The Sunday News
ON 19 October 1978 the Rhodesian security forces made a callous air raid on Freedom Camp (FC) in Zambia killing hundreds of people, a majority of them who had not yet undergone military training. The attack on FC, which had been a Zipra headquarters before it was turned into an agricultural enterprise headed by nationalist Cde Amon Jirira was carried out on the same day with Mkushi, a women’s camp.
Although FC was a Zapu facility, it was also populated by Umkhonto WeSizwe, a military wing of the South African National Congress (ANC) and they were among the casualties. According to information picked from an autobiography of a former Rhodesian combat pilot, Peter J H Petter-Bowyer titled, Winds of Destruction: The Autobiography of a Rhodesian Combat Pilot the Rhodesian Airforce allocated Canberras, Hunters and K-Cars (helicopters) to the FC raid. On Friday last week our Assistant Editor Mkhululi Sibanda spoke to one of the survivors of the FC raid, Cde Cheops Nyathi pseudonym Cde Philip Fihlakele. Below are excerpts of the interview. Read on….
MS: Cde Nyathi I am told you are one of those who survived the attack on FC, so may you tell us what happened on that day.
Cde Nyathi: I had only been at FC for a week as I was coming from Mlungushi where I had undergone a 15-month military training as a conventional soldier where we were instructed by the Zambian soldiers. After training at Mlungushi I was one of the three who had been recommended from our 2 000 group we had trained together after our pass-out parade to go and join the National Order and Security (NSO), which was the intelligence arm of Zapu. I was to serve in the Department of Counter-Intelligence, which was headed by the now late, Cde Gordon Butshe. NSO for those who might not be aware was headed by the now late national hero, Cde Dumiso Dabengwa who was its director-general.
So when FC was raided I was also one of those who were on transit. Also on transit were fresh recruits who were on their way to Angola for their training there under the Cubans. Also caught in the cross-fire were comrades who were coming from the Soviet Union where they had gone for further training and had arrived on the eve of the raid. Also there were Umkhonto WeSizwe comrades, from our sister liberation movement, the African National Congress (ANC) of South Africa. So when we look at the 42nd commemorations of the attack on FC, that event should not be looked from a Zipra or Zapu attack by the Ian Smith regime, but should be viewed as an attack by the colonial forces on our regional forces that had put their lives on the line in their efforts to decolonize Southern Africa.
MS: So you are saying it was not a legitimate military target despite the fact that trained personnel would from time to time stay there?
Cde Nyathi: Yes it was not a legitimate military target, do you think if we had to be attacked by the enemy here in Bulawayo, that enemy should go and bomb Magwegwe because among the residents are soldiers. What Smith did on FC was uncalled for. The Rhodesians were just being cruel. It should not escape people particularly students of history and politics that by October 1978 FC had ceased to be a properly constituted military facility as it had been turned into an agricultural enterprise headed by Cde Amon Jirira. At that time, it was just a transit camp and that is why there was no proper security. Comrades would arrive, for instance stay for two or three days and then proceed to their destinations. It was also not anticipated that Smith would raid FC since it had been de-militarised and was also very close to the Zambian capital, Lusaka. It was less that 20km from Lusaka.
MS: But still there was a camp commander, who was here by the way?
Cde Nyathi: When we were bombed there if my memory still serves me right it was under the command of Cde Silver Ndlovu, the one who ran a popular shebeen in the 90s and early 2000s in Magwegwe North. But still I maintain that it had ceased to be the Zipra headquarters as the Rhodesians wanted the whole world to believe. The Zipra headquarters had been relocated to Kasupe.
MS: So there were no indications that the camp might be attacked?
Cde Nyathi: There was none and even on the day of the attack, people woke up and did their daily routines of the few days they had been there like myself and the four colleagues who were waiting to go to the Moscow School of Intelligence, which was the training facility for Zapu/Zipra cadres. We were caught by surprise.
MS: So what really happened?
Cde Nyathi: It was around 9am or so when two low-flying jet fighters appeared from the eastern direction of the camp, we did no see danger in that. In fact, the feeling among the comrades was that they were from the Zambian government. I remember the group that was heading for training in Angola was at the parade square probably getting some briefing from their superiors. Then there was a vehicle that was loading boxes of ammunition ready to transport them to the front.
That vehicle was parked at the logistics stores. Then all of a sudden there was the screeching sound of the aircraft, which took a dive and then released two missiles. That happened in a split second and when people saw the missiles they mistook them for more aircrafts and yeyi wena….the bombing had begun. When the first released the bombs it took off and the second came and did the same. They were bombing the comrades who had gathered at the parade square.
On realising that the camp was under attack, comrades started fleeing but there was nowhere to hide as there was little vegetation to give us cover. There was an open field where Cde Jirira and his staff ploughed using a tractor in preparation for the planting season and the centre of that big field there were a number of mango trees, but they could not give any adequate cover. When those jets had made their sorties in a bid to soften the target, which was already soft anywhere as there was no proper defence armament to talk about three helicopters immediately arrived and they are the ones who did most of the damage, they mercilessly gunned down people who had nowhere to hide.
Although there was a bush on the eastern side of the camp where it made sense to run to, the helicopters also came from that direction and it made people run in the open. Some comrades tried to hide in a dump pit, but the jets bombed them there, leaving a trail of destruction. Because there was no resistance the Rhodesian aircrafts were flying very, very low and making sure that they kept us in a certain direction and spot so that they could hammer us easily. Hundreds and hundreds of people died there.
To be continued next week when Cde Nyathi tells us how he managed to survive
