The Sunday News
This is the second part of an article by Retired Brigadier-General Abel Mazinyane about the combat life of the late former Zipra senior commander Eddie Sigoge Mlotshwa who passed on in Bulawayo last month.
Sigoge, who earned a reputation as a no-nonsense military instructor and commander left instructions in his will that after his death he should be cremated and his ashes spread in the Zambezi River escarpment. In the previous instalment Rtd Brig-Gen Mazinyane ended his article by relating an incident where Sigoge and another senior Zipra commander had gone to a contact site where the guerillas had faced the Rhodesian Special Air Services (SAS).
There had been casualties on both sides. My task was now to convince the doctor at United Teaching Hospital (UTH) in Lusaka to give me a death certificate. At UTH the doctor said: “I want to see the body.” Cde Donki who had wrapped up the disintegrating decomposed body and placed it in a B10 wooden box, had warned strongly against opening the wooden box. My yet to be discovered diplomat skills saved the day. I was issued the death certificate, the comrade was given a decent burial. Since the Wankie and Sipolilo operations Zapu’s Special Affairs and later ZPRA have always closely worked with Umkhonto Wesizwe-MK (ANC’s armed wing).
When ZPRA opened training camps in Zambia, MK used to ask ZPRA to refresh the cadres before deployment into SA. Our training camps in Zambia used to hold 2 000 plus troops. The small number of MK would be fused into these big numbers. The ZPRA gruelling training syllabus was sometimes too tough for them to endure. These comrades were distributed into different companies that they were not able to meet for weeks. There was an incident when an MK comrade who was attached to a camp where Sigoge was commander, demanded to see his colleagues or he would kill the youngest ZPRA whose head he was pointing his gun. His company had come to collect lunch at the kitchen, when this happened.
Other than being attached for the purpose of deployment other MK soldiers were brought to ZPRA camps for disciplinary reasons. I recall a group of five was visited by the MK commander — Cde Joe Modise. Before undertaking the visit Cde Modise came to the ZPRA headquarters. He asked Cde Alfred Nikita for an escort. I was, as chief of intelligence ordered to provide him with body guards. This I did. However, a few minutes later I was called by the ZPRA commander who I found standing with Cde Modise with the latter complaining of the size and stature of the man I had provided as body guards. “Nikita ngifuna amadoda, leziya yizigebengu (Nikita I want bodyguards, those ones are thugs),” Cde Modise was saying.
I told Cde Mangena that I was happy with the man I had provided Cde Modise. Cde Mangena told Cde Modise that the guys were the right ones. That evening, Cde Modise came back to Cde Mangena complaining that we had given him “izigebengu” for body guards. I later understood that when Cde Modise was addressing the MK soldiers one of them behaved unmilitarily. The body guards enforced military discipline instantly. All ended well.
Coming back to Cde Sigoge’s case, the MK soldier insisted that all his comrades be produced before he could release the innocent young man after some diplomatic manoeuvres had failed. Cde Sigoge then came up with military persuasion to provide a solution.
An artillery gun was brought forward and aimed at both the man and his captive. A short speech was read that both would be sacrificed for the struggle. Firing drills were performed by the gun crew and waited for the order to fire. The B10 is an 82mm artillery gun which destroys tanks and its occupants into oblivion. The MK comrade released his captive before the order to fire was given by Cde Sigoge. I think it was a wise decision he never forgot.
As for the training, Cde Sigoge and his fellow instructors produced fighters of the highest calibre, although sometimes too bold and adventurous for my liking.
When ZPRA guerillas were tracking back to Zambia from Mozambique instead of avoiding Bulawayo on their way to Botswana they all went through the city. Cdes John Nyamupingiza and Sibuko chose Luveve Police Station for accommodation before proceeding to Botswana.
Some like Cde Nditsheni Dube embarked on the form of crude socialism when they took cattle from some white-owned farms 45 kilometres from Bulawayo along the Victoria Falls Road for distribution to peasants in Lupane.
