The Sunday News
WE continue our interview with one of the pioneers of the armed struggle, Cde Moffat Hadebe who with three other early combatants, Cdes Elliot Ngwabe, Clark Mpofu (late) and Key Nkala made a dramatic jail break at Bulawayo’s Grey Prison, now Bulawayo Prison on the night of 5 January 1965. In our first instalment last week Cde Hadebe pseudo name Cde Morris Dhlomo told our Assistant Editor Mkhululi Sibanda (MS) how he became grounded in politics while working for an advertising agency company in Harare, then called Salisbury.
He was to take his political activities to his village of Mawaza in Gwanda District where he influenced villagers to embark on a defiance campaign against the policies of the colonial government. Cde Hadebe’s defiance campaign resulted in him being a marked man by the colonial government and he had to flee to Botswana enroute to Zambia. Cde Hadebe continues the interview below. Read on…..
MS: You were still talking about how you were now a marked man, please go on.
Cde Hadebe: Like I said I had managed to convince other villagers to defy the veterinary service officer. I had told the villagers that we needed to do what people in Mashonaland were doing. I should also mention that when the veterinary officer got to the dip tank and found the cattle having been driven off, he went for the dip tank attendant. I did not waste time as I confronted him and told him in his face that since he was a government worker, he was not showing respect to the community. I said ‘you are a government worker and you come here at your own time.’
I have never seen a white man so angry. He changed colour, he could not believe that a black person could have the guts to confront him. Laphenduka laba bomvu gebhu gebhu, ukuthi umuntu omnyama alitshele ukuthi liyi worker!
There was a stand-off and in anger he drove off, to us that was great victory. Now it was clear that we were waiting to be arrested. In the meantime, we had sought permission to take our cattle to emlageni (grazing areas). Imlaga yethu were at the confluence of Shashe and Shashane rivers. We had got the permission from Guyu where colonial government offices were located.
That white man whom we had defied then tried to have our cattle quarantined but the following morning at around 4am we drove our cattle to emlageni, that was in defiance again. When that white man got to Guyu and told them that the cattle from Mawaza had been quarantined he was shocked to learn that we had been given permission.
MS: Explain what happened?
Cde Hadebe: That white man used to visit quite a number of areas, so thina we had quickly rushed to Guyu soon after he left our area. We got there before he reported to his offices. Samqalela. It was not only Mawaza villagers, there were also people from Gungwe. While that defiance was happening, there were also sporadic incidents of political activities such as vandalism of dip tanks in Kezi, abantu begqibela amadibha there.
It was during that time that people were being rounded up and thrown into Gonakudzingwa and to me I could sense that sooner or later I would be arrested. Then one evening a man called Gedion Moyo came to me and said my name was among those on the police wanted list. He said the best way was for us to flee from our area. Wathi asihle siphume and we did that, we immediately went to Botswana. On our way we passed through Shorty Moyo’s homestead, telling him about the situation and he said ‘tshayani phansi’.
To be honest we did not know where we were going. We walked until we crossed Shashe River. The following day in the evening we were in Bonong in Botswana and I approached the Hwadalala people who were part of my mother’s family. They told me that the following day there was a truck that was going to Francistown. We spent the night excited although we did not have any money.
Indeed, the following morning we boarded the truck that took us to Francistown. When we got there, we were given directions to the White House, a place that housed liberation forces. There were cadres from the ANC of South Africa, SWAPO of Namibia, MPLA of Angola, PAC of South Africa.
MS: Back home here, which party was in existence.
Cde Hadebe: It was Zapu and the Cold Comfort Farm Conference of August 1963 had been held. Back to Botswana the following morning we were taken to the United Nations Refugee Agency and the person in charge there was Stein Kemp. He told us that we were the first people from Rhodesia to be in Botswana for political reasons. However, he accepted us and we were to get all the provisions that were on offer such as food and so on. We were given blankets as well.
MS: So how many people were there?
Cde Hadebe: We were around 40. That was in 1964 in April. While we were still in Botswana, my colleague Moyo decided otherwise. He just disappeared and returned home. I then remained alone. Then a few weeks down the line we were told that we were going to Zambia but I was told that I won’t be going to Kasane like others but I would be taken to Kazungula. When we got there, others were taken to Kasane for paper work while they left me hidden in Kazungula. There was no border post then. I was then assisted to cross into Zambia with some of the guys I had left Francistown with. I then reached Livingstone in Zambia. When I got there, I found Ethan Dube, Dumiso Dabengwa, Abraham Nkiwane, Luke Mhlanga. I found those four.
They had been told that there was someone in Botswana. They took me to a Zapu house. They did the usual thing under such situations, subjecting me to some questions and after being satisfied they told me that we should not be many otherwise ‘bengasilanda oMthethwa’. Mthethwa was a notorious detective in Bulawayo. They told me that I had to leave for Lusaka where Zapu had an office, but it was a makeshift one. I then boarded a train to Lusaka, it was still April 1964. They told me that I would be met by some people, but the code would be someone speaking in SiNdebele. If I heard someone speaking in SiNdebele I should follow him.
When I got to Lusaka Main Station, I heard someone speaking in SiNdebele. By the way during that time the party had no cars, so they would send people to the main station to receive the recruits, that were those coming from Bulawayo and those from Salisbury (Harare) they were received at the bus station as they would be aboard the United Omnibus.
MS: So, who received you at the main station?
Cde Hadebe: I met Gordon Butshe who after Independence was to become a senior operative in the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO). During the war he had served in the intelligence as well under Dabengwa. I can’t remember the other person who was with Butshe on that day. The people I found in Lusaka then besides Butshe was John Maluzo Ndlovu, Amen Chikwakwata, Clark Ngiyo Mpofu and Israel Maduma. There were about 40 cadres. On the first day I put up for the night at Kamwala, which then was still under construction. The following morning I was taken to the party office which was opposite of that of the ANC of Harry Nkumbula of Zambia.
The party office was manned by the now late Cde Jack Amos Ngwenya. We did not stay that long as there came another group from Bulawayo. Among the new arrivals were people like Alfred Khungwana and Joseph Ngwenya who went on to become the caretaker of the Large City Hall for many years after majority rule. We were then taken for training. I should also mention that among the nationalists already there were people like Edward Ndlovu and George Silundika.
MS: Where were you trained?
Cde Hadebe: There was a training camp at a farm owned by Mahlenyika Ndlovu, a Zimbabwean who relocated to Zambia. We were trained at his farm and among our instructors were comrades Butshe. We were six, that is myself, Elliot Ngwabe, Key Nkala, Ross Malaba, Matshimini (Roger Ncube) and Israel Maduma. Israel had already undergone military training in China.
MS: Those were the early stages of the armed struggle, what type of weapons were you taught to handle?
Cde Hadebe: Our training was from April to September 1964 and we were taught how to handle weapons such as PPSh or pepesha, a Russian made weapon used mainly during the Second World War, F40, a French made weapon and Thomson sub-machine gun which was made in America. We were also drilled in the use of hand grenades both offensive and defensive. After our training the six of us were immediately deployed to Rhodesia for operations.
MS: Take us through your deployment.
Cde Hadebe: The very six of us were deployed as a unit to the country with our target being the Zidube Ranch in Kezi near the border with Botswana. We were driven all the way from Lusaka to Livingstone where there was Cde Luke Mhlanga. At Livingstone we were split into two groups of three. Myself, Elliot Ngwabe and am not sure of the third one. But the other three were Matshimini and the other two.
Matshimini and the other two were then smuggled into Rhodesia using a Johnson and Fletcher truck together with their weapons. Then the three of us used the train to cross into Rhodesia. We crossed without any incident. We were to reconnect with the other group in the Victoria Falls-Bulawayo train.
To be continued next week with Cde Hadebe giving an account of how they attacked the Zidube Ranch, a farm owned by a Rhodesian magistrate.
