‘The command of the brigade was given to Tjile Nleya’

WE continue our interview with former ZPRA Brigade Political Commissar, Colonel (Rtd) Marshal Mhambi Mpofu, who was one of the three ZPRA officers who were seconded to Mlungushi Camp in Zambia at the height of the armed struggle to train regular forces alongside the Zambian army. 

In our last edition, Col (Rtd) Mpofu whose pseudo name was Cde Lameck Mathe or Marshal Longfield spoke about the conclusion of the training programme of the pioneer 2 000 recruits. He told our Assistant Editor Mkhululi Sibanda (MS) that between 300 and 500 of the newly trained were sent for further training in friendly countries as company commanders, chiefs of staff, battalion commanders and battalion commissars. Below he resumes the conversation talking about the formation of the brigade at Mlungushi and the appointment of its command structure by the ZPRA Commander-In-Chief, Dr Joshua Nkomo. Below are excerpts from  the interview. Read on . . .   

MS: You were talking about the sending of between 300 to 500 of the Mlungushi pioneers for further training. What happened after that?

Col (Rtd) Mpofu:  With the Mlungushi group we were so confident as ZPRA and even the commander of ZPRA, Nikita Mangena said he could take out the so-called celebrated general, meaning Peter Walls of the Rhodesian forces. I remember him saying: “This army confronted with the current commander, Gen Peter Walls with his experience having fought in Malaysia and other places is going to be beaten by one general, it is this general,” referring to himself. That showed he had the trust and confidence of the outcome of that training at Mlungushi. All this was coming from the fact that we now had regular troops which were to become the basis of our army, all along we had been training guerilla fighters. At that point ZPRA was being transformed into a modern army.

MS: Take us through how the brigade was formed.

Col (Rtd) Mpofu: It was after the death of Mangena and it was in October 1978 when Dr Joshua Nkomo came to Mlungushi in the company of the ambassadors of Cuba and the German Democratic Republic, which was also known as East Germany. Dr Nkomo’s brief was to officially announce the command structure of the brigade that would be formed at Mlungushi. Troops that had been trained in countries such as Ethiopia, Angola and some from camps in Zambia such as CGT were sent to Mlungushi to form the First Brigade in addition to the 2 000 that had been trained there as regular forces. The Second Brigade was also being formed in Eastern Zambia and that is where the battalion that was deployed in Tsholotsho under the command of Smile Madubeko Moyo, himself a product of Mlungushi, came from. I am just saying this to set the record straight as I have been reading that Madubeko’s battalion was deployed from Mlungushi, it came from the eastern part of Zambia.

MS: That’s interesting. So who was appointed the commander of the First Brigade?

Col (Rtd) Mpofu: It was now Brigadier-General (Rtd) Tjile Nleya who during the war was called Cde Ben Mathe or Dubhu. He became the Brigade Commander with Cephas Khuphe or Col Shadreck Boris Sibanda, who with myself and Colonel Richard Dube, uGedi had been part of the officers who assisted the Zambians train our regular forces.  I was then appointed Brigade Political Commissar. Some comrades who had trained as officer cadets in Somalia, at the Zambian Military Academy at Kohima, the Soviet Union, and various other places were put together during the formation of the brigade. I remember during Dr Nkomo’s visit to confer us with the ranks, we were asked to make the acceptance speech and Brig-Gen (Rtd) Tjile Nleya passed that honour to me. In my speech, which was a simple message I mentioned that we were going to abide by party directives in carrying out our duties and that we would execute the Commander-in-Chief’s orders to the letter. I assured Dr Nkomo that his soldiers were itching to go to battle. That was that.

MS: After the appointment of the brigade command what was the next stage?

Col (Rtd) Mpofu: We had to set everything in motion. Within three weeks we started the process of establishing the four battalions with their integral units. The integral units I mean the battalion’s artillery unit, engineering, reconnaissance, platoon ye medics, logistsics, signals and intelligence officers. The commanders were picked from a pool officers, some experienced and some from training as officer cadets at places I mentioned above. They were taking ranks as at battalion level, company, platoon and so on. The commanders were promoted at our discretion. However, from those who had done the officers’ cadet, especially at the Zambian Military Academy and were experienced guerillas who had seen action at the front such as John Nyamupingidza, Carlos Mudzingwa and Baberton had been sent back to operational areas. John Nyampungidza was promoted to the rank of regional commander of NF1 as you have written on many occasions while Carlos Mudzingwa was promoted to the rank of frontal commander in the Southern Front, meaning that he was in charge of three regions with his counterpart being Rodwell Nyika who was in charge of the Northern Front. However, Carlos was later withdrawn and replaced with Baberton. 

MS: Then give us a breakdown of the commanders and how you arrived at the appointments.

Col (Rtd) Mpofu: The first battalion was given to now Major-General (Rtd) Stanford Khumalo, who was known as Madliwa. On your question on how we arrived at the appointments, especially on Madliwa I can say Madliwa is Madliwa. Madliwa had done a few things before. One can say leadership was in his blood. Cde Search Nyoni was then appointed Madliwa’s deputy with their battalion commissar being Cde Solomon Goredema. The rank of Chief of Staff for the first battalion was given to a then 19-year-old brilliant soldier, Cde Citizen whose real name was Paul Ncube. Citizen was one of the heroes of the seven-day battle against the Rhodesians near Kariba.  The battalion artillery commander went to Mahewu, who unfortunately was killed soon after the seven-day battle, Cde Velani who all along has been in charge of the war veterans office in Matabeleland North was the battalion signals officer and Masotsha battalion medical officer. The Second Battalion was given to Cde Zuba and was deputised by the now late Lt-Col Lovemore Mpofu, who was from Mt Darwin, but had grown up here in Bulawayo. Lt-Col Mpofu was known as Bhekumuzi during the war. Their Chief of Staff was Cde Munda while the Political Commissar was Mafuko. The third battalion was given to now Lt-Col Jack Matiwaza, who had seen action in the Hwange areas before he was recalled to the rear and sent to the Soviet Union to do a battalion commanders course. Matiwaza was deputized by Bafana with Cde Darlington Mukudzei coming in as Chief of Staff. Cde Fungayi Shoko was appointed to the rank of Political Commissar for the third battalion with the now late Colonel Ray Lazarus Ncube being the battalion’s intelligence officer.    

MS: Then the fourth . . .

Col (Rtd) Mpofu: We gave the Fourth Battalion to Soneni Mdlalose whose real name was Polate Maphenduka with Clive Mnkandla as the Chief of Staff while Gerald Moyo came in as the Political Commissar and Cde Tsheza the battalion artillery commander. All in all we had more than 4 000 troops at Mlungushi and we then started training the battalions individually for co-ordination purposes. Although the battalions were at Mlungushi they were deployed some distance apart for strategic and tactical purposes. However, as for the command of the brigade, Nleya did not stay long at Mlungushi as he was promoted to the headquarters to become the deputy to General Lookout Masuku, who was the commander of ZPRA.

MS: So who took over?

Col (Rtd) Mpofu: Cephas Kuphe took over. Myself I remained the Brigade Political Commissar.

MS: May you explain to us the function of the PC in a military set-up?

Col (Rtd) Mpofu: The function of a PC, like what I was doing, was to give directions to the army about the ideologies and programmes of the party. In other words, the PC was the link between the civilian elements of the party and the soldiers.  

λ To be concluded next week.