The Sunday News
Today we continue our interview with Cde Highten Khuluma Nkomo, whose pseudo name was Billy Mzamo who was born in Zambia to Zimbabwean parents and chose to join the armed struggle despite the fact that he had not witnessed first hand the ill-treatment of blacks by the racist Rhodesian government. After joining the armed struggle Cde Nkomo rose through the ranks to become camp commander at a number of Zipra camps such as Chakwenga, the famous Nampundwe and Mkushi which was a women only facility. Later on he was promoted to the rank of second deputy commander for personnel and training.
He speaks to Assistant Editor Mkhululi Sibanda (MS).
MS: Cde Nkomo in our last instalment you were talking about the vetting. Can you take us through how you handled infiltrators.
Cde Nkomo: Lake I said in our previous interview at the transit camp in this case which was Nampundwe those in charge of screening were the department of personnel and training which was commanded by the now late national hero Cde Cephas Cele, the military intelligence headed by now Brigadier-General Abel Mazinyane and the party intelligence which was under Dumiso Dabengwa.
However, in my recent conversation with Retired Brig-Gen Mazinyane for the purposes of this interview the military intelligence used to sneak its officers when the department of personnel was doing its interviews where they would be recording things like level of education of a recruit, previous employment, place of origin and any visible scars. What I should add is that the personnel comrades also opened files for each recruit for the purposes of keeping records.
MS: Why did the military intelligence people sneak into their officers?
Cde Nkomo: This was because the recruits would obviously relax when talking to the comrades from personnel and if one was a spy he or she would also relax a bit but the moment the word intelligence was mentioned a trained person would be on guard. So in the next stage when the military intelligence officers took over the screening they would have formed some perceptions about certain individuals and so they would be picking on the inconsistencies.
MS: If they suspected that one was a spy what did they do to such individuals?
Cde Nkomo: Like I said I did not work for any of the three branches at that time that did the screening exercise but as the camp commander some of their officers fell under me. However, although I did not deal directly with individual cases what I know is that if a recruit was identified as a spy and there was reasonable suspicion that person would get all the necessary attention from the military intelligence officers. The scenario would swiftly change from an interview which all recruits had to go through to interrogation and those familiar with any military set-up know what I am talking about. Such an individual would no longer be kept at my camp but would be taken somewhere else where the military intelligence officers would deal with him.
MS: What do you think would happen to those people?
Cde Nkomo: In my conversation with him, Brig-Gen Mazinyane said after the suspect broke down during the interrogation process and then it was ascertained that he was really a spy usually such people were sent to Mboroma Detention Centre for rehabilitation. There was a case of a Rhodesian soldier who was caught while trying to inflitrate us and was coming from the signals corps at Braddy Barracks.
At times it was easy to catch a spy because he would be outstanding during military drills, such a person would just catch up military things easily. A trained person would never be out of step while the recruits were taught how to march for instance.
However, they were not killed but rehabilitated and those who were successfully rehabilitated would be made to join the mainstream Zipra force.
MS: What about the returning guerillas coming from operational areas? How were they treated as I understand there were cases where some returned to the rear in Zambia via Botswana.
Cde Nkomo: The expectation was that a guerilla returning to the rear coming from operational areas was supposed to cross the Zambezi River. That was the expectation and when they reported to the camps coming via Botswana it was treated as a different matter. That was because coming via Botswana meant one would have dumped his weapon which was a serious offence in any military operation.
Our guys could not roam in Botswana armed as that country did not tolerate that so when they got into Botswana they were supposed to leave their weapons hidden somewhere. It was different from Zambia which was known as a war zone. So if a returning guerilla returned to the rear having gone through via Botswana then that person was to go through the screening process which was subjected to all the recruits.
He was also taken to task over the missing weapon and there are cases where he was re-deployed to the front armed either with only a grenade or bayonet. He would be the odd one among his heavily armed comrades. He would be armed with that grenade until he recovers his weapon. He had to find a weapon somehow. This was meant to stem cases of ineptitude.
MS: I understand you were later redeployed from Nampundwe to Mwembeshi which was a military training facility. What was your role at Mwembeshi?
Cde Nkomo: At Mwembeshi I became a military engineering instructor and my brief was to take the recruits through mine warfare, use of anti-personnel and anti-tank mines. Remember I had trained as a military engineer in the Soviet Union. So I would teach the recruits how to lay a mine field and also how to de-mine it. The use of mines in a war situation is very delicate because there is a saying that a military engineer makes a mistake once in his life meaning that if you make a mistake you would be killed and never to have another chance again. The other task at Mwembeshi was to drill the recruits on how to make and use military explosives, fortifications, building wire entanglements, road surveys and constructions and so on. I also taught the recruits how to make home-made explosives.
MS: Home-made explosives; tell us how this is done.
Cde Nkomo: That is not for publication. If I am to tell you it would be the height of irresponsibility on my part as one of the senior commanders of our armed struggle. Thugs would copy my recipe and start committing crimes.
MS: Then after your assignment at Mwembeshi where was the next port of call?
Cde Nkomo: From Mwembeshi I was reassigned to Mkushi to take over as camp commander. I found there about 2 000 women both trained and untrained. My chief of staff at Mkushi was Cde Phinda, the medic was Cde Bhutshe while Cde Ntashana was in charge of logistics. Basically we were also instructors. There were also the aged whom we called king killers and they were the cooks. There was a platoon made of male soldiers that also provided security.
MS: Cde Nkomo you were in charge of about 2 000 young women and there were few men in that facility, how did you contain the issues of nature? Wasn’t there some sort of abuse of those girls.
Cde Nkomo: There was nothing like that. We made sure that the interaction between males and females were minimal. It was my policy that no commander should be served food by the females. There was no special treatment. There was no time for relationships, that was the policy. However, you cannot dismiss that entirely but my point is that personally I never witnessed comrades having those relationships. Even cases of sexual abuse were never brought before me until I left at the beginning of 1978.
MS: You left for where?
Cde Nkomo: I was promoted to the rank of second deputy commander of personnel and training where I served under Cephas Cele who was the chief of personnel and training while the now Retired Colonel Eddie Sigoge was the first deputy commander of personnel and training.
MS: I understand at one point you had the luxury of having a vehicle and a driver. How far true is that?
Cde Nkomo: It’s true that I was given a vehicle, a Land Rover on the orders of the commander, the late Nikita Mangena. But I don’t want to call it a luxury because there were serious reasons why I had a vehicle, in fact during that time commanders who had cars were Cde Mangena and myself while other senior commanders “babehamba ngenyawo njengezilwane”.
I was given the car while I was still the camp commander for Nampundwe the simple reason being that there were always emergencies that needed quick reactions and you couldn’t carry such tasks without a car at your disposal. Of course other senior commanders heading different departments of Zipra had access to cars but they were pool cars. Whenever they wanted to use the cars they had to seek approval from transport guys.
MS: On 26 July that is on Tuesday marks 38 years since the death of first Zipra commander Nikita Mangena. You worked closely with him and all those tasks that you carried out I guess you were assigned by him. How would you describe Mangena?
Cde Nkomo: Mangena was an exceptional soldier. He was just brilliant, talented, a straight talker who never tolerated nonsense. He had no time for ineptitude and never entertained stupid people. That is what I can say about Mangena.
