The Sunday News
IN our Lest We Forget column last week we carried an interview in which our Assistant Editor Mkhululi Sibanda and senior reporter Robin Muchetu spoke to veteran nationalist and the only surviving member of the Zapu national executive committee of the 70s and 80s Cde Jane Lungile Ngwenya. Last week Cde Ngwenya narrated her political journey which resulted in her marriage to husband George Tinarwo breaking up.
This was because she sacrificed her family for the liberation politics, something which her husband and other family members did not take well.
Today the interview resumes with Cde Ngwenya speaking about how she crossed the border to Zambia via Botswana. Below are excerpts of the interview:
SN: May you please pick up the interview with your journey to Botswana?
Cde Ngwenya: I never used transport that many people regularly used. From Bulawayo we drove to Plumtree and I dropped off at a place that was not a designated drop off point. There were people waiting for me. As I have said my name was the first on the hit list of the Rhodesian security forces.
I was supposed to be killed, one guy called Choga disappeared. Meanwhile, in Buhera, my home area, the police went to look for me but failed to locate me as I had slipped into Botswana.
May you take us through that.
Cde Ngwenya: When I got into Francistown I went to the police station to inform them of my presence as they were assisting us. Also during my brief stay in Botswana I met Sir Seretse Khama who was the President then and he warmly welcomed me. I then left for Zambia where I found Jason Moyo, George Silundika and Edward Ndlovu in charge of Zapu then. I became the fourth leader when I arrived.
When I got into Zambia it was during the period when Zapu was having serious problems, it was the period when Chikerema and others had left the party to form Froliz. When I went to Zambia I had got a scholarship from Canada which was organised by Amnesty International to study law.
However, because of the problems the party was facing I sacrificed that chance and opted to work for the party. Zapu then needed people to re-organise it and so I felt I could not leave for Canada when Zapu was facing all those problems.
SN: You are talking about the internal problems Zapu was facing, was it easy to pick up the pieces?
Cde Ngwenya: It was not.
However, we persevered and managed to see to it that the party programmes were back on track. As the leadership we worked and saw to it that the young people received military training in various countries. It was not easy to organise and lead the people, nothing comes easy.
Even today we have challenges in politics. The party then strengthened and we organised and brought people to the front. Zambia then gave us some space to broadcast our programmes which entailed urging people to cross the borders and join the armed struggle. The Hwange, Sipolilo (Guruve) and Chinhoyi battles had been fought by then. People came to the camps in thousands and were prepared to fight. Chikerema and Nyandoro did not get many supporters then.
SN: We understand you were in charge of the propaganda programme that was meant to mobilise people to join the armed struggle. What strategy did you employ?
Cde Ngwenya: On the radio I would say “Buya mntanami uhlaleleni, owakho umbhobho nanku, ufanele wena”. People started coming in droves but when they got to Zambia especially at Nampundwe which was a transit camp they were shocked to find out that they were to undergo a rigorous military training exercise before taking the gun and returning home to fight the Rhodesians.
People would then tell the instructors that this is not what Jane said that we had to toyi-toyi. They would say Jane told us to come and get the gun and go back to fight. Later on I stopped broadcasting and in came the now Deputy Minister of Industry and Commerce Cde Chiratidzo Iris Mabuwa who was part of the group that was taken from Manama High School in Gwanda.
SN: How was she chosen considering that she was probably new and very young then?
Cde Ngwenya: She was chosen among many because she was very witty, brilliant and her understanding of issues was top notch, that is why we chose her. S
he also had the advantage that she could broadcast in all languages. Even today it’s an advantage in broadcasting because as Zimbabweans we should be able to speak all our local languages. I feel sorry for people who do not want to know other languages.
I am fluent in languages such as Nyanja, Ndebele, Shona and English. When I speak of Zimbabwe I speak of the whole country, not just a particular tribe. Cde Chiratidzo fitted that bill well and that was why at that tender age she was given that important responsibility of sending a message that was crucial in our recruitment drive. It should be noted that girls had also joined in and it bothers me why some people especially male ex-combatants speak as if only men fought in the liberation struggle, it was a real war where women also put their lives on the line in their quest to see a free Zimbabwe.
SN: You were there when Cde Jason Ziyapapa Moyo died in that parcel bomb. What happened on that day?
Cde Ngwenya: It was on 22 January 1977 and it was a Saturday. Zambia was hosting an OAU meeting and the whole of Africa was there. JZ had gone to Mozambique on a Thursday and returned the following day which was a Friday.
There was a parcel for JZ that came through and our administrator, the now late Amos Jack Ngwenya forgot to give him on his return from Maputo, so he received it on Saturday.
I had organised a meeting at the office to discuss the talking points of the meeting he was to attend with some diplomats and friendly countries and organisations. We wanted him to tell the people from the United Nations and the OAU about the challenges that we were facing.
So we went to the office, JZ was given his letter and no one even suspected anything because he had been expecting that letter anyway. We had overheard a conversation about the letter he was waiting for and little did we know that his communication had been intercepted.
SN: So you were in the office?
Cde Ngwenya: The office was a small one, I was on the telephone speaking to the UN representatives informing them that JZ was coming to speak to them, Dumiso Dabengwa and John Nkomo had joined us then and they were present too. Before I finished the conversation, the bomb exploded on JZ. Ngwenya, Dingane and Carlos were also some of the people who were in the office when JZ died.
That is how Moyo died.
Today I am much better because my head no longer buzzes like it used to before but we were injured as well. I was thrown out of the office. John Nkomo was a handsome fellow with a beautiful light skin but he was burnt badly on that day. The collar of his t-shirt was the only thing that remained on his neck after the bomb exploded. Dabengwa also got badly burnt. The owner of the office that we were using Desire Khuphe was also affected by the impact and was thrown out of the office. What pains me most is that when Khuphe died after Independence here in Zimbabwe he did not get any recognition.
SN: Some people have spoken of foul play on the death of JZ. What is your comment on that?
Cde Ngwenya: People have a tendency of talking about things that they do not know.
There are many distortions from people who were not even present on the day of that unfortunate incident but they speak as if they know everything.
Some say he had blood all over his head but what happened was that his stomach was ripped open exposing his intestines, his head did not suffer any injury as some said, neither did his body get dismembered. I was there and I saw everything. People are now distorting information because history is coming out too late. Now people want to speak like they were present so that they gain cheap political mileage which is not good.
He was buried by the whole of Africa and the UN officials that had gathered for the OAU meeting. He was buried after four days because the meeting had to be concluded so that people could go back to their countries.
Heavy rain fell on that day, Zambian President then, Kenneth Kaunda refused to be covered by an umbrella and all the rain poured on him as JZ Moyo was being buried. We got drenched in water; I have seen leaders with love and compassion but very few are like Kaunda. Many important incidents are hardly spoken about in our history.
SN: Then there is the incident of the kidnapping of intelligence officer Ethan Dube.
Cde Ngwenya: Ethan Dube who was with us was taken by Selous Scouts and disappeared without trace. I had travelled with him to Botswana for a meeting and when we arrived he was taken away and that was it. We put up for the night at different places and I was shocked when I was woken up and told that Ethan had been taken; I was wearing a night dress. We had sell-outs among us, there was a girl who seemed to be our supporter and was present when we got to Botswana. I believe she assisted the enemy with information regarding our presence. We did not suspect that she had been planted to get information from us.
SN: So how was Ethan kidnapped?
Cde Ngwenya: It looks like this girl gave him a drink which was laced with some substance which made him drowsy and then the Rhodesians got in.
The Tswana people assumed they were locals and let them into where Ethan was, he was a tall, huge man, the white man carried him on his shoulder and walked away with him, he seemed to have been drugged because his body was limp. The Tswanas did not question anything and those whites walked away with him and that was that. Up to now we do not know what happened to him.
I was then taken to the airport and returned to Zambia. That was another incident where I missed death by a whisker; I had missed it during the JZ Moyo incident.
SN: Then you held on until the ceasefire.
Cde Ngwenya: After the Lancaster House Conference the party called for people who will volunteer to go home first. Many were scared as they were not sure what the Ian Smith regime was up to. However, I stepped forward, so did Willie Dzawanda Musarurwa, Ariston Chambati, Mrs Dlomo and Daniel Madzimbamuto. We returned home to do a test case as people were scared. We were welcomed with great joy.
In March of 1980, I was voted as an MP for Bulawayo. Some of my colleagues joined the army and other departments in Government. Zapu had lost the elections and we entered into a coalition. In 1982 the Prime Minister Cde Mugabe appointed me Deputy Minister in the Ministry of Labour, Manpower Planning and Social Welfare.
SN: Then let’s look at the Zapu national executive. How was it structured?
Cde Ngwenya: We were about 25 with Dr Joshua Nkomo as our President, Josiah Chinamano as his deputy while Joseph Msika was the Secretary-General. That was the top leadership.
SN: Is there any other survivor from that executive besides yourself?
Cde Ngwenya: I don’t think so. I am here though, I do not know of anyone else who is still alive. They are all gone now, the last we had was Cde Naison Kutshwekhaya Ndlovu who was not in the national executive but he was one of the first nationalists. But you many never know, you can hear someone coming up after I have died, saying they were there.
Today people are fighting for leadership positions, us we fought for the betterment of the lives of people. In terms of seniority in the Women’s League I hear of Angeline Masuku, she is one of them.
SN: Then in 1985 PF-Zapu did not field you as a candidate.
Cde Ngwenya: I was not elected into Parliament in the 1985 elections but that was not a challenge as I was not after a position but joined the struggle to free our people. But when I noticed that my name was not on the list of candidates I approached Dr Nkomo and he referred me to the National Chairman then William Kona who also referred me to Dr Nkomo. At the end of the day I did not understand what was happening.
SN: At family level how many children did you have?
Cde Ngwenya: I have one child left. I had three, one was a lawyer and the other an economist and they are both late.
