolwane Primary School then St Patrick’s in Bulawayo. For my secondary education I went to Thekwane Mission where I did Form One up to Advanced Level. My subjects combination at A-level, I had pure Sciences that consisted of Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry. I completed my A-levels in 1972, after which I enrolled at the then University of Rhodesia now University of Zimbabwe to study for a Bachelor of Science in Physics. During that time it was a big and prestigious issue to be an undergraduate at the university. It was very unusual to have someone attending the university.

MS: Then comes the question. After such a successful academic feat, how did you find yourself in politics and the armed struggle?

Rtd Col Mqwayi: There was a strike at the university, I think it should have been in 1973, I was a first year student. The strike that was politically motivated of course was led by Witness Mangwende who was the SRC president. As you know Mangwende was to become the second Minister of Foreign Affairs taking over from Cde Simon Muzenda who in the first Cabinet had doubled up as the Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister. The strike was so serious that it shook the Rhodesian government and reprisals of course were in the offing. It was after that strike that I abandoned my studies at the university because I had a previous case hanging over my head.

MS: What was the previous case about?

Rtd Col Mqwayi: During my time at Thekwane we had boycotted classes and marched to Plumtree Town.

Our mission was to go and address people with the intention of politicising them. Our destination in Plumtree was the township now called Dingumuzi. It was not big as it is now. However, we were blocked by the police before we got there and they arrested us. Those attending classes below Upper Six were sentenced to 13 strokes of the rattan cane while some of us considered to be old like myself, Sebele and Munodawafa were slapped with a suspended sentence of five years each. I was 19 then. So when I was actively involved in the university strike I realised that if I was caught for dabbling in political activities again then that suspended sentence of five years in prison was going to be effected. So I fled from the university for my own safety.

MS: You fled to where?

Rtd Col Mqwayi: I went to Dadaya Mission in then Shabanie (Zvishavane) where I got a job as a temporary teacher, teaching Science subjects. From Dadaya I moved to Empandeni Mission, which was now closer to my home area.

While teaching, my old habit of being involved in politics revisited me. So I started influencing youngsters to join politics and even encouraging them to cross the border into Botswana to go and join the armed struggle. By then Empandeni had boys. However, it was not long before my activities reached the ears of the Rhodesian security forces.

So it happened that one day when I travelled to Plumtree Town along the way I saw a police vehicle going towards the direction I was coming, they were looking for me. Some of the boys I had recruited had been arrested and spilled the beans. So the police were now after me. I was tipped off by another detective whom we used to drink together, his name was Benjamin but I can’t recall his surname. He was from Mashonaland. When I got to Plumtree I met him and he asked me whether I had seen a police car along the way and I said yes. He said the detectives were looking for me for recruiting students to go and train as terrorists, so I had to do something.

MS: In all this what was the feeling of your parents and what was your next move?

Rtd Col Mqwayi: By then my father, Jobela had passed on in 1961 and my mother, Jesta Sebele was naturally worried, she tried to discourage me from being active in politics, saying it was not possible to remove the whites from power. All that fell on deaf ears. So after receiving the tip-off about my pending arrest, I did not waste time.

I jumped into a train going to Botswana there and there. That was how I joined the armed struggle. I travelled all the way to Gaborone without any incident. When I got to Gaborone I stayed at Broadhurst Farm. There was a time when Cephas Cele, who was one the senior Zipra commanders came and addressed us the recruits who were awaiting to go to training. He promised to return and collect us.

I should point out that where we were there were recruits from Zapu, Zanu and those from the Bishop Abel Muzorewa’s party. When Cele delayed in coming back to collect us, I and another comrade decided to travel to Francistown where we were briefly kept at the prison for our safety. We were later flown to Zambia to embark on our training programme.

From Lusaka International Airport we were taken to Nampundwe Transit Camp and what a hell of a place. Initially I thought the instructors there wanted to kill us. The initiation exercise with its physical drills was extreme, some of the recruits including myself at one point thought maybe we had joined the wrong group, which was not Zapu.

The monkey crawling exercise, where you kept one arm and leg up while the other two were on the ground was unbearable. People suffered there.

MS: From Nampundwe, where were you taken to?

Rtd Col Mqwayi: From Nampundwe we went to Mwembeshi, we are the group that came immediately after that of the 800, which had gone to Mgagao under Zipa and then later completed its training at Morogoro in Tanzania. In our group we were 1 000. Some of the people I trained with were Sikhuni, Oscar, Katoka Mudaka and Scotch Masola.

The duration of our training was nine months and it was very tough, also being handled by tough instructors the likes of Stanley Doko Gagisa, Jack Mpofu, uDaki, the late Eddie Sigoge, Khwela and Emmanuel, who was the political commissar. After completing our training, some were seconded for further training in countries like the Soviet Union. I was chosen to become an instructor, but I went to Gagisa and convinced him to let me go to the battlefront. That is how

I found myself in a unit of 36 deployed in early 1977 to go and operate in Filabusi, Mzingwane and the Matopos area, which covered areas around the Matopo Mission.

MS: So how was your movement from Zambia to your area of operation considering the distance and the security situation?

Rtd Col Mqwayi: It was very eventful as by the time we reached our destination we were only two from the original group of 36. Crossing the Zambezi River on its own was as good as facing the enemy if not worse. So while we were still trying to negotiate our way along the Zambezi River, one comrade fell into a gulley and we had to send two others to look for him.

When they got to where he had fallen they failed to locate him as by that time he had been captured by the Rhodesian forces. I met him after independence, he was coming from prison. Those two who had gone to look for him then returned to Zambia as by that time, us the bigger group had moved further inland. Then as we were moving, now being 33 with the commander being Cde Bobby Nine Finger and myself as the second in command, we got lost in areas around Dete.

What worsened the situation was that it was raining and we went straight to Dete Centre, but by that time it was smaller compared to now. We found ourselves right inside Dete and it was early in the morning at about 5am. We saw a man pumping water into a tank and up to now I am sure he is the one who sold us to the Rhodesian forces.

MS: Why do you say so?

Rtd Col Mqwayi: This is how it happened, after moving past Dete and before reaching Hwange National Park, Bobby Nine Finger called for a halt and said we needed to prepare food and eat in case we came under attack. We then based and the comrades started preparing the food. I then heard some voices coming from outside the circle of our deployment. We then sent four guys to patrol while myself I sat down leaning against a tree.

Suddenly there was a burst of gunfire. In that melee, Cde Jealous was shot in the leg and our unit was put into disarray as comrades withdrew from that position. Helicopters were also on us. However, we were saved by the rain that fell as the helicopters quickly withdrew and that also affected the ground forces. Bobby Nine Finger and I decided to evacuate Jealous, as Bobby was leading Jealous, I covered them with fire and at the end we managed to get into safety.

MS: What about the other 30?

Rtd Col Mqwayi: Those ones we never saw again, we lost each other. We moved into the national park and when we were about to reach the villages of Tsholotsho we came across another Zipra unit who had a lot of guys we had trained together at Mwembeshi. That unit had between 36 and 38 comrades under the command of Ronnie, who had trained at Morogoro in the group of 800. Their destination was Beitbridge.

We moved together until we reached Ndolwane area in Bulilima and that is when it was decided means be found for the injured Jealous to be moved to Botswana. That was done and I met him at Gwayi Assembly Point in 1980 where he was the chief communications officer. As for us we moved with the Ronnie unit until we separated at Figtree. From my original unit it was now myself and Bobby Nine Finger, just the two of us, the rest it seems had decided to operate in the northern front. Seeing our desperate situation Ronnie pulled out four comrades from his unit and gave us.

We then became six. At Figtree we turned eastwards, going to our operational area that is upper Matobo District, Umzingwane, northern parts of Gwanda, the boundary there with units operating in Gwanda being Mtshabezi. Our first port of call were areas near Mzimuni in the northern parts of Gwanda. Before us there was a unit operating where we had been deployed, it was under Nkosembi and by the time we arrived he had been withdrawn and promoted to deputise Makepesi Tshuma, who was the frontal commander based in Francistown. Those two were later killed in a Rhodesian raid in Francistown.

MS: So your unit was just six guerillas?

Rtd Col Mqwayi: Yes, we were just six. That was not easy as we could not execute big missions. So Bobby Nine Finger withdrew and took with him two comrades to escort him to Botswana to report to the frontal commander about our situation.

MS: That was tricky now, being just two. What then were you doing just the two of you?

Rtd Col Mqwayi: I remained with Cde Dinghie politicising the masses and playing hide and seek with enemy forces. We were just surviving, moving from Dolo Range in Filabusi to Mzingwane and Matopos so that we were not cornered by the enemy. Bobby Nine Finger and the other two returned after three months accompanied by 24 guerillas. Those 24 were part of the 2 000 first group that had trained in Angola. When we were six we were all armed with AK-47s, but in this group 24 they were better armed as they had bazookas, detacrovs or grunov. That is when the situation changed.

– To be continued next week

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