The Sunday News
THE name Rabson Mfana Dube might be a footnote in the country’s collective memory of the armed struggle but from his narrations of what he saw and did during the liberation war he indeed is an unsung hero of that epoch. Fighting the dreaded and vindictive Ian Smith regime armed with only his brains, ticket book of the famous Pelandaba Bus Services and a pen, as the then young Cde Dube assisted hundreds of fired up youngsters to cross into Botswana enroute to Zambia to join the armed struggle places him among the heroes of our struggle. During the war Cde Dube was an unflinching courier of supplies to the guerillas as he “smuggled” through roadblocks along the Bulawayo-Kezi Road material from Bulawayo to the operational areas. He and his fellow bus crew members fooled the Rhodesian security forces by creating false compartments in buses where they stuffed clothes, cigarettes, boots and medical supplies for the freedom fighters both ZPRA and Zanla. Treading on such dangerous ground it was a matter of time before the Rhodesian security forces closed in on him.
Guess who nabbed him! It was non-other than the now self-styled human rights lawyer, David Coltart who was deployed in Kezi as part of the dreaded Rhodesian security forces.
On Tuesday last week, Cde Dube now a rancher in his home area of Kezi and bus operator told our Assistant Editor Mkhululi Sibanda (MS) that after his arrest by Coltart he spent more than 100 days in detention where he did not have the “luxury of taking a bath”.
He said after his release he walked out of Gwanda Prison literally naked because he had not changed clothes for 111 days and they were totally torn. A Good Samaritan came to his rescue by offering him a pair of overalls to cover his “essentials”.
Cde Dube’s narration also displays the importance of Zapu structures in mobilising the youth to skip the border and go for military training in Zambia. Cde Dube also spotlights the role played by Pelandaba Bus Services’ owner, the late Joseph Mtshumayeli Ngwenya and his staff in the armed struggle of the country. For that Cde Dube believes it is not too late or will never be, to recognise Ngwenya’s role by either naming a road, building or transport facility such as a terminus after him. Below are excerpts of the interview. Read on . . .
MS: May we please begin the interview by you giving us your background. Tell us where you were born and where you grew up.
Cde Dube: I was born Rabson Mfana Dube on 12 September 1954 at Homestead area in Kezi. Homestead is south of Maphisa Growth Point. I was born under Headman Gwezha with my chief being Nyangazonke. As for my education I started at Homestead Primary and later on moved to Gohole where I completed my primary education. At school I was with the children of Mtshumayeli Joseph Ngwenya, who was the owner of Pelandaba Bus Services where as fate would have it I was to work for him as a conductor. It was at school that I became friends with one of Ngwenya’s sons, Ozzie. After Gohole I was supposed to go to Dadaya Mission in Zvishavane which was Shabanie then for secondary schooling. But I had a very poor background as at home we did not have any livestock, a measurement of wealth. We had no goats and cattle, nothing, so I failed to proceed despite the brilliant grades I had scored. Ozzie then proceeded to Dadaya after which he moved to England to study engineering. After school I stayed at home and then later on moved to Bulawayo.
Rabson Dube- AKA RM Dubies
MS: How did you find yourself at Pelandaba Bus Services?
Cde Dube: The children of Mtshumayeli especially uOzzie are the ones who encouraged their father to employ me as a bus conductor. They said good things about me such as that I was very bright at school. So that’s how I landed the job. It was in 1975. I did not even go through the mill such as being a windi (tout) at first. I became a conductor from the word go. So my first assignment as a conductor was on Number 29 which was plying the Mankonkoni route in Gwanda District and was being driven by Gideon Ndlovu. At times the bus would be driven by Daniel Sola who had come from Lindela Bus Service. We travelled all the way to Mankonkoni without any incident and for me making a debut trip as a conductor coincided with meeting the guerillas for the first time.
MS: Tell us what happened on that day?
Cde Dube: We arrived safely at Mankonkoni Business Centre where there was Mnyangane Irrigation Scheme. Two guerillas came there at about 7pm and I can’t remember their names. They were looking for food and they asked for the whereabouts of the Rhodesian forces. They also asked us if we had experienced any problems along the way and we told them that we did not have any. That was that as after some time they disappeared into darkness and during those days they were practicing real guerilla warfare, babengamalwa ecatsha sibili. The following day we returned to Bulawayo and during that time people were starting to leave the country to join the war. But it was the following year that is in 1976 that we started seeing large numbers leaving the country and they were mostly using Pelandaba buses. I had been deployed to the Sankonjane route, Babirwa that passes through Kezi. That bus was Number 14 whose drivers were George Sigadula and Daniel Mafu. The two used to relieve each other.
MS: During that time how was the situation in terms of deployment by the Rhodesian regime?
Cde Dube: At first people would move up to Shashe River that separates Zimbabwe and Botswana without any restrictions with some having imilaga (grazing areas) even across in Botswana. I know of a man who was called Malandu Dube who had many cattle. Some of his cattle were at emlageni across the border in Botswana. However, when the war started moving a gear up the Rhodesian government opened a road from Plumtree to Beitbridge made it a serious offence to be seen beyond it. One could be prosecuted when caught having moved beyond that road. The regime could even shoot to kill.
MS: Then tell us how as bus crews you moved people who were going to join the war. Take us through that.
Cde Dube: The districts of Gwanda, Kezi, Mangwe and Bulilima and some parts of Beitbridge were a corridor for those who were leaving the country to join the war. However, I will talk about Kezi which besides being my home district was the place where I worked as a bus conductor. What used to happen was that it later became difficult for someone coming from Nkayi or Tsholotsho to be found on a bus going to Kezi. The Rhodesians only allowed those with Identification Cards that had the figure 39 as Kezi is classified as District 39. That is where the Zapu structures came in. During that time the ID cards were made of paper and did not have a picture of its owner. They were later of course changed and that should have been in 1979 I think. To beat the Rhodesians’ system Zapu officials worked closely with Pelandaba Bus Services managers such as Nevat Maphenduka and Willias Mkhwananzi. On the ground in Kezi there were brave and daring men such as Joseph Mahewu Mahlangu, you featured his son Artwell in this column who at some point was a manager at Chronicle. Mahlangu came from the Seula area deep down in Kezi close to the border with Botswana. Also there on the ground was Mtswakayi Sibanda from the nearby village of Beula. Others involved in that ring were Pamane Ncube, Mahuzu Ncube who came from Marinoha and had businesses koMazwi, Tayima Ndlovu, Zenzo Njini and Simon Njini. These are the Kezi people who despite being unarmed took the Rhodesian regime head on and devised a system of trafficking the recruits from Bulawayo to deep down in Kezi close to the border with Botswana.
MS: That’s very interesting, but how was all this arranged?
Cde Dube: Like I said those men were very tactful and brave. They put their plan into place by collecting IDs from the locals that is in Kezi. Those IDs were then taken to Bulawayo and given to party structures. With very active Zapu structures in Bulawayo and mobilising the youth to leave the country for military training the identified potential recruits would be given those IDs to memorise the information such as the name on the ID obviously, village of origin, number, chief, and so on. That was meant to fool the police and other security agents at roadblocks. The party structures would then take those potential recruits to Pelandaba staffers such as Maphenduka and Mkhwananzi. We the conductors would then ticket them like any other passenger on the day of their travel. In the bus the recruits would be sitting apart, they just mingled with other passengers. They would also have paid and given tickets like other passengers. When they got to the dropping point for example in Seula, Mahewu Mahlangu would be lurking somewhere waiting. We as the bus crew would point the direction for them to take. Cadres like in this case of Mahewu would then look for them and give information tips especially on the movement of Rhodesians as well as feeding them.
MS: What would then happen to the IDs?
Cde Dube: The Zapu cadres like oMahewu would take them back to Bulawayo to restart the cycle. That was a big network and I am only giving Mahewu as an example because he is one of the people who were in the thick of things. Mtswakayi would do the same koBeula and others elsewhere. However, I should point out that there were others who were going to the war outside this Zapu network. They would just board the bus while others we will find them on the way walking towards the border. The numbers increased in 1976 and shot up in 1977. We had people coming from Nkayi, Lupane, Lower Gweru, Tsholotsho, Gokwe, Harare and some as far as Chinhoyi, people who did not understand SiNdebele as they spoke Shona. We had to devise ways of making sure they avoided the roadblocks because at times there were fixed spots for the roadblocks. As for the numbers Gokwe and Tsholotsho had many people.
MS: Let us look at those people that you guys were dealing with in conjunction with Zapu structures. On average how many people were you assisting to cross into Botswana?
Cde Dube: Fine. I will talk about my route that is Bulawayo-Seula. Those days the buses carried 64 passengers and we serviced that route on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays meaning that we travelled from Bulawayo on those days. Usually the bus would be full and of the 64 or so passengers between 30 and 40 were people going to join the war. Look here, I am talking about one route and there were others who were walking. I can then safely say on average we were handling between 90 and 120 recruits on our bus per week.
MS: There were a lot of risks involved in this but how did you manage to avoid being arrested by the regime forces?
Cde Dube: Not for long. I was arrested several times for these activities. The first time I was arrested was in 1977 at Sun Yet Sen by David Coltart, yena lowu uColtart. There were boys who had left school at Gloag Mission, a boarding school in Bubi District. Among those boys was Mathemba Sibanda, the son of the late well known Kezi businessman, Siteba Sibanda. Siteba Sibanda ran Phumulani Hotel in Gwanda Town, a butchery at Kezi Business Centre and later on buses under Phumulani Bus Services. Those boys boarded our bus at Renkini in Bulawayo but they were no part of those recruited by Zapu, so we were not aware of their activities. They did not follow the protocol. Their destination was Mtshumayeli Stores. So when we got to Kezi Business Centre we were to learn later that Mathemba feeling at home as he came from Kezi got down and met a former Gloag pupil who was his schoolmate. Being excited Mathemba told that former schoolmate that he was leaving for the war on that day. Unbeknown to him that former schoolmate had joined the Rhodesian police force and was based in Kezi. So on the way we got to a roadblock that had been quickly set up and they came for Mathemba and arrested him. However, since he had not disclosed that they were many his schoolmates managed to proceed and we dropped them off at Mtshumayeli Stores. Then the following day it was my turn.
MS: How?
Cde Dube: On our way back to Bulawayo the following morning we found a roadblock near Sun Yet Sen. Among the police kwakulejoni (white policeman) and that ijoni was David Coltart. He is the one who arrested me. I was accused of recruiting terrorists. Mathemba had been forced to reveal that he was not alone and so the regime officers demanded that they go through the ticket book where there was evidence that there were people who had indeed dropped off at Mtshumayeli Stores. Coltart and his colleagues then took me to Sun Yet Police Station where I was detained for seven days. After that I was moved to Kezi Police Station where I was further detained for 14 days. From there I was taken to Gwanda where I spent 90 days behind bars. The conditions were terrible as during that time I did not bath. I was still wearing the same clothes I was caught putting on and naturally they were eventually torn. When I was released I was scantily dressed and someone had to give me a pair of overalls.
To be continued next week…
