The Sunday News
WE continue with our interview with former Rhodesian ex-policeman Mr Matthew Masuku who was part of a unit that arrested late ex-Zipra guerilla, Cde Albert Sumbo Ncube in Bulawayo’s Mabutweni suburb. Cde Sumbo Ncube pseudo name Cde Shungu was to later on make a daring escape from Victoria Falls Police Station where he was being kept naked and he left Masuku and his colleagues clutching thin air. Mr Masuku now 79, in a conversation with our Assistant Editor Mkhululi Sibanda (MS) takes us through his days in the Rhodesian police force. Below are excerpts of the interview. Read on….
MS: You said you were once part of the Zapu youth system, then you talk about arresting nationalists. How did you feel about?
Mr Masuku: I was surprised when I saw people being arrested for nationalist activities, however, there was nothing I could do because I had already committed myself. Then working outside Bulawayo that is in Hwange brought a lot of excitement in me because it was my first time to work outside Bulawayo. Remember like I said I had just been brought up in the farming community in Fort Rixon where I also grew up playing with white children. The presence of a white person never intimidated me like what was the case with many during that time. My father’s employers had nine boys and one girl.
MS: Take us through your activities as a member of the Ground Coverage (GC) that involved monitoring political activities.
Mr Masuku: We used to check monthly whether those who had left the country to join the armed struggle were coming back to their homes. We would do that through seeking information from other locals. It was done in a subtle way. As for politicians we made sure that they were not aware that they were being monitored. We checked on who were visiting them and their movements, some would travel to Zambia and South Africa. Like I said before Andrew Sikanjala Muntanga a hugely built man was Zapu through and through and caused a lot of discomfort within the authorities. That man was just committed.
MS: Hwange was closer to the Zambian border, so did you come across guerillas coming from Zambia?
Mr Masuku: In the early 60s and early 70s not much was happening, there was very little activity as far as guerilla operations were concerned. But on 1 January 1971 ngabamba i-guerilla. I caught him at Kamativi Tin Mine.
MS: Aah, how did that happen?
Mr Masuku: I knew everyone who was working at Kamativi, not names but faces of course. Kamativi is 22km from Dete where I was stationed and it fell under our operational area. That is the place that had many people, so ngangisazi umuntu wonke laphana. Not names but faces.
During that time at Kamativi workers there were forced to wear bangles that were red, white, green and yellow in colour, which was a system of monitoring them. Seniors who were very, very few like managers and so forth did not wear any of these bangles. I will tell you why they were of different colour. For a person like me who was doing that type of job, gathering intelligence, one had to know why the company was doing that. These bangles were meant to show what type of job one was doing. Underground workers were wearing green bangles, it was a must when within the premises if you were an employee of Kamativi to wear that, doing otherwise could even cost one his job.
Wawungaxotshwa umsebenzi sibili. Red and yellow I am not sure now, but there were for something else. The white bangle was for domestic workers. Workers had to wear those bangles for 24 hours, ulala lakho, uvuka lakho njalo ugeza lakho. So, like someone who had arrived in the area in 1964 it was easy for me to pick out the workers and their departments. From 1964 to 1971 I had stayed long enough to be very familiar with the surroundings of the area. It was also easy for me to pick out a stranger, that is how I managed to identify and catch that guerilla.
MS: Continue taking us through to that incident.
Mr Masuku: At Kamativi there was a club for senior workers, one could join it depending on one’s status of course. There was a bar there. Kamativi probably was one of the few companies where workers could mix despite racial differences. Even senior managers could live in those beautiful houses occupied by the whites as long as you had a senior position.
In Matabeleland that is the company that I can vouch for where racial segregation was not that pronounced, I am not sure about what was happening in Mashonaland provinces. So, myself to get cover as an operative I had access to those bangles, so I used to wear them when within the mine premises. I had access to all types so that I could not be identified easily. Remember I was not supposed to be identified as a policeman, my duties were to gather intelligence, if there was a need for an arrest then I would call the station so that other officers could come and effect an arrest.
Kwakungamelanga ngibonakale ukuthi ngilipholisa. In case I was at the mine I would ask the security details there to arrest the culprit and then phone the station. You know during those times an accused person or suspect could even be put in a bus from as far as Binga and the culprit would not run away. People just followed the law. Even from Kamativi to Dete wayefakwa ebhasini umuntu amapholisa amhlangabeze, babengabaleki abantu benkosi. Abantu babelunge kakhulu.
MS: Okay, let’s get into details on how you caught this guerilla fighter.
Mr Masuku: It was on New Year’s Day 1971 like I have alluded above. So, during the holidays there would be so many visitors, people would have travelled to visit their loved ones, even here in town you might find that there would be many people. Like all the days I would visit the Kamativi Tin Mine Club, whose opening time was 6pm. However, I usually arrived there at around 7pm.
So as usual on that 1st of January 1971 I got there at around 7pm. There was a book at the door, the visitors’ book. So, the rule was that a member in the event he had a visitor should write down the name of his visitor against his. He would write his name and name of the visitor in case there was a problem. As a security person I would take the book, check who was visiting and the name of the person being visited. I would then make a follow-up on those people maybe the following day to check on them. So, when I got hold of the visitors’ book I would note down the names and details of those people discreetly, kwakungamelanga ngibonakale ukuthi ngiyabhala something from that book. I had my own tactics of doing my things. On that day I did the same.
MS: Sorry for interjection, were you still staying at Dete or you had moved to Kamativi?
Mr Masuku: No. I was still staying at Dete, I would be going to Kamativi on patrol. At times I would be on patrol for 14 or sometimes 21 days. If there was something that I was pursuing the office would allow me to stay there. Ngangingabizwa back.
MS: Okay, you can go ahead at tell us the events of that day.
Mr Masuku: So, I got into the club, as usual I did cast my eyes around, scanning the environment. I checked on the bangles, some there was no need to check on them because I knew them already. I was then attracted by a young man who was seated by himself. Ngakhangela ngakhangela, he was not wearing a bangle like others and was new to me. There were others of course without bangles but I knew them. It was a holiday, like I said there were visitors, even school children were back home, so were teachers and other workers.
I watched that young man closely for two hours, I was waiting to see the person who would talk to him. I was monitoring him from a distance and waiting for him to speak to somebody. If that happened, I would ask the mine employee who would speak to him who he was. Khonapho Sibanda, little did I know that guerillas who were called terrorists had been to the mine before I got there.
They had come to hire a car to take them to Dete where it seems they wanted to board the train. It’s not clear where they wanted to go to, it could have been that they wanted to go to Bulawayo or Tsholotsho. I wouldn’t know but we knew they used trains for their transport. The other three had gone to collect their things. Normally Zipra used to operate in sticks of four, remember that was the initial stages of the guerilla operations. The operations were very few and far apart, they were in their infancy. We as security forces during those days never thought the guerillas were a big threat, that is why ngamdumela umfana lowana despite the fact that he was armed with a pistol, grenade and a bayonet.
Babengakayesabisi those days. Then I realised that there was no one speaking to that person, he was seated next to the table tennis table. He had isolated himself. I liked playing table tennis. I also asked myself why had this person chosen to sit far away from other people when there were more than 50 patrons in the club. Others were dancing since music was being played while others were drinking and this person was not doing anything. Manje ufunani endaweni enathwayo yena enganathi. His dressing was also suspicious, he was wearing a nice slumber jacket, I can say it was a Soviet jacket with fur around the collar.
He was eating nuts. Then I decided to make a move.
MS: How did you make the move?
Mr Masuku: I moved closer to him but not directly. I engaged someone in a game of table tennis and while doing all this I kept my eye on him. I then noticed that he was not even interested in the game of table tennis. After the game I then moved and sat next to him despite the fact that I was not carrying any firearm. I expected him to start a conversation or just a comment about our game, but he just kept quiet. However, his jacket did not raise any eyebrows to me as I thought that maybe he could have been from South Africa which was associated with good clothes. The jacket did not make him a suspect at all.
MS: So, what made him a suspect to you?
Mr Masuku: It was the issue of isolating himself from the rest. I was suspicious because he was not talking to anyone, so I started asking myself questions on how this person got inside the club and Kamativi premises. What used to happen was that in the event of a member of the club bringing a visitor, the member would continuously be introducing the visitor to other members. I then moved and took a chair next to him. He might have looked at me, saw that I was wearing a bangle and that could have settled him a bit.
So, he was not suspicious of my move. After taking the seat next to him I asked for his nuts, ngase ngisithi ngicela amazambane, he gave me. Wangithelela esandleni, waba lomusa. I then quickly devised a way of searching him by placing my hand in his pocket as if trying to get more nuts. Ngathi amnandi. However, when I put my hand in his jacket pocket I came out with some vitamin tablets. In our training as security we were told that amadoda la it was part of things that they moved around with.
Even when I looked at his shoe, I said to myself hmmm we were also taught about this type of shoe.
-To be continued next week with Mr Masuku narrating what happened to the guerilla after his capture and also how Cde Albert Sumbo Ncube was caught.
