The Sunday News
We continue our interview with former Zipra zone commander in the Northern Front 2 region that covered some districts in Matabeleland North such as Lupane, Binga and Nkayi, Cde Andrew Ndlovu whose pseudo name was Cde Cleopas Ndanga or Volunteer Commando Mkhwananzi. In the last instalments Cde Ndlovu, speaking to our Assistant Editor Mkhululi Sibanda (MS) narrated about his training in Tanzania and the Soviet Union, deployment in the Kariba area in 1977 and then in Lupane in January 1978.
He touched on a number of contacts his unit was involved in and in one of the battles he was hit by a sniper bullet that saw him losing 14 teeth and it took him about three months to heal in the jungles of Lupane.
Today he continues talking about his operations and touches on the controversial subject of divisions in the ranks of Zipra in their operational area, the NF2, which saw some field commanders accused of being renegades by the Zipra High Command. Those field commanders were accused of operating independently and refusing to take orders from Lusaka. Below are excerpts of the interview:
MS: After dealing with the man who sold you out, as you put it in your words you executed him together with his son inside their homestead, what was the next move?
Cde Ndlovu: We continued with our operations, explained to the masses why we had executed that man. We were a disciplined force, which did not just harass the masses. Anyway it was common to deal with those who stood in front of the revolution. There was nothing amiss with what we had done.
MS: Then after that the operations continued, take us through some of the battles still vivid in your memory?
Cde Ndlovu: There was a contact that happened near the homestead of a Mkhwananzi family in Guga, Mzola area in Lupane where the enemy deployed themselves on trees. As we approached the village, relaxed, cracking jokes and laughing and with the enemy satisfied that we were in the sector right where they wanted us, they opened fire and it caught us by surprise. By the time we reacted the enemy had already gunned down Cde Tinarwo Seven Days who was carrying a PK machine gun, he died on the spot while another comrade, Cde Sibanda was shot in the stomach but managed to retreat.
I was armed with an MMG and Matshelela with a bazooka. We were four on that as we had split the units. The enemy missed us but Matshelela survived death by a whisker as a bullet hit his hat. It was God’s intervention, we escaped from the jaws of death again. We later laughed off the incident. Then as a follow-up by the enemy forces of that day’s ambush, where we lost Cde Tinarwo, the enemy forces came in two trucks full of soldiers. It looks like they were aware that one of the guerillas was injured, so probably come to capture.
MS: So what happened?
Cde Ndlovu: When their convoy drove through area Number 5 Emagedini, which separates Lubimbi in Binga and Dongamuzi in Lupane, they got off their vehicles and started beating up people, asking them about the whereabouts of the freedom fighters. I had with me, a plastic land mine, which I and Cde Mazithulela Ndlovu retrieved. We did that with Cde Manzini Dube, a platoon commander. We followed where the enemy forces had gone.
We then saw a suitable place to lay the mine. I dug the ground and I laid the mine, which we had reinforced with anti-tank slabs and fertiliser. We then heard the sounds of the trucks and we fled from the spot and hid in the nearby bush. The truck in the front when it approached the place, I thought it had managed to avoid the mine, but within seconds the mine blew it away. The number of enemy forces injured and those who died was satisfactory to us. That day there were wild celebrations by the peasants and the guerillas alike.
The operations I have been relating since we started this series of interviews constitutes a small percentage of those many battles that I commanded in the NF2 operational area since my deployment.
MS: Then Cde Ndlovu in the NF2 particularly in Lupane, there are serious allegations that have not been explained against certain field commanders, they were accused of deliberately failing to report to the Zipra High Command in Zambia and were operating independently.
May you please shed light on that. Even the late Lt-Col Reid Daly of the Rhodesian Army mentions that in his book titled, Selous Scouts Top Secret War.
Cde Ndlovu: I am glad you have brought that subject because it needs to be explained and put to rest for good. When we were deployed to Lupane in January 1978, having been moved from Kariba, we found those allegations there. Those allegations were directed to the units commanded by comrades like of Sandlana Mafutha, Lipson and Fidel Castro.
There was a lot of confusion that was brought to the forces by the top commanders themselves. For example, the regional commander for areas like Lupane, Cde Tangwena who deployed us, that unit of 140 across the Zambezi River on the Zambian side, as our terms of reference he told us that when we got to Lupane we were supposed to take over the command of all the forces on the ground. He had ordered us to carry out semi-conventional warfare but when we arrived at the front we realised that it was not possible at that time because of the armament we had and also the situation on the ground.
It was not possible to operate in large units when the enemy forces were all over supported by helicopters, if we had followed those orders then it means we were committing suicide. So we changed the strategy and adopted what was workable. We took a decision to re-organise ourselves and fight side by side with those accused of not taking orders from the rear because after assessing the situation we realised that they were committed to the struggle as ever. After all some of us had trained with those comrades at Morogoro.
A majority of them were part of the Group of 800. In fact it could have been stupid to fight among ourselves on flimsy grounds. The information that the High Command had on those comrades was distorted, in fact those outright lies were spread by cowards and reactionaries who had run away from the front as they could not stand the enemy forces fire.
MS: So you were convinced that you had been given false information.
Cde Ndlovu: The same accusations were later on directed at us after we had stayed for some time at the front fighting and winning most of the battles. If the comrades were renegades why did the enemy forces cordon-off the large part of the Lupane area for a month, starting during the Easter period of that year.
Who drove those enemy forces away? In fact some of the people who are quick to make those allegations never saw action at the front. All those people who were accused of not taking orders and operating independently of the High Command were good fighters — these are the people who changed the situation on the ground — go and ask villagers who are still alive today in Lupane and surrounding areas who are their heroes. Also ask them to mention the guerillas they saw with their own eyes pitching battles with the enemy, they will tell you.
MS: How did you deal with such a delicate situation, that is to stop those allegations?
Cde Ndlovu: The good thing is that some of the people being accused of being renegades are still alive and they can speak for themselves. The so-called leader of the renegades uMafutha is alive and in good health. Then to end the lies and distortions we sat down as commanders and decided to go to Zambia and meet the High Command. So on 10 October 1979 I with Cdes Sekuru Mafu, Mafutha, Makwiramiti, Fidel Castro, Mberu, Jijiji, Norman, Mpunzi, Mboyi, Chihota, among others crossed the Zambezi River so that we could meet the High Command and clear the air.
We were 30 field commanders and we took with us 50 recruits. We travelled via Sitobelambidzi and crossed the Zambezi at about 5pm. We could have been spotted by the enemy forces as an enemy aircraft appeared but we quickly disappeared into the mountains. Within our group we had a comrade who was a spirit medium and he is the one who gave us spiritual guidance.
MS: Who was this one?
Cde Ndlovu: It was Cde Chihota who operated laboMafutha. He would go into a trance and start telling us directions to avoid and the safe ones to take and we religiously followed that, it worked for us. During the war we had learnt to use the indigenous knowledge systems to survive. To some people it was vodoo but it worked for us. The spirit medium would sit us down and tell us that “don’t use this direction” and on our return from Zambia it was the same.
Even during operations he used to foresee dangers. We took those things seriously. I remember an operation where a unit under Lipson had laid an ambush and was engaging the enemy — he got possessed but he was not in that battle, but since other comrades could hear the sound of gunfire and in fear that the enemy could catch up with them — they started pleading saying — bokhulu limyekele kumbe kungcono simtshiye lani, bokhulu thina sithathe umbhobho. At that time he became normal and the comrades continued with their vigilance lest the enemy forces located with them. After the war he became an inyanga.
MS: Then back to your journey to Zambia, take us through.
Cde Ndlovu: When we got to the gorges after crossing the Zambezi we found units deployed there — armed to the teeth with all assortments of weapons such as Zegues. They were very happy to see us and they said they were also surprised that there was this talk of some of us being referred to as renegades.
They told us that it was the work of reactionaries and probably Selous Scouts within our ranks who were spreading those suspicions so that they destroy the revolution from within. During the struggle there were people who wanted to delay the struggle, it’s a fact there were such people. Then we went to a camp, which was situated in what was like a farm. We based there and it should have been a Sunday on that day.
On Monday when the camp received its supplies, the now late Retired Colonel Richard Dube, a member of the High Command, whose pseudo name was Gedi Ndlovu arrived there as well. Comrades there had told us that Gedi would be coming on that day. When he came we had a meeting and said we should choose representatives among us to meet the High Command, declaring it was not possible to take all of us to Lusaka. Gedi demanded that we come up with three names.
MS: So you chose three and who were those?
Cde Ndlovu: From the 30 we came up with Sandlana Mafutha to lead our negotiating team. The other two were Jijiji and Mpunzi. Those were the comrades Gedi took with him to Lusaka to meet members of the Zipra High Command.
MS: While those three had gone, what became of you?
Cde Ndlovu: We remained strategising and we quickly came up with a decision that lokho okukaGedi asikungeni. We said we will not look after bases that we did not know, we had no jurisdiction or mandate over them, we had not been deployed there. We were also worried as we were getting information from locals that there were seeing strange people suspected to be Selous Scouts, remember Smith had deployed some of his troops to raid our camps and bases in Zambia.
Those enemy forces were using guerilla warfare. We then said among ourselves, “comrades, let us be careful, here we would end up being raided by the Selous Scouts”, to make matters worse we were not used to the terrain. Our mission was that we had come together as commanders from the region to report to the High Command and also end those distortions. Because of the distortions and lies we said we could not allow those three to be there on their own.
We had to be together. What if they are surrounded and arrested, those were our fears. Then on Wednesday a truck arrived to bring more supplies and yiyo esahle sayibamba. We told the driver that zwana wena, we did not come here to eat these supplies you are bringing here, our mission is to go to Lusaka, at the Zimbabwe House (ZH). By the way Lusaka was still very far. However, after commandeering that vehicle we arrived at ZH at about 4pm, having left that base at around 11am. When we arrived, we jumped out of the truck and when people working at ZH saw us, those milling outside the offices ran into the building ngoba i-dressing yethu yayingayenzi.
MS: Why?
Cde Ndlovu: Aaah as people who have lived in the bush for more than two years, we were not ordinary, just looking at us sent shivers down the spines of even those who thought they were brave. Some of the people were now peeping through their office windows, even my friend, now the former chairman for war veterans in Bulawayo, Stanley Ncube just walked out without greeting me. I had trained with Stanley at Morogoro and we even went together to the Soviet Union.
Sasisesabeka, one could tell that these ones are coming from killing, we were not those guerillas abe-pass-out parade, who were always marching at the camps in Zambia. Even our camouflage was unusual, our clothes were dyed with tree barks, sasidaya izigqoko zethu ngamaxolo omnyi.
Wawubona nje lawe ukuthi laba bavela kuzikandali njalo bahlala lokufa. We were sleeping and living with death. We were coming from a war zone where one could die anytime. We were different from people who were eating breakfast.
-The series come to an end next week where Cde Ndlovu would relate the outcome of the meeting between Mafutha and members of the High Command who included the Zipra commander the late General Lookout Masuku (Lameck Mafela) and chief operations, the late Major-General Jevan Maseko (Enoch Tshangane). Don’t miss your next copy of Sunday News.
