The Sunday News
WE continue our interview with Lt-Col (Retired) Stanford Moyo pseudo name Cde Lloyd Zvanananewako or Cde Mabhikwa who operated in districts such as Lupane, Nkayi and Binga during the armed struggle.
Today he tells our Assistant Editor Mkhululi Sibanda (MS) how some comrades deviated from the armed struggle and compromised operations by engaging in romantic liaisons with villagers.
He speaks of how a guerilla was surrounded at a homestead in Lupane and killed as a result of love affairs.
Below are excerpts of the interview.
Read on . . .
MS: Last week you were talking about how you separated from your unit at an ambush position and later on stumbled on a villager who was on a hunting expedition.
Take us through that.
Lt-Col (Rtd) Moyo: I ordered the old man to head south and we rested 500 metres away and I investigated on the roads around and did not find anything of interest.
I ordered the old man to skin the buck so that I get a piece which I would survive on, in case.
At his home I remained outside the yard.
I then changed the position, going around the homestead without the knowledge of the old man.
Immediately after last light he brought a delicious meal which we shared.
I put some chunks of meat aside and gave the old man the uncooked pieces I had remained with.
From 7pm to the next morning I was alone and at 5am I moved to another village.
I spotted Sandlana Mafutha the other side of a bush fence (uthango) covering the field and that is how I re-united with the rest of the unit.
MS: What followed that then?
Lt-Col (Rtd) Moyo: There was a de-briefing of what transpired at the ambush where we had waylaid a convoy that was going for a cattle sale.
We realised that the time we adjusted our positions we overlooked the distance to be covered by the returning convoy.
Trucks were many, our troops fired at only three in the killing ground, the fourth was only fired at during the retreat of our troops.
Rhodesians made a quick counter-ambush drills and forced us off.
My section took the weapon I had taken from the Rhodesian soldier for camouflaging and a decision was taken to escort me to look for kit bag.
I had hidden the kitbag as the norm before we advanced to the ambush.
We got there after a fortnight and found a heap of soil left by the big termites. I only salvaged my rounds of ammunition and explosives.
MS: How did you proceed after that ambush which I believe at least you were happy with?
Lt-Col (Rtd) Moyo: At that de-briefing after the ambush along the Lubimbi-Manyanda-Tinde Road we arrived at a decision to have a lull. We wanted to avoid contacts as we widened our area of operation.
We had also realised that our ammunition was depleted.
There was no re-supply of ammunition on the ground, we had to cross over to Zambia to get supplies.
However, during that period we were re-enforced with three sections.
We tried with little success to source some few rounds from those who arrived.
However, their arrival necessitated widening our operations all the same especially to the east.
MS: So there was a lot of movement?
Lt-Col (Rtd) Moyo: There was a need to de-congest Mzola and Dongamuzi as guerillas had to move in small but very mobile units. That is when I was given a section to command covering up to Lupane East and Nkayi.
MS: Take us through that period.
Lt-Col (Rtd) Moyo: We spent more than one-and-a -half months meeting people and no fighting occurred during that period.
When we returned we found that the situation had changed with guerillas now sleeping in people’s homes.
Our relationship with the masses got a new turn as guerillas got involved in love affairs.
MS: How did that affect your operations?
Lt-Col (Rtd) Moyo: Our security got compromised.
That reached the ears of the Rhodesians and they changed tactics, they started eliminating guerillas.
That trend continued for three years in almost all operational areas from Lupane to Lower Gweru.
The first casualty was a colleague who was shot between Village Five and Six at Mzola.
One day an old man approached our section informing us to warn one comrade who was indulging in love affairs to stop doing so.
MS: How did you take that?
Lt-Col (Rtd) Moyo: We told him but that fell on deaf ears.
Rhodesians were following all our activities in villages.
They had informers and trained agents among the population.
That comrade was monitored and one day the home he was in was surrounded up early in the morning.
He was ordered to surrender and he resisted.
He was shot and killed.
Only him in the home was affected.
Rhodesians on such operations played it professionally at the time.
They targeted their target.
They took the body to Siwale, took a lot of photos and a few days along the line they were dropping his pictures as part of their propaganda activities.
They had put a stick to push his lips up and down to expose his teeth.
A plane was used to drop the pictures around Mzola and Dongamuzi as well as some parts of Binga to show all those who knew him that the Rhodesians had killed a “terrorist” they knew.
That embarrassed us. Some of us thought that it was a good lesson and comrades would stop that.
It stopped temporarily in the area but resurfaced in other areas.
To be continued next week
