The Sunday News
ONE of the country’s unsung heroes of the armed struggle is probably Cde Stanley Nleya whose Umvukela/Chimurenga name was Elish Gagisa. Leaving the country as a school boy at Inyathi Mission in Bubi District, Matabeleland North in March 1968 when he was doing his O-levels to join the armed struggle in Zambia via Botswana, Cde Nleya rose from being a simple recruit to become one of the chief instructors, at one point seconded for attachment to the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) where he was involved in combat with the Israelis. He was later to become Zipra’s deputy chief of operations.
As an instructor some of the people who went through his hands are decorated freedom fighters such as the current army commander, Lieutenant-General Philip Valerio Sibanda, Todd Mpisi, Rodwell Nyika (Retired Brigadier-General Collins Moyo), former St Paul’s Assembly Point commander and frontal commander for NF1 and 2, Nicholas Nkomo. During the Zipa period Cde Nleya was the chief of staff for Mgagao Training Camp in Tanzania where his deputy was the current Airforce commander, Air Marshal Perence Shiri. In this week’s Lest We Forget column Cde Nleya relates his experiences in the armed struggle particularly pertaining to the training manuals the recruits went through.
Cde Nleya also speaks about the upheavals in Zapu in Zambia which almost brought the party down to its knees and how it was able to re-organise itself following the fallout with other nationalists such as the late James Chikerema who was Zapu’s deputy president. He also witnessed firsthand the transformation of Zipra, which during the internal problems saw its numbers depleted from about 1 000 soldiers to a mere less than 100.
He reconstructs his experiences in an interview with our Assistant Editor Mkhululi Sibanda (MS). Below are excerpts of the interview:
MS: Cde Nleya from what you have been telling me, you have a rich history in the armed struggle. Some people might be wondering who this man is.
Cde Nleya: I was born on 26 September in 1947 in Bulilima District, Matabeleland South. I come from Masendu area, which is where I did my primary education. For my secondary schooling I went to Hope Fountain Mission on the outskirts of Bulawayo and later moved to Inyathi Mission in Bubi District. However, I abandoned my education in March 1968 when I was doing Form Four to join the armed struggle. I left with my two friends, Elias Ndlovu and Cornelius Dube.
As someone who came from Plumtree area it was easy to navigate our way to the Botswana border and when we crossed we headed for Francistown where we were later directed to a refugee camp, which was called White House.
That is where I met other comrades such as Kelly Malaba and Gedi Ndlovu (the late Retired Colonel Richard Dube). We were registered as refugees. In Botswana I also met my former teacher, Mr Finely, a white liberal from Australia who had been deported by the Rhodesian government.
MS: How long were you in Botswana?
Cde Nleya: We stayed in Botswana for six months after which we were flown to Zambia where on arrival we were taken to Albert Luthuli Camp, which was a facility for our colleagues from ANC’s military wing, Umkhonto WeSizwe. We were later moved to Morogoro in Tanzania for military training and that was in 1969. We were the third Zipra group to be trained at Morogoro.
MS: How many were you and who are some of the comrades that you trained with? Also if you can mention the names of your instructors.
Cde Nleya: We were a group of 100 and some of the people that I trained with are now National Heroes like the late Retired Colonel Masala Sibanda and Enoch Tshangange (the late Retired Major-General Jevan Maseko). Others are Retired Brigadier-General Abel Mazinyane (pointing at him as they were together during this interview), Ben Mathe (Retired Brigadier-General Tshile Nleya) and Retired Colonel Eddie Sigoge Mlotshwa.
On the instructors’ side the camp commander was Albert Nxele, the chief of staff being Retired Brigadier-General Ambrose Mutinhiri while the late General Lookout Masuku was the commissar.
Under those three were people like Rogers Alfred Nikita Mangena, Gordon Munyanyi (Tapson Sibanda), Sam Fakazi, Pondayi, Stanley Tsavarai, Elliot Masengo (National Hero Retired Lt-Col Harold Chirenda) Philip Maphosa and Jordan Gampu. There were also two Egyptians who were deployed by the OAU (AU), Colonel Mustaphy and Major Mohammed. We completed our training after nine months, it was a gruelling exercise. Colonel Mustaphy used to joke and say: “I will teach you how to see,” when we were doing drills in observation.
MS: Take us through what happened after you had completed your training.
Cde Nleya: After our training the most five outstanding recruits were chosen to be instructors and I was one of them. Others were Jevan Maseko, Tshile Nleya, Eddie Sigoge and Elias Ndlovu.
MS: What was outstanding about the five of you?
Cde Nleya: We were physically fit and probably also the instructors noticed the brilliant military brain in us. So what happened was that our instructors except for Sam Fakazi left the camp for Zambia for other tasks while we remained, taking over as new instructors. The other comrades that we had trained with also left for Zambia for deployment and other tasks as well. However, something happened that affected the wheels of the revolution in the process disturbing our training programme.
MS: What was that Cde Nleya?
Cde Nleya: That was the fall-out between the party’s leadership that saw people like James Chikerema leaving Zapu to form Froliz.
MS: Those were political events Cde Nleya. How did they affect the military side?
Cde Nleya: They affected the military side in a big way because some of the cadres who had undergone military training deserted, others were deported to Rhodesia by the Zambia government because of the disturbances while some just abandoned the armed struggle and joined civilian life in Zambia. Others applied for scholarships to study overseas.
The whole thing was just a mess. It’s ironic that some of the people are holding high positions in Government today, but I will not mention names. Some of them are good at questioning the liberation credentials of others. As for names that is for another day.
MS: Cde Nleya let us work on figures, you are saying Zipra was depleted, what was the strength of Zipra before the upheavals and how many remained fuelling the revolutionary fire?
Cde Nleya: First I would like to correct you on the name Zipra. Before those upheavals there was nothing called Zipra, Zapu’s armed wing then when we joined was called the Department of Special Affairs. During the joint military operations with MK, the Wankie and Sipolilo Battles the name Zipra had not been coined. At times I laugh when those people who left the struggle during that period refer to themselves as former Zipra combatants.
Then on your question on the numbers, before the disturbances there were more than 1 000 trained cadres and I can tell you we lost about 900 because when we checked later on we found that those who remained in the struggle we were just about 100. So it was like starting afresh and indeed we started afresh. I can tell you when we started re-organising the party and the military side of things; we started off with only 10 recruits.
MS: Maybe before you tell us on how Zipra came about, do you remember the names of those 10 recruits. Cde Nleya: I remember people like Makanyanga, Zvafa, Elias Moyo, the brother to Elson who is still serving in the Airforce and Ntshana.
NB: We continue with the interview next week when Cde Nleya talks about how Zipra was reconstituted, the training manual, camps, deployment, his combat battles in the PLO as well as his life after the armed struggle. Don’t miss your copy of Sunday News for this revealing interview.
