The Sunday News
Morris Mkwate
Zimbabwe’s long struggle against Ian Smith’s regime almost came to nothing as Rhodesian elements collaborating with South Africa’s apartheid regime came close to bombing several African leaders and thousands who converged at Rufaro Stadium, Harare to celebrate Independence on the Eve of April 18, 1980.
The elaborate plot — which was detected on April 16 and has been largely kept under wraps all these years —involved lining explosives on routes dignitaries would use to get to Rufaro Stadium and then detonating them via radio links.
Three SM7 missiles were positioned atop hills in Norton’s Snake Park area to deliver the killer blow to any targets fleeing the chaos in Harare by air.
Altogether, six bombs were fitted inside Rufaro Stadium, while several other explosives were panelled onto traffic lights on roads leading to the grounds.
President Mugabe was due to take the Oath of Office as Prime Minister in front of Britain’s Prince Charles and Southern Rhodesia’s Interim Governor Lord Soames; and figured alongside other targets who included Presidents Kenneth Kaunda (Zambia), Julius Nyerere (Tanzania) and Samora Machel (Mozambique).
It is believed had the plot been successful, apartheid South Africa would have moved in to “restore order” and Zimbabwe may well have been annexed and assumed a colony status like Namibia (then South West Africa).
In an exclusive interview with our Harare Bureau last week, Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa revealed that Dan Stannard — a Special Branch operative he recruited into Independent Zimbabwe’s intelligence community in January 1980 — got wind of the planned bombings and promptly alerted his boss.
Cde Mnangagwa was Zanu’s head of intelligence and Special Assistant to the President at that time.
The VP said: “My message (for Independence Day 2015) is that nations remain solid because they have security protection. There is no nation that can survive without solid security protection. Despite the sacrifice we had made as comrades in the war — both Zipra and Zanla — and the sacrifice of thousands of our comrades who died, the 11th hour could have been betrayed if we did not have solid security.
“And we could have lost that goal or culmination of the entire armed struggle that night. So, our people should always be patriotic and conscious about the security of the State. Enemies will always be there. There is nowhere in history where a State was loved by every living human being. Empires and States have survived on the basis of not only that of the will of the people, but that will of the people buttressed by solid security.”
VP Mnangagwa said the whole of Zimbabwe was preparing for Independence Day when Stannard spotted South African intelligence operatives dining at Jameson Hotel in Harare.
He immediately linked them to Rhodesia’s Selous Scouts with whom he had collaborated prior to 1980.
Stannard alerted Cde Mnangagwa, and a shadow team comprising Special Branch agents was quickly assembled to monitor the group.
While maintaining constant radio communication with their superiors, the agents tailed the South Africans as they left the hotel in three cars.
This took them out of central Harare, onto the old Bulawayo Road and Snake Park where the assassins pulled into a bush.
“Our guys passed them and parked their cars elsewhere, and approached the place on foot. They traced them to the top of a hill where they were studying maps — maps showing Rufaro Grounds. They also had a map of how we were going to travel (with President Mugabe) from Mount Pleasant.
“It was towards evening and they had tasked a scout to keep watch. So, the scout alerted them that they were, indeed, being followed and there were armed chaps — including a white — who were coming. These guys did not have time to collect everything.”
VP Mnangagwa went on: “They ran and our chaps fired, resulting in them dropping all their papers as well as their explosives. Little did we know, however, that if you crossed (Hunyani River) there was a farm with a runway.
“There was a small aeroplane waiting. For our chaps, the (immediate) interest was not to capture them, but to get those documents.”
The documents — according to the VP — showed views of Rufaro Stadium and routes dignitaries to the Independence ceremony would use.
The guests — who included India’s Mahatma Gandhi as well as Presidents Machel, Nyerere, Kaunda and Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq of Pakistan, among others — were booked at Meikles Hotel. Prince Charles was housed at Lord Soames’ official residence.
