The Sunday News
IN our today’s Lest We Forget Column we continue with the interview with Dr Milton Chemhuru pseudo name Dr Mbeya or Cde Albert Ntonga, a former provincial medical director for Midlands and Manicaland provinces who is now a public health specialist for non-communicable diseases in the Ministry of Health and Child Care.
In today’s installment Dr Chemhuru in an interview with our Assistant Editor Mkhululi Sibanda (MS) speaks about training, deployment and how he ended up in Cuba where he took up studies in medicine. Below are excerpts of the interview.
MS: Cde Chemuru you were still talking about the beginning of your training, can you please take us through that process.
Cde Chemhuru: Yes, we had started our training and we were in Zambia for three months still under Cde Todd Mpisi. Then one day we were taken by those big Zipra trucks and it was at night heading for Morogoro in Tanzania. We went through Tutuma and then got to Mbeya. It was at night as I have said, so it was difficult to scan the area as we travelled. However, when we got to Mbeya I just slipped away from the group and went to drink beer, and I got drunk, very drunk. I was still young and full of adventure. When I got drunk I was assisted by the Zipra chief of training, the late Lt-Col Harold Chirenda and I reached Mororogo unaware of what was happening. Despite that mischief Chirenda was not all that offended as he said I was a really guerilla. We later became very close.
MS: So is that why you are called Mbeya?
Cde Chemhuru: Yes, that is where the name came and because of that incident people started calling me Cde or Dr Mbeya.
The name Albert Ntonga disappeared and they also called me Doctor Mbeya because I was trained in first aid before I joined the armed struggle. So when we reached Morogoro our rigorous guerilla training programme started. However, before embarking on the training programme the now late national hero, Cde Ackim Ndlovu who was stationed in Tanzania took us through an orientation exercise. He told us that there was no room for tribalism in the struggle and also that we were supposed to know why we had gone to the war. Our group which was very determined was peculiar in the sense that a majority of us were people who had gone through secondary school and they were a lot of people from Midlands such as the current commander of the ZNA, Lt-Gen Philip Valerio Sibanda whose pseudo name was Ananias Gwenzi, Assaf who died in combat in Zambia in 1978, myself and of course others whose names I cannot recall. There were quite a number of guys from Harare and its surroundings. Also among us were people like Cdes Richard Mataure (Retired Col Richard Ngwenya), Goronga, Maseka and Phetsheya.
MS: Then your instructors?
Cde Chemhuru: We had Stanley Gagisa, Dubhu (Retired Brigadier-General Tshile Nleya), Retired Colonel Eddie Sigoge the tall and light one and the now late Major-General Jevan Maseko, whose pseudo name was Enoch Tshangane. The camp commander was Cde Sam Fakazi and our training was very tough. Besides our local Zipra instructors we had some from Ghana among them Major Dako who had fought in Malaysia and Captain Kofi. However, during our training we had our own of five which comprised myself, Assaf, Valerio Sibanda, Goronga and Maseka. Maseka and Goronga were from Harare. During training the five of us vowed that after finishing we will cross over the Zambezi River and come and hit Borrowdale suburb.
We told ourselves that we wanted to make history. We knew Borrowdale as a white suburb and that was through Maseka and Goronga who came from Harare. So during training we were sort of rehearsing how to attack those whites in Borrowdale.
Then on the eve of 1975 because we had already finished training and we were waiting to be deployed, we armed ourselves and never told anyone about our scheme.
MS: Which weapons were you carrying?
Cde Chemhuru: We had AKs, grenades and light machine guns and we went outside the camp, I think if you do that in the military now you will be shot. At 12 midnight and that was on 31 December 1974 we started firing and everyone started panicking, the likes of Daki (Jack Mpofu), who was one of the instructors, Dube and Sam Fakazi. They thought the camp was under attack and everyone took positions ready for the battle.
MS: Were you firing at the camp?
Cde Chemhuru: No, we were not but we just caused chaos and that’s where everything was spoiled and JZ Moyo learnt about this and he did not tolerate mischief. Information leaked that I was the ring leader of the five and when the time for deployment came they separated us. Ananias and Assaf went with Stanley Gagisa to Lebanon where they spent some time there. As for Maseka and Goronga they were sent to the Soviet Union for further training. As the leader of the big five, myself I remained behind in Morogoro and became an instructor. I stayed in Morogoro until the time of Zipa and during that time that is when I met comrades like the current ZDF commander, General Chiwenga. During Zipa time the force’s high command had nine from Zipra and nine from Zanla. However, the two liberation armies later separated because of some problems that cropped up. As Zipra we then left Mozambique and returned to Zambia.
MS: You worked or saw Alfred Nikita Mangena and JZ Moyo. How would you describe them.
Cde Chemhuru: JZ was a simple guy, he knew every soldier from the camps and would come and visit us at our bases. He was very open and every soldier loved him. Mangena well, those who were cowards didn’t like him because he was a tough commander. He was a military genius. Both Mangena and JZ didn’t like tribalism and those were the architects of the Patriotic Front. If we talk of patriotic people in exile at that time we are talking of Chitepo, Tongogara, JZ Moyo and one wonders how it would have happened if those people had not died. The spirit of unity and patriotism should always exist, if we had not done that here one wonders what would have happened. Look what happened to Angola we didn’t want the same disaster, that’s why we always pushed for the unity of purpose in the fight against colonial oppression. I am happy that before the old man (Dr Joshua Nkomo) died he signed the Unity Accord with President Mugabe.
MS: You remained an instructor for how long?
Cde Chemhuru: I was an instructor for some time and when Mangena died there was a bit of confusion because the enemy forces had now crossed over to Zambia in a bid to disturb our forces from going for deployments. It was at that time that I was sent to the front in a battalion that was commanded by Cde Madliwa (Retired Major-General Stanford Khumalo) who before going for further training in the Soviet had passed through my hands at Morogoro. He was part of the group of 800. During that time PV Sibanda was a regional commander and his troops were battling the Rhodesians who had crossed over to Zambia. So when the Rhodesians went beyond his lines, Mangena deployed over 40 troops who were under the command of Assaf but they were ambushed by the Rhodesians who hit their trucks. It was during that incident that Assaf died. So when Mangena went to visit the scene he was also killed when his vehicle hit a landmine. I therefore went to the front during that time attached to Madliwa’s battalion and this was because of my expertise in guerilla warfare. It was now a case of a teacher serving under his student, remember I had trained him at Morogoro.
MS: So how was the situation at the front?
Cde Chemhuru: It was very tricky because the enemy was all over. However, the battalion was composed mainly of cadres who had done conventional warfare and I was not comfortable with that because I was a guerilla who was comfortable moving in small numbers of between five and seven. There I was with scores of troops. To me it was like suicide because I was trained and taught guerilla warfare and now I am supposed to fight and move with scores of troops. I had a problem there. So I said to Enoch Tshangane (Jevan Maseko), who was the chief of staff by that time that I was not happy with that arrangement. I also told Madliwa that I am a guerilla not a conventional soldier. I then sent a message to Ananias (PV Sibanda) and he sent people to come and fetch me and I joined him. By that time Ackim Ndlovu was the War Council Secretary and I told him that when I had gone to the rear that if I wanted a unit to go to the front he should not give me 1 000 men, I just wanted guerillas.
However, the situation improved when they armed us with strallers, the SM7s. Unfortunately while I was still at the rear at Freedom Camp there was a bombardment and I got injured during that process.
MS: Where were you injured?
Cde Chemhuru: I had head injuries, and I could not go back to the front and by the way the old man (Dr Nkomo) knew me at personal level and he said he wanted me to go and look after the 14 000 or so boys at JZ Camp but he was not aware that I had been injured during the FC bombing. The now late Dr Gordon Bango who was part of the Zipra medical corps sent a truck and said I must go to JZ Moyo Camp and take care of those children, that was an order from Nkomo. Later we were moved from JZ to Solwezi. During the ceasefire talks I went to Lusaka and told Cde Jevan Maseko that I wanted to go to school.
MS: You told him that you wanted to go to school in 1979 before you came to Zimbabwe and before the Independence elections?
Cde Chemhuru: Yes, in December 1979 and he said it was ok, and that’s how I went to Cuba where I stayed until 1987 when I returned to Zimbabwe. I then joined the Ministry of Health as a medical doctor and rose through the ranks. That is the story of my participation in the armed struggle.
