The Sunday News
We continue our interview with the maverick former Zipra guerilla, Cde Tapson Ncube pseudonym Makhula Dube, a self-styled Marxist-Leninist who was trained at Morogoro in Tanzania and the then Soviet Union.
In last week’s edition Cde Ncube spoke about his time in the Soviet Union and how he developed a reading culture of communist literature, a habit he has kept up to this day. In his words he said he emerged from the Soviet Union an armed communist. In today’s interview with Assistant Editor Mkhululi Sibanda (MS) Cde Ncube resumes the conversation on his group’s return to Zambia and goes on to give a detailed account of how he found himself in trouble with the Zipra High Command, a development that saw him being thrown into detention pits at the Freedom Camp (FC). Cde Ncube’s account reveals the untold tales of the armed struggle on how dissenting voices were handled.
MS: Take us through what happened after you completed your training in the Soviet Union.
Cde Ncube: It was in 1977 when we returned to Zambia and when our plane touched down at Lusaka International Airport before we could disembark the Zipra commander, the now late Alfred Nikita Mangena came on board and greeted us as a welcome back home gesture. However, nobody responded. We just kept quiet and looked at him. He moved from the front of the aircraft to the back and comrades just looked at him without saying a word. The atmosphere just became tense. Mangena was dressed in civilian attire just like us because during training in the Soviet Union besides the military camouflage we were given two civilian shirts, a tie and suits. After Mangena left some buses came to take us to the Freedom Camp. The buses were parked very close to the plane as we were told that there was a suspicious looking white man from some Western embassy who had been keeping an eye on our aircraft. He was said to be based in Lusaka and it looks like he wanted to find out how many of us were coming from the Soviet Union. To make matters worse we were on board a Soviet aircraft, an Aeroflot. Our group was the first to be flown to Lusaka in a Soviet Union plane which had picked us from Nairobi, Kenya.
MS: But why did you just keep quiet when the commander was talking to you?
Cde Ncube: That same question cropped up among us and nobody gave a clear answer. Some comrades even said the High Command element was compromised as it had within its ranks people who could not be trusted. Also our world view of things had changed during our stint in the Soviet Union, we were no longer seeing things at face value. The following day at FC the then Zipra Political Commissar, the now late General Lookout Masuku whose pseudonym was Lameck Mafela demanded to meet our group. After we had gathered he demanded to know, in his words “why we had shown such appalling behaviour to the commander”, uMangena. We did not say anything to him as well. He reprimanded us and ended up by saying we would remain at FC until further orders. Then a few days down the line we were deployed.
MS: Where were you deployed?
Cde Ncube: Comrades were sent to various places with some going to the front. Myself, Orders Mlilo, Soneni who became the camp commander of Gwayi River Mine Assembly Point, Cde Munda and others we were deployed to the CGT1 which was a guerilla training camp. It was under the command of Ananias (General Philip Valerio Sibanda) who is now the Commander of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces. We got a warm welcome from Ananias and he asked us to find a suitable place to deploy our anti-air weapons. By the end of the day we had chosen a small hill overlooking the camp and that is where we deployed the Zegue. Some of the anti-air guys like Orders were chosen to join a team of instructors while myself and comrades such as Jiji (Norman Ncube) were full time in the anti-air defence battery, our role being to protect the camp against the Rhodesian aerial attacks. Jiji was the commander of our unit. There were seven of us assigned that task. We were kitted in Russian rice and brown camouflage. That was my role at CGT1 to provide cover to the recruits undergoing training. The camp then faced water problems resulting in its relocation to another area, which we called CGT2. I was stationed there until I faced some problems which were engineered by the High Command.
MS: You clashed with the High Command! What exactly happened?
Cde Ncube: I am not sure of the exact date, but what happened was that all the Zipra camps were ordered to choose representatives for a Conference of Militants that was to be addressed by the party leader, Cde Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo. From the more than 300 comrades at CGT2 my name was the first on the list, chosen by fellow comrades ahead of veterans who had been in the struggle for some years, some having joined the armed struggle in the 60s. The 300 or more comrades saw me as the one fit enough to represent them at the Conference of Militants. I presume their judgment was based on the fact that I was ideologically clear. I understood that we were fighting for the majority not a small group of the elite.
MS: What really happened?
Cde Ncube: When the date of the conference drew closer Eddie Sigoge visited our camp. He came looking for me and he is the one who took me to FC. We were disarmed at CGT2 and there was no explanation for that action. I was arrested together with 15 other comrades including Jiji and driven straight to FC where we were detained under very bad conditions. The detention pits where we were kept were some deep that even these electricity or telephone poles could be thrown in without any trace.
MS: You are talking of being targeted, why do you think the High Command as you say felt you were a problem?
Cde Ncube: It seemed guys from the intelligence had records on me from as far back as 1975 when I was part of that group in Botswana that criticised the Zipra and Zapu leadership for taking its time in sending recruits for training. I believe they got the information from Black Swine who was an intelligence officer based in Botswana and had observed all our activities. Remember I told you that myself, Mafutha, Khililkhiya Nyathi and to a certain extent a very young Volunteer (Andrew Ndlovu) we had petitioned Joshua Nkomo and Botswana and Zambian leaders, Khama and Kaunda over delays to send us for training. We had criticised the Zipra High Command for delaying the wheels of the revolution, it looks like when some of the commanders saw my name on the list of those meant to attend the Conference of Militants they became very uncomfortable. They were aware that I was going to expose a number of them before Joshua Nkomo. They could not reach Mafutha because he was already a field commander in Lupane, Khilikhiya was not close by as well. So I was the only one at the mercy of the commanders. I was viewed as a troublesome individual and an opponent of the administration.
MS: The problems that you were facing, was it a case of indiscipline or there was something wrong with the commanders?
Cde Ncube: The reason why I left the country to join the armed struggle was because I wanted justice and was I wrong to point out injustices when they were happening just under my nose. I was a pure revolutionary and I vehemently opposed dictatorship. I was against bourgeois democracy which was being exhibited by some of the commanders. However, I single out Ananias (Gen Philip Valerio Sibanda), he was a true revolutionary and professional soldier. I had briefly met him at Morogoro and he had impressed me as a good soldier, in fact he took us through our paces as an instructor there. Although he was younger than some of us, we gave him all the respect because of his unflinching commitment to the struggle.
MS: How were the conditions at the detention centre and how long were you in custody?
Cde Ncube: The conditions were terrible. They used a rope to bring food down to us as we were crammed in that dark hole. Then a miracle happened that saw us being released.
MS: Go on and tell us about that miracle.
Cde Ncube: They then got information that the conference was to be held at FC where we were detained and that sent them into a panic mode as Dr Nkomo was to come there. So they released us and we were asked to freshen up as we awaited the conference. Then during the day of the conference I was allowed to go to the venue where a big tent had been pitched. However, Mangena and his boys from the Military Intelligence Department (MID) had other ideas, brilliant ones for that matter. While we were all seated and waiting for Dr Nkomo I saw Mangena walking into the tent in the company of a very senior MID officer, uDingani. Nikita himself was carrying a note book where he was checking names of the delegates while Dingani had a bomb detecting machine used to check explosive devices. Mangena went around calling out people’s names and when he got to me he stopped and brought to the attention of everyone that he had found the person he was looking for. He then called a comrade from CGT2 who he said should replace me as the representative from that camp and the game was over for me. That is how I was stopped from attending the Conference of Militants.
It became clear to me that indeed I had become an opponent of the High Command and my life was in danger. I was living on borrowed time.
– To be continued next week
