The Sunday News
Pathisa Nyathi
Zambia was ideal in terms of proximity to Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), the target for military infiltrations. At the start of the armed liberation struggle, Tanganyika (now Tanzania) was used as a rear base which housed training camps such as Kongwa, Morogoro and Mbagala for the external wing of Zapu. The party had, as early as 1961, opened offices in Accra, Ghana. Edward Ndlovu was the party representative who was posted there. In due course, he was redeployed to Cairo, Egypt where Benjamin Madlela, Mariwa Gumbo, Tranos Makombe and others were based. With the advent of Tanganyika’s independence in 1962, an office was opened in Dar-es-Salaam.
Zapu cadres proceeding to countries where they undertook military training left from Dar-es-Salaam. For example the two groups that went to train in China in 1963 left off from Dar-es-Salaam and had a stopover in Moscow before flying to Beijing, then known as Peking. This happened to be the case even after Zambia became independent in October 1964. Tanganyika was deemed safer than Zambia on account of the latter’s proximity to Rhodesia. However, in terms of being a springboard for infiltration, it was more ideal. A similar consideration led to the collaboration between the ANC’s UMkhonto we Sizwe (MK) and Zapu’s Special Affairs Department. South Africa is closer to and shares a common border with Zimbabwe. Botswana then was, in terms of security, more than porous. The 1967 joint infiltration (the Luthuli Detachment) was arranged with that in mind.
In terms of proximity what was deemed an advantage to the guerrillas seeking to launch attacks on Rhodesia proved a disadvantage in terms of Rhodesian air raids. That was the case in October 1978 when several Zapu camps were bombed on 19 October 1978. That far back, Angola had attained her independence in 1975. MPLA had rear bases in the North Western Province with Solwezi as the provincial centre. Close by, MPLA had a base known as Maheba. Following their independence, they vacated the base which Zapu then took over.
The move to Solwezi was in response to the raids. Some camps such as Freedom Camp (FC), Victory Camp (VC) and the JZ Camp were close to Lusaka and not very far from Rhodesia. Even Mkushi Camp which faced horrible bombings was too close for comfort. As a result, several Zapu establishments relocated to the Solwezi region after 1978.
The first establishment, out of the five set up in the Solwezi region, was Maheba which, as indicated above, had been an MPLA military rear base. Maheba became a holding camp for men only. The men who were housed at Maheba were those who had been injured in battle within the operational zones and those who were wounded during the October 1978 air raids. These were men deemed no longer fit for active combat duties. The men were engaged in agricultural projects. Some of them seized the opportunity to further their education.
Zapu’s injured personnel came back after cessation of hostilities. Zimbabwe Project (ZIMPRO) run by Judith Acton and Paul Themba Nyathi played an important role in taking care of these persons. Another Zapu establishment to be set up in the Solwezi region was the J Z Camp which had relocated from near Lusaka. It was a camp for boys of ages ranging from 6 to 18 years. The camp, named after Jaison Ziyaphapha Moyo who was killed in 1977 when a parcel bomb exploded, killing him instantly, housed an estimated 12 000 inmates. The camp provided educational facilities at both primary and secondary level. Rhodesian trained teachers were teaching the boys.
Instruction took place mostly under trees as there were no classrooms to accommodate the big numbers of learners. The pool of young boys provided cadres that were selected from within their ranks to go for military training when their ages allowed. Others were selected for professional training abroad. Zapu sought to develop skills that would be required when Zimbabwe got her independence. As a result, some were trained to be engineers, pharmacists, medical doctors, agriculturalists, economists, scientists, nurses and other professions. In addition to teachers that had fled from Rhodesia there were cadres, the political commissars, who took care of the boys’ political education. These were provided by the Party’s Commissariat Department.
The whole purpose behind Zapu’s location in Zambia was to train cadres that would, after military training, go back to Rhodesia to engage the army with a view to dislodging the minority racist regime. Within the new region there was a military camp where recruits were trained. Mazoe Training Department (MTD) was its name. It was a military training camp run by ZPRA’s Training Department. The facility was later renamed MILTEZ (Military Training Establishment of Zimbabwe).
There was also the Mazoe Camp exclusively for the militarily-trained female guerrillas. These were the survivors from Mkushi Camp which had been devastated during the aerial bombardments of October 1978. The establishment, then under the command of Gertrude Ngwenya, also provided training facilities for females. As pointed out in some earlier article, Jane who commanded Mkushi was killed and then replaced, at Mazoe Camp, by Gertrude Ngwenya who was based in Lusaka. The camp also housed a mobile military hospital that cared for the whole region. This was a facility run by ZPRA’s Personnel Department.
Yet another department was located in the same region as the four that have been enumerated. Prior to 1978, ZPRA had its own department dealing with military intelligence. This had been the case from inception of the Special Affairs when a small High Command was set up in 1965. At the time, Dumiso Dabengwa was in charge of both Intelligence and Reconnaissance. When ZPRA was constituted in 1971, Military Intelligence continued as a department within the Army, starting with Gordon Munyanyi (Tapson Nkomani Sibanda) as its chief.
As part of reorganisation following moves by the released detainees seeking to entrench themselves as leaders of the external wing of Zapu, a new all-encompassing and free-standing organisation was created under the Directorship of Dabengwa. The organisation was the National Security and Order (NSO). Towards the close of the war, many former Rhodesian policemen deserted and went to enlist with the NSO.
Mazoe base housed trained members of the NSO. The men catered for both physical and intelligence security. The facility was run by the Security Department. The next article will look at how infiltrated Rhodesian agents sought to sow seeds of disunity, conflict and mutiny. It is well known that from the beginning of the struggle for independence the Rhodesians infiltrated their agents both within the military and the civilian arms of the liberation movements. The agents seized the opportunity to cause conflict but also to extract intelligence which was used when cross-border attacks were being planned and executed.
