The Sunday News
TODAY we round-up our interview with former freedom fighter Cde Lindiwe Sam Jacobs Phuthi pseudo name Cde Sammy Mafu who served in the Zipra artillery unit during the armed struggle.
Last week Cde Phuthi spoke about how he left his job in the Rhodesian hospitality industry because of racism where he was paid three times less than his white colleagues despite having the same qualifications attained at the Hotel School at the then Bulawayo Technical College, now Bulawayo Polytechnic. In the interview with our Assistant Editor Mkhululi Sibanda (MS) Cde Phuthi today rounds up by relating how the Zipra artillery unit was built. Below are excerpts of the interview.
MS: May you please take us through your training.
Cde Phuthi: The training was very, very tough but as a sportsman as I had played a lot of football before leaving the country I could keep pace with the instructors, I could manage. Some physical exercises were very common to me. We were taken through a lot of theoretical and practical lessons. We did bayonet charge, judo, topography and things like that. I found myself helping instructors to explain things to my fellow recruits when dealing with topography as I was very conversant with Geography. We delved into combat tactics, obstacle crossing, manoeuvre, physical exercises such as number nine (frog jump) and number six (press-ups). We were also taught politics and every morning from 4am to 7am we were taken through rigorous physical exercises, including a road run of 10km every morning between Monday and Friday. Then between 7pm and 8.30pm as a commissar I would go to the camp commissar’s position and listen to the news bulletin on radio, jot down notes, which I would then read to my company at around 9pm and that was done on a daily basis. It was the duty of all commissars drawn from platoons and companies to do that.
MS: When did you complete your training?
Cde Phuthi: We completed our training in August 1977 at CGT and the reviewing officer at our pass-out parade was the Zipra Commander-In-Chief himself, Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo. Then after that a group of about 1 000 guerillas were deployed to the front in various parts of Zimbabwe. In actual fact they were sent as reinforcements to the troops who were already on the ground. A group of 100 was then selected to undergo specialised training in progressive European countries that supported us. I fell in that group as I was selected to go to the Soviet Union. The rest of the members of our group were deployed around Zambia for security and some as instructors at the camps. Two groups were then sent to the USSR in November 1977, 20 to Oddessa in the Ukraine to undergo a course for battalion commanders while some of us were sent to Simferopol, Cremia peninsular on the Black Sea.
MS: What were you there for?
Cde Phuthi: We were there for the artillery commanders and instructors’ course. Others were there for the infantry company and platoon commanders’ course.
MS: You were there for artillery, take us through your time in the Soviet Union.
Cde Phuthi: We drilled into the use of artillery pieces. We learnt a lot there. We were trained in the use of 82mm recoilless B10 weapon, 82mm mortar, 57mm anti-tank gun, 122mm Grad P missile launcher, anti-air Zegue one and two barrel, strella (SAM7), maintenance of armoured tanks and we also did engineering looking at bombs, grenades and mines. It was a very taxing military course that needed a lot of attention to detail. I specialised in the B10 weapon, which is designed to destroy armoured vehicles by direct fire or personnel through indirect fire at a distance of up to 4,5km. We completed our training which had also covered military and political science in May 1978. When we returned to Zambia, immediately after that we were taken to a secluded place, at that moment we had acquired invaluable military knowledge and we were ready to take the enemy head-on. Then in July two groups of trained commanders were deployed to us and that is when a fully-fledged and well-equipped artillery unit within Zipra was established.
MS: What was the command structure of the artillery unit like?
Cde Phuthi: Cde Connery was appointed the commander of the artillery unit, with Phineas becoming the commissar, chief of staff was Chapaere, logistics belonging to Maliki while Butata was in charge of security. I was deployed in the pool of instructors responsible for the B10, Khohli (Clever John Dube), who currently lives in his rural home of Kezi took charge of the 82mm mortar, Siboza (Mark Ndlovu) 57mm anti-tank gun, Tymon looked after the Zegue, Matshokotsho Grad P 122mm missile launcher and Vulindlela was in charge of the Strella, the weapon that brought down the Rhodesian Viscount. We had been armed by the Soviets, for my B10 I had pieces which were enough to train 90 recruits. My first assignment was to take them through topography, reconnaissance and indirect firing and that took about 10 days. Then we started to train the first and second groups in artillery and those were comrades who had already completed training in guerilla warfare. We had them for three months. From December 1978 to February 1979 we trained another fresh group. Then in February there was a pass-out parade and immediately after that I was deployed in a unit, which had guerillas drawn from our artillery recruits to Hurungwe in Mashonaland West Province.
MS: Take us through your deployment.
Cde Phuthi: When we were deployed I had to leave the weapons on the Zambian side with Matshokotsho as there was a need to first identify where they could be placed as we are talking about heavy weapons here. I then crossed the Zambezi River in March 1979 at Feira where there is a boundary between Zambia and Mozambique as well. From the Zambezi we moved on rough terrain for two weeks until we reached Hurungwe. Once in Hurungwe we joined guerillas who were already on the ground and we covered areas like Kazangarara, Chundu, Mvuti east and west, Chitindiva, Magunje and so on.
MS: Then what happened to the heavy weapons you had left on the Zambian side?
Cde Phuthi: There came a time when Tymon of the Zegue unit was tasked to bring all the artillery pieces and that was successfully done. Some of the weapons, because of the tense situation had, after being re-assembled, tested on the battle field and that was at Karuru, I still remember the date vividly, it was on 25 May 1979 when we attacked a Rhodesian camp there. We had prepared well for the battle and caught the Rhodesians by surprise. I used a B10 to silence the pillbox and after that we overran the camp. It was one of the many battles where the artillery unit, which I belonged to decided the battle against the Rhodesians, as for Mash West there was the Mana Pools under the command of Rodwell Nyika, where Zipra scored a big victory there. There was also the battle that lasted for about five days across the Zambezi when the Rhodesian forces unwittingly attacked a full-strength battalion under the command of Madliwa Khumalo, the enemy suffered heavy losses and even admitted that they had faced a crack unit. We were disappointed to learn of the ceasefire at Lancaster House in Britain because we were so prepared for the final assault against the Rhodesians that we felt we were robbed of a clear military victory.
