The Sunday News
We continue the interview with pioneer freedom fighter Cde John Maluzo Ndlovu who in the past weeks with our Assistant Editor Mkhululi Sibanda (MS) has spoken about his early political activism in his rural home of Nkayi District, how he joined the armed struggle, military training in the People’s Republic of China and deployment to the front in 1964.
Today Cde Ndlovu picks up the conversation by talking about his dramatic arrest. Below are excerpts of the interview:
MS: May you please relate more about your operations.
Cde Ndlovu: As I said I started my operations in 1964 after being deployed with Amen Chikwakwata working closely with the Zapu structures in and around Harare. We carried out successful operations in the rural parts of Mashonaland and from time to time we would move between the rural areas and Harare then Salisbury mainly conscientising and mobilising the masses. We also carried out sabotage activities. We were also very mobile and we would disguise ourselves to avoid being detected and deceive the enemy. We knew how to manoeuvre and morale was very high. However, that morale was soon to be like umchemo, osuka lapha uphelele laphana as the enemy detected our activities and was soon on us. Amen was the first to be captured as in some cases we will split and operate on an indivudual basis, and the enemy forces were now on my trail. It then became a case of kuzwakala ukuthi umuntu lo ula, umuntu lo obela, they were looking for me everywhere, but I was managing to deceive them. Then came a day lapho indwangu eyakhutha khona ugatsha.
MS: Take us through on how you were cornered.
Cde Ndlovu: It was that March of 1965 at what I had thought was a safe house at a place outside Salisbury, that place could have been 100km from the capital, but to be honest I am not sure of the distance because I had gone there to shake off the enemy that was on my trail. I was also now operating under the cover of darkness in a bid to avoid the enemy forces. The hide-out had been arranged by my contacts. It was a pre-dawn raid by the Rhodesian forces on my hide-out. I had also befriended some Coloured chaps who had given me some dyed doll’s hair, which we had fitted to make me look like I had a heavy beard. So when the Rhodesian security forces pounced on my hide-out I just had a dream waking up and going somewhere, little did I know that the house had been surrounded. So when the Rhodesian security forces Detective Inspector Beans stormed into the house, looked at me they were confused. They asked whether there was another person besides me in the house. The heavily armed officers spoke among themselves and said, “this is the not the person we are looking for, this one has a beard while the person we are looking for is clean shaven.” I held my breath, but nonetheless they took me to Salisbury (Harare) Central Police Station and when we got there, their boss, whom I was to later on learn was hired from the Scotland Yard told the detectives that they had arrested the wrong man. He asked them where they got me from and they said at the house where they had been told they would find me. The Scotland Yard man then said okay take him to Borrowdale Police Station.
MS: They could not let you go.
Cde Ndlovu: No. They couldn’t. Then on the way to Borrowdale Police Station something terrible started happening, the chemical that I had been given to stick the fake beard, started giving me problems, my skin began to be so itchy, ngacina ngikuxexebula okuzindevu kwakhona. The itching was unbearable, to my surprise the two officers who were flanking me did not even see me removing the beard. When we got to the station ngafika sengingulowo abamdingayo.
MS: But Cde Maluzo why did you remove your disguise?
Cde Ndlovu: Aah! Aah! It was difficult to withstand what I was feeling, that thing was very itchy, kungalumi kubulala because the chemical had expired. When we got to the station the officers were shocked to see me in another form. Their boss said “yeah, this guy is well trained” and he started reprimanding his juniors, describing them as foolish officers who were poorly trained and did not even see me removing the fake beard. He said he was very disappointed that even when they were flanking me they did not see me removing the beard. They searched their vehicle, zero ndevu. They were asked as to where I had put my beard but none of them could answer and they were demoted there and then. I had thrown it out of the window on our way to Borrowdale.
MS: After your capture, how were you treated?
Cde Ndlovu: After being captured the torture was too much and being the first trained people to touch that ground of liberation it was being said that a terrorist was someone who never took a bath, was a person with a tail and smells and that was the propaganda of that time in Rhodesia. All forms of torture were visited upon me, I was taken to Goromonzi where it became worse, at one point I passed out, but I insisted that I did not know anything. They could not break me because of the revolutionary spirit I had and also as a result of the vows we had taken during training.
MS: What were those vows?
Cde Ndlovu: We had vowed and been told by our mentors that in the event of being captured one should never give the information about the whereabouts of others and all the things we had gone through, we were told it was better to die.
MS: Seeing that you had been deployed in such small a number and probably not well armed, don’t you think you were being sacrificed by your leadership so that some form of fighting seem to be happening?
Cde Ndlovu: My colleagues and I were political soldiers and the reason I say so is because we first joined politics and even left the country for the armed struggle on a voluntary basis, to offer a service that will see this country getting the freedom it deserved. We even used our parents’ money for those political activities. When we went to the crucial military training to us it matched what our hearts desired over the problems we were facing as black people. So to me that question of being sacrificed does not arise, I joined the armed struggle when there were many Doubting Thomases, so I was aware that the path I had chosen was fraught with many dangers. I went through those dangerous situations because I was driven by the desire to free this country. After the Rhodesians had done all sorts of things on me, like beatings and torture I was eventually indicted to appear before a judge, charged with many counts that included treason.
MS: Then take us through your trial.
Cde Ndlovu: My case was handled by the Rhodesian Chief Justice, Sir Hugh Beadle. He told me that I was in court because of the numerous crimes I had committed and I denied all the charges. I said I had not committed any crime that warranted me to appear before him. I think I was facing eight counts, all of them carrying a heavy sentence. Freedom fighters were viewed as bad people who were disturbing the peace loving Rhodesians. I was given a State lawyer to represent me and I told them that I did not need one, I could defend myself. I was always in leg irons and even when I went to Gomo Hospital (Harare Central Hospital) as there was a time when I was not feeling well I had two guards either side all shackled to me in addition to the leg irons fastened to my legs. I was described as a dangerous person who could run away at anytime.
MS: While you were going through this, were your parents and other relatives aware of your situation?
Cde Ndlovu: During that time I was operating under the name James Moyo, people at home didn’t know what was happening. After being convicted Sir Beadle came to me and said we have heard about you and I know that you won’t say anything but I find you guilty of all these crimes. He then slapped me with a 43-year jail sentence with hard labour and I was told if I managed to serve those 43 years I would then be taken to the gallows to be hanged. After the pronunciation of that sentence in a packed High Court gallery, I burst out laughing. I laughed in front of the packed court to everyone’s surprise and shock.
MS: Why?
Cde Ndlovu: To me that was a foolish sentence, in my analysis I could tell that there was no way I could serve 43 years in a Rhodesian jail and then be sentenced to the gallows. I had the feeling that it would not take us 43 years to get our freedom, I could sense the revolutionary spirit everywhere. To me that was a joke of a sentence. I remember the day of my sentencing, it was 7 March 1965.
ν To be continued next week with Cde Ndlovu talking about how he was saved from the hangman’s noose at the last minute
