The Sunday News
We continue our interview with veteran nationalist and pioneer guerilla, Cde John Maluzo Ndlovu pseudo name James Moyo.
Last week Cde Ndlovu spoke about his trial at the Salisbury (Harare) High Court where the Rhodesian Chief Justice, Sir Hugh Beadle sentenced him to 43 years in prison for being involved in guerilla activities. The judge also spelt out that after serving 43 years, Cde Ndlovu would then be sent to the gallows. This week he picks up the conversation with our Assistant Editor Mkhululi Sibanda (MS), still talking about his trial and change of circumstances on the political situation, how the white regime dramatically brought forward his death sentence. Below are excerpts of the interview:
MS: You speak about taking lightly the long sentence of 43 years, which in addition to that was a death sentence. How was the mood in court that day?
Cde Ndlovu: Sir Hugh Beadle had said I was to stay in prison for 43 years and after that be hanged. I laughed because to me that was not possible, like I said I had the confidence in our armed struggle although it was at its infancy, I had the feeling that we would defeat the settler regime on the battlefield. What I had seen in China during my training gave me that confidence. Turning to the mood in the court during my trial, it was something else. The public gallery was packed to the rafters because my arrest had made headlines. Some of the people I think were there just to have a look at a terrorist. After my sentence was explained in SiNdebele I was brought down and led to join other condemned prisoners. From the court I was taken to Salisbury Central Prison where we were kept in a very small space.
MS: Take us through your life in prison.
Cde Ndlovu: From March 1965 I was kept at Salisbury Central Prison dressed in red garbs up to 1968. Salisbury Central Prison was notorious because it was the facility where many political activists and freedom fighter were hanged. The mere mention of it sent shivers down the spines of many. It was a horrible place and was a symbol of colonial oppression, a terrible place. While we were there, there were a lot of developments outside and things started changing on the battlefront as well. Of particular interest and in relation to my imprisonment was the Chinhoyi Battle of 1966 between the Rhodesian forces and Zanla guerillas. After that battle, some captured Zanla comrades were brought to Salisbury Central Prison. One of the captured guerillas was Makosa who had been injured during that battle. He joined us at Salisbury Prison with his colleague whose name I have forgotten. Then there were also the Sipolilo and Hwange battles, joint operations carried out by Zipra and Umkhonto WeSizwe guerillas. Those events had a serious bearing on my life and status as a prisoner.
MS: How? Explain to us.
Cde Ndlovu: Those battles made the Rhodesians wake up and notice that the war was coming up thick and fast, so there was a need to change the way they were treating captured fighters. So one day some Rhodesian security faces with painted faces came straight to my cell and pointed at me and one of them said, “kill this one”. So after the soldiers had left I started pondering about what they meant. At first I had doubts that they would put into practice what they had just said, kanti angibuzanga elangeni. The following day at 8am, the prison officers came and took away those Zanla boys, leaving all of us shocked to the core. They were sent to the gallows. Sasala sithithibele. Then Monday passed, so did Tuesday and then on Wednesday morning, they came for other Zanla cadres, Victor Mlambo and James Dhlamini of the Crocodile Gang. The two were the guerillas who had been involved in the operation where they killed a Rhodesian, in Melsetter now Chimanimani, Petrus Obertholtzer in July 1964. It then became apparent that people were being executed for real. Then on Friday, two days after the execution of Mlambo and Dhlamini, a prison warden came to my cell and called out my name, he then ordered me out of the cell, saying I should take my blankets and follow him. He led me outside to a certain point where I found a large contingent of prison guards. Five others were also removed from cells bringing our number to six. The guards then led us up the stairs and it was now clear that into leyana isisenzakala (clear that we were being led to the gallows). Then a guard called out my name, “John Maluzo Ndlovu”, I responded by saying “yes, sir,” he then said I was going to be executed on the next Monday at 8am. Now I had Saturday and Sunday to live and that very Friday.
MS: That was tricky and who were the other five prisoners?
Cde Ndlovu: There was Lloyd Gundu from Zanla, remember we had trained together in China, Amen Chikwakwata whom we were deployed together and was from Zapu, Jeremiah and the other one- these were Zapu guys from Rusape who had killed a village head over a political dispute. They had accused the village head of being a sell-out. After being told of our fate we taken to the cells, to wait for our death. From the cell I was in, I climbed up and reached the window, I then shouted from there telling everybody that thina sesingapha kuthiwa siyabulawa ngeMonday. Having said those words the prison with a strength of 5 000 men then went completely silent as if there was no one there. Then came Saturday and Sunday, now waiting for Monday, the D-day.
MS: What was going through your mind all this time, waiting for your death?
Cde Maluzo. I was expecting that question. The atmosphere was not conducive. I will talk about myself though. After being told that I will be killed on Monday, surprisingly I became so brave, ngaba lesinye isibindi engingazange ngibelaso. I started recalling that by the way when I crossed the Zambezi River from Zambia, I was psyched up for a do or die situation, so this was the die situation. That spirit came out, I said to myself I have seen other comrades being led to the gallows, so let it be so with me as well. I was prepared for anything as long as that was part of the cause I had left my home to go and join the armed struggle for in a bid to free my country from the yoke of colonialism.
MS: You are talking about yourself, what about comrades?
Cde Ndlovu: Difficult to answer that one because we were kept apart. Probably as individuals they were having the same attitude as me or they were pleading with their ancestors and God to protect them against death that was on the door step. What I should point out is that we were also asked or can I say told to invite up relatives each one of us so that we could bid them farewell. I think it was also part of the psychological torture the white settlers were playing on us.
MS: How were they supposed to travel to the capital at such short notice?
Cde Ndlovu: They were driven to Harare in government vehicles that included amajibhi (police cars). You know when the Rhodesians were doing such evil things they had that pretence of being a caring lot when they were the opposite. Just imagine in my case ferrying people all the way from Nkayi to Salisbury Central Prison so that I could be paraded in front of my relatives in the last hours of my life.
MS: In your case who among your relatives managed to get to the prison?
Cde Ndlovu: On that Sunday on the eve of our supposed execution my relatives indeed came, they were 25 including my child I had left home when going to the war. My mother, uMaNcube also was part of the delegation, but my father could not make it as he was in detention at Gonakudzingwa. My sister who was married and living in Highfields in the capital was there as well.
MS: What was your message to the relatives?
Cde Ndlovu: We were given the opportunity to speak to them. I addressed everyone through my mother by saying the authorities here asked you to come so that I could bid you farewell as tomorrow I am following my comrades who have travelled the road we are embarking on tomorrow. I said I knew why I was being killed and told them that I was not worried at all about my pending execution. When I said those words all my relatives broke down and started wailing, bakhala ezimathonsi. Kwaba lesililo esingayenziyo. I found myself consoling them, pleading with them not to cry as I had accepted my fate. Then to my mother I asked her to take good care of my child and that my child be told in future that I was imprisoned and died in prison and my grave is in the prison yard. However, I said to my mother I have a feeling that nothing bad will happen to me. I said I had that feeling at the back of my mind that I will not die. I told them when coming the following day they should not come at eight in the morning because that is the time they are going to kill me. So instead they should come at around 9am and check on the notice board, if they don’t see my name, they should ask for John Maluzo because angizizwa ngisifa. It was at that point that my mother scolded me.
MS: Why and what did she say?
Cde Ndlovu: She said what I was saying was madness. She said my pending execution was already affecting my mental stability. In her words she said: “Lo usephambana, akusela lutho la.” After meeting our relatives we were led back to our cells. When I got to my cell, I pretended as if they were executing me since I knew how they prepared one for execution. I stood up and pretended as if I was dressed in plastic, the one they dressed a prisoner being taken to the gallows with so that one becomes straight. Somehow we knew the formula they used when carrying out executions. I then stood up and closed my eyes, trying to imagine what a dead person sees. I kept quiet and I saw a vision of stars, I then said to hell, why am I bothering myself and got into my blankets. The following morning I asked the time from the sergeant-major who had been assigned to my cell and was just outside. He told me that it was after six and was almost 7 o’clock. I kept bothering him about time and when he said it was 7.30am, the door opened and they came in. I then yelled out and said abakho emkhutsheni. There is a certain behaviour trait that the wardens used to exhibit when they were leading condemned prisoners to the gallows. The first cell they came to was mine, it was as if I was the leader of those condemned prisoners. They gathered us in a room. Then one senior warden said John Maluzo Ndlovu, I responded by saying “yes, sir”, then he went on and said “your execution has been postponed until further notice.” That message was relayed to the four of us, initially there were six of us who were supposed to be executed. I said to the other four, this is a trap, let’s wait for the remaining 30 minutes to see what they want to do.
They took Ansa and Jeremiah, the Zapu comrades from Rusape and they are the ones who were executed on that day.
ν To be continued next week
