The Sunday News
Brig-Gen Abel Mazinyane (Retired), Correspondent
THE 43rd anniversary of the death of ZPRA commander, Alfred Nikita or Rogers Mangena passed on silently for many on 28 June, but not to some of us who were fortunate enough to work closely with that military genius.
I first met Alfred Nikita or Rogers Mangena at Morogoro in Tanzania in 1969 when he was a military instructor. He had trained in Algeria where he had gone through a commando course and later attended a Military Academy at the end of which he was commissioned as a lieutenant. It was said he had been a brilliant cadet. In fact, he was the best cadet of the intake composed of recruits from various countries.
From Algeria his group was sent to Kongwa in Tanzania in 1965 where they met other groups coming from different countries where they had undergone military training. Other than Zimbabweans there were also groups from AMPLA, Frelimo, and ANC. In 1965 the Zapu group of instructors moved to Morogoro to establish a military training camp. Mangena was also sent to Morogoro as an instructor with his subjects being tactics and military engineering.
As an instructor he expected nothing less than the best from the recruits. He became a role model for most recruits who were charmed by his elegant military turnout. At the formation of ZPRA, the military wing of Zapu in 1971, Mangena was appointed its commander with the rank of Chief of Staff. In his command he had Phelekezela Mphoko, Cephas Cele, Charles Ngwenya, Lookout Masuku and Gordon Mnyanyi. That is the team that worked with Mangena to revamp Zapu’s new kid on the block-ZPRA. Mangena took over the command of ZPRA at a time when experienced fighters deserted the struggle. Resources for the party and the military were at zero.
There was no food or military equipment. The world was watching if James Chikerema had taken the sting out of Zapu’s fighting capability. At that time the co-relation of forces of ZPRA against the enemy was out-gunned and outnumbered. Rhodesian Army had four standing battalions plus several call-up regiments, the British South Africa Police, and some auxiliary forces. ZPRA had less than 20 guerillas ready for deployment.
These are the guerillas that were deployed along the Zambezi River. Rhodesian forces were commanded by General Peter Walls who had been a commanding officer for a Special Air Service squadron in Malaysia during the Second World War. Mangena who was born towards the end of the Second World War was now commander of ZPRA daring Walls in the battle field. Walls was to admit later on that ZPRA was a good army and had this to say: “Given ZPRA to command I would conquer Africa.”
Despite being underdogs in the co-relation of forces, Mangena and his command went on the offensive. The Rhodesians who thought they had contained the guerillas were taken by surprise by the ZPRA offensive. The launch of the strategy by Mangena and his command was to exhaust the Rhodesian Army. Highly mobile guerilla attacks lured the enemy into fighting an invisible adversary. The small number of guerillas had their tails up ambushing enemy small patrols, raiding small bases and blowing up convoys.
This approach frustrated the enemy whose intelligence could not comprehend the force they were facing. In 1973 the Rhodesian government used Zambia as a scapegoat for their lack of success. They closed the border with Zambia, blaming it for military misfortunes. That was ridiculous.
While this was happening ZPRA intensified recruitment through party structures and guerilla units. Mangena insisted that cadres were to be sent to the Soviet Union for specialist training to improve the quality of ZPRA field commanders, build and improve Army departments such as logistics, engineering, support arms, intelligence, communication and others so as to match Rhodesian Army blow for blow. This also helped to strengthen the Soviets’ resolve to support Zapu after the departure of Chikerema.
The flow of arms from the USSR improved. Mangena and his High Command pushed that a ZPRA member of the High Command be included in party delegations and that the commander of ZPRA be a member of the party education committee to open opportunities for ZPRA candidates.
Mangena was a disciplinarian. He did not tolerate deviation from set down rules unless they were in the form of extreme bravery. It was under Mangena’s command that ZPRA pushed for “Every thing for the front” and “The soldier must come first” slogans. Mangena strived to turn ZPRA into an army of revolutionaries. Zapu later promoted Mangena from the title of Chief of Staff to Commander of ZPRA with party leader, Joshua Nkomo becoming Commander-In-Chief. Through Mangena’s command, ZPRA was also upgraded by training of heavy weaponry, formation of big units and training of commander for those units. He also revamped the army by re-organising fighting regions from two to seven. Nikita demanded total commitment to the armed struggle and nothing else.
The deal breaker with Mangena was cowardice, indiscipline, reactionary tendencies and all those things that compromised our struggle. In Mangena the Zimbabwean struggle had a military genius, who always anticipated solutions to pending military problems. He communicated with every member in the ZPRA formation. He pushed his soldiers to the highest achievements. He made the impossible possible. He was a slave driver.
However, Mangena was a fair and firm commander. I am proud to have worked shoulder to shoulder with this military giant during the struggle for our liberation. It will be a great lie to write the history of Zimbabwe without mentioning his name.
Brigadier-General Abel Mazinyane (Retired) is a former member of the ZPRA High Command and currently sits in the War Veterans Board.
