The Sunday News
ON Wednesday, 6 January 1965, guards at the then Grey Street Prison (Bulawayo Prison) — where freedom fighters Cdes Clark Ngiyo Mpofu, Elliot Ngwabi, Keyi Nkala and Moffat Hadebe were detained had a surprise of their lives when they opened the cell where the quartet had been detained only to discover they had evaporated into thin air. According to The Chronicle of Saturday 9 January, 1965, following the re-arrest of Clark Ngiyo Mpofu, Keyi Nkala and Elliot Ngwabi, a prison officer, Alexander MacGregor Hall told a packed Court Room Number One, at the Tredgold Magistrate Courts how they discovered the escape of the four prisoners.
He said he locked the four together, with another prisoner in Cell 22 at the jail shortly before 5pm on Tuesday.
Hall told the court that when he unlocked the cell the following morning he found only one prisoner inside.
But before concluding, possibly, the prisoners had magical powers to vanish into thin air the prison officer discovered that a “a hole measuring 30 inches by 18 had been cut by some sharp instrument in the corrugated iron ceiling. Further along another measuring 14in by 20 in, had been cut in the roof”.
Hall said a search was conducted at the jail and footprints were found beneath the roof where the hole was cut.
The footprints, he said, led to a lawn and then “just disappeared”.
This then marked the beginning of what was described by a police spokesman as “one of the biggest manhunts in Rhodesia”.
A story in The Chronicle on the escape by the four described them as “all facing charges alleging sabotage”.
Cde Mpofu was on remand in connection with explosive attacks in August and September on Wilkie’s Circus, Tredgold Buildings and the Post Office.
The other three had been arrested “for being involved in a machine gun attack on Dube Ranch in Kezi, near the Bechuanaland border in September”.
According to The Chronicle, after discovery of the jailbreak “tracker dogs followed the scent about 50 yards along Wilson Street, going south, in the Hillside direction.
By 8am police had thrown up rings of roadblocks, one around the city and the others in areas such as Gwelo, Shabani, Figtree and Plumtree.
The RRAF airlifted police officers who knew the prisoners to strategic border posts.
Meanwhile, heavy reinforcements of police from Bulawayo were drafted into the countryside around Bulawayo to assist in the all-out search for the men.
The search was at its most intense to the South of Bulawayo in the Matopos area and a helicopter with a police tracking patrol aboard, supplied by the Police Reserve Air Wing joined the hunt.
Hundreds of copies of photographs of the wanted men were being shown by police to farmers in the Matopos, Nkayi and Plumtree areas south west of the city, and all farmers were being asked to notify their workers of the escape and obtain their assistance in looking out for the wanted men.
The build-up of the search to the south-west came after a Hillside resident gave police their first strong clue.
The resident called the police at about noon after he heard news of the escape and said at about 1.30am he was awakened by his dog barking, looked out and saw four Africans, in white shorts and red singlets — the clothing of remand prisoners — walking up Leicester Avenue in Hillside.
They were going in the Matopos Road direction. A special gazette was rushed out by a local printing firm and with RRAF assistance, distributed to every police station in the country. It carried photographs and descriptions of the escapers.
Friday’s issue of the Chronicle stated :
Police in trucks, on bicycles and on foot moved through the jumbled terrain of the Matopos during the day, combing what is thought to be the most likely area in which the escaped prisoners may be hiding out — if they are still in Rhodesia.
The air search was resumed at first light. A Royal Rhodesian Air Force helicopter carrying a police tracking team of four is taking part in the search. One member is African Detective Nenabo, who told a court hearing in Gwanda in November, when two of the escaped men appeared at a preparatory examination, how he had tracked them fifty miles through the bush.
The Air search was augmented by two light aircraft of the Police Reserve Air Wing, carrying four reservists, which flew over a wide area from dawn to dusk. Hundreds of leaflets in the vernacular were being printed in Salisbury yesterday. They carry descriptions of the wanted men and offer a reward of 250 pounds for information leading to their capture.
These were dropped by the Air Wing aircraft on kraals in outlying areas — places where newspaper and radio news of the escape may have not reached yet.
About 70 African policemen have been drafted out of the city into the search with a smaller number of European policemen. Reservists have been called out to man outlying stations to relieve the pressure on regular police who are searching the countryside.
At police checkpoints ringing a vast area all cars, trucks, and buses were being stopped and searched throughout the day for signs of the missing prisoners.
Saturday’s issue of The Chronicle — which came out after the re-arrest of Clark Mpofu, Keyi Nkala and Elliot Ngwabi stated:
Three of the four escaped prisoners from Bulawayo’s Grey Street Jail were arrested yesterday within a few miles of the Bechuanaland border.
But last night the fourth man, Moffat Hadebe, was still running for the border, chased by police patrols with dogs and a helicopter. A Police Reserve Air Wing aeroplane was also standing by.
The three arrested men, Keyi Nkala, Elliot Ngwabi and Clark Mpofu were caught after a countrywide hunt described by a police spokesman as “one of the biggest manhunts in Rhodesia”.
They were brought back to Bulawayo in handcuffs, taken straight to court and each jailed for a year from escaping from lawful custody.
The men were arrested in the vicinity of the Ramakwebana Tribal Trust Land south of Plumtree.
During the night police operations had been stepped up in Plumtree and Mangwe areas after a report of a possible sighting near Mangwe, south east of Plumtree.
The army was called out for the first time and five small units of 200 men from the Rhodesian African Rifles were sent to Mangwe.
But the hunt proved a wild goose chase and the men reported back to Bulawayo early yesterday.
After the arrests, forces were concentrated in the area in which Hadebe was still running but elsewhere the intense police activity had been going on since early on Wednesday ended.
Below are excerpts of the second interview by Sunday News Correspondent Dumisani Sibanda (DS) with Cde Clark Mpofu (CM) and today he relates how they escaped from prison and were then re-arrested.
DS: Lets go to the actual jailbreak. How did it happen? Did you have the assistance perhaps of black prison guards who sympathised with blacks?
Cde Mpofu: No, we did not have guards working with us on the escape. I had been detained and was being charged with the attacks on Post Office and Tredgold building.
DS: And sorry but now you can tell the truth but were you responsible?
Cde Mpofu: Oh yes, although at the time, I did not admit it. It carried a mandatory death sentence. At Grey Street Prison, we had people like Abel Siwela (the late Mayor of Bulawayo) and Ngwabi who had attacked Dube ranch which belonged to a provincial magistrate, Mr Roberts, using a machine gun. But of course then they said they shot in the air and did not direct their shots at the magistrate’s house. Remember, I am talking 1965, so correct your history, they were the first to use the machine gun inside our country during the struggle. At prison, I used to get visits and one of the people who would visit me was Thenjiwe Lesabe and Joshua Mpofu among others. I asked Lesabe to buy bread and hide a sheet cutter in the bread and that is how the sheet cutter found it’s way into our cell and we put it in the cistern. We then cut the roof sheeting at night.
DS: But wasn’t there noise from the process that attracted prison guards?
Cde Mpofu: We would sing revolutionary songs and so we were not detected. We managed to make a hole in the ceiling and we used it to escape and jumped to the superintendent’s house. Moffat was tall and had a bit of problem going out but we managed to get out. We went to Hillside and then Tshabalala where we met Daniel Ngwenya (the late Transport Minister) and Philip Mabhena where we got clothes after removing the prison garb. He took us in his car and dropped us at Figtree in the morning. Apparently, there was a reward of 250 pounds for information which would lead to our arrest. The government of Smith had sent out propaganda that we were extremely dangerous. We got a lift (back of a van) from a coloured guy heading to Francistown in Botswana, I think he was aware of the reward.
At Tsetsebe a police car was following us and when it stopped Hadebe jumped out of the car first and made good his escape. I also jumped but that area did not have enough cover to hide. There were no trees and I hid behind a shrub and the police ordered us to come in the open and surrender. That is how I, Keyi Nkala and Elliot Ngwabi were then re-arrested.
DS: So you were deported back to Rhodesia?
Cde Mpofu: They asked us what we wanted and we told them that we wanted political asylum. At the time, Botswana was a British protectorate. We were taken and handed over to police at Plumtree to the police officer commanding Matabeleland West. We were taken to court and pleaded guilty for the escape from Grey Street Prison and sentenced to one year in prison. Sentenced to one year for the escape. I served the sentence at Khami Maximum Prison and was now supposed to be released since those charges of sabotage never stuck.
DS: I suppose that gave you joy.
Cde Mpofu: Yes, I was happy I was going out and I was going back to Lusaka. But this was not to be.
DS: What happened? You had served your sentence?
Cde Mpofu: I was told releasing me would be like committing suicide. I was too dangerous to be released. But they said if I were to co-operate with them and tell them about our operations they could allow me to go wherever I wanted even America, to learn if I wanted. I was shown a trunk full of money and I had never seen that kind of money. They said this is your money if you co-operate. But I did not accept the money and said nothing. I was taken to Gonakudzingwa in leg irons where Joshua Nkomo, Joseph Msika and Daniel Ngwenya were kept. I received a hero’s welcome from my comrades. We were later taken to Gweru Prison with Willie Musarurwa, Daniel Madzimbabuto, CZ Moyo and Ronald Kaviza. When the Unilateral Declaration of Independence came the prison where we were was a protected area. At times we would be detained in communicado. We found the likes of Cephas Msipa.
Musarurwa encouraged us to study Accounts, Economics, Government and the Constitution, things that would be important in running the country once we became independent. In1974, I was taken to Wha Wha Prison and eventually released in 1979.
DS: But I see you were speaking glowingly about President Mugabe yet I know that you were an avowed critic of his Government’s policies in the late 1990s, forming the Liberty and the Federal Party. Why the change now?
Cde Mpofu: The moment he started on the Look East Policy, embracing the Chinese in the way we have now done, I said, aah he has got it right because that is the way forward for Zimbabwe. I hope one day, we can talk about that way forward in detail.
DS: Thank you for your time Comrade Mpofu and also thank you in advance for a promise of another interview explaining why you think President Mugabe is right on the Look East Policy. Lest we forget.
Cde Mpofu: Indeed lest we forget.
