The Sunday News
TODAY we conclude our series of interview with Cde Andrew Ndlovu pseudo name Cleopas Danga or Volunteer Mkhwananzi. In the past few weeks he has speaking to our Assistant Editor Mkhululi Sibanda (MS). Below is the last instalment of the interviews:
MS: Ndlovu you said people operating from Zimbabwe House in Lusaka ran away when they saw you. But why?
Cde Ndlovu: Like I said sasisesabeka that is why people at Zimbabwe House ran away with some peeping through the windows. Some of the comrades among us were dreadlocked like Makuramiti while some were heavily bearded like oMafutha, Castro indevu zasisesabeka, kwakungaso ndevu zokudlala leziya.
The comrades had bloodshot eyes, those eyes were not for normal people, they were eyes of a lion preying on another animal. Thina sasilamehlo abantu abadla amakhiwa, vele we were killers and our minds were always thinking how to kill and all this was because we had lived in the bush for a long time where there was no time to relax. Lupane was one of the most contested zones between the freedom fighters and the Rhodesian forces during the armed struggle.
So we were always on our toes and in Zambia we had not gone there to have fun. We wanted to go back and finish our job. Remember going back was also a problem, we had to cross the Zambezi again with all those difficulties, go through the heavily mined Kavira Forest while the enemy was always on the lookout, and all those things had some psychological effects on the comrades.
MS: With all this what type of weapons were you carrying?
Cde Ndlovu: We were armed with AK-47 rifles and one light machine gun. We had left the heavy weapons with the comrades who were left doing the fighting. We did not want to leave the comrades in a weak position.
MS: You are also saying people at the Zimbabwe House were not talking to you.
Cde Ndlovu: We had no time for nice things, like I said those people just became frightened when they saw us. We were not there to make friends, we had gone to Zambia to end lies, to stop those distortions against our fellow comrades that they were refusing to take orders from the High Command.
We did not even greet people there because we were aware that at the rear there were people who were a problem, we had gone there to meet the High Command. Sasingafuni ukujwayelwa. Then came a time when they tried to disarm us and we refused. We asked them why they were disarming us and they were doing that as who.
MS: Who tried to disarm you?
Cde Ndlovu: Someone whose name I cannot remember was sent by some members of the High Command, sahle sathi: “Zwana wena, we are commanders and we are here in Lusaka to give reports to the High Command, so leave us alone, hamba khatshana.” He went back and told them, so it was decided that we be moved to JZ Camp.
MS: Suppose they had tried to disarm you forcefully, what was going to happen?
Cde Ndlovu: That was not possible, they were not going to achieve that. Babengasoze besikwanise, sasivele sisesabeka. They also realised that it was not going to be a good thing to be confrontational, even ourselves we had not gone to Zambia to do some mischief, we were there to report back despite all the distortions of being viewed as renegades. All those things at the end of the day were not necessary. We were there to give reports and clear the dust about our operational area.
So at the end of the day we moved to JZ Camp. When we got to JZ we were given tents and we set base there. We had our won corner. We were on our own, the only person who came to us was the Zapu National Chairman, the now late Cde Samuel Munodawafa who tried to give us some political lessons, but to us that was a non-event, we were not in Zambia for political lessons. We just listened because we respected him as our leader, but what he was telling us was not relevant to the situation we were in. With due respect to the old man that was a non-starter.
MS: In the meantime where were Mafutha and the other two?
Cde Ndlovu: They were somewhere and we had met, but those people did not want to see us together. It seems they were afraid that if we kept close to each other, there was going to be a reaction. However, we were still communicating to each other and also monitoring that those three comrades were safe.
Then the three met members of the High Command for that crucial meeting. Mafutha is the one who was in charge of the negotiations, it was during that time that Mafutha spoke directly to the party President, Dr Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo who was in London at that time for the Lancaster House Conference talks. They spoke through the phone. Dr Nkomo is said to have told oMafutha that they should remain committed to the struggle and the old man sounded concerned about the situation at the rear. All our reports had been given to Mafutha and the other two, Jijiji and Mpunzi.
The person who consulted Dr Nkomo was Cde Ackim Ndlovu who at that time was the Special Advisor between the party and the military.
MS: Although you were not in that closed door meeting, but you had inside information, what were some of the issues that Mafutha, Jijiji and Mpunzi raised?
Cde Ndlovu: Mafutha at that time was a forthright, fearless and battle hardened fighter, very political conscious, so were the rest of us especially if one had trained in the Group of 800. So he raised pertinent issues to the High Command, which at first accused him of being a renegade specially the Chief of Operations, Enoch Tshangane (the late Major-General Jevan Maseko). Tshangane accused Mafutha of refusing to take orders from the High Command.
In the initial stages of the meeting it was an exchange of very crude words between Tshangane and Mafutha. In fact Tshangane was saying he could not speak to people who were deliberately refusing to take orders from the High Command. Mafutha then pointed out to him that when he deployed him to Lupane he had said the Mafutha unit should stay at the front and not return to the rear unless advised to do so.
Mafutha told Tshangane that he respected him as his commander, but Tshangane still maintained his stance that he will not be made to sit at a round-table with those who were refusing to take orders from the High Command. At that point Ackim Ndlovu brought to the attention of the meeting that the Zipra Commander-In-Chief himself, Dr Joshua Nkomo had said they should listen to the concerns of the Mafutha group. Ackim then said to Tshangane if he did not want to discuss anything with Mafutha, Jijiji and Mpunzi or allow the meeting to continue, who then was defying orders between him and the trio. It was at that point that Tshangane relented and the meeting continued, although it was a heated one.
MS: So which were the pertinent issues, maybe before you go to them, besides Maj-Gen Maseko who were some of the members of the High Command in that meeting?
Cde Ndlovu: There was the Zipra commander himself, the now late General Lookout Masuku, whose pseudo name was Lameck Mafela, his deputy, Ben Dubhu Mathe (Retired Brigadier-General Tshile Nleya), the Chief of Military Intelligence, Patrick Mhandu who also became a brigadier after Independence as well as Cde Mpandasekwa Muzheri, who became a brigadier after Independence and commanded One Brigade here in Bulawayo among some of his assignments in the Zimbabwe National Army, Brig-Gen Muzheri is the one who was taking minutes in that meeting and that is what Mafutha told us.
Also there was umdala uMunodawafa. Then turning to the grievances, Mafutha, Jijiji and Mpunzi spoke widely about lack of co-ordination between the rear and the front, pointing out lack of regular supplies to the forces, at times poor armament, behaviour of some of the newly deployment forces, who were very aggressive to the peasants. He raised the issue of being called a renegade, saying he was aware that some commanders at the rear had given orders that he should be killed.
They said those distortions that he was a renegade were raided by some troops who were running away from the front and spreading lies. Mafutha said if the High Command was sincere and serious about executing the war why was it not providing intelligence to the forces at the front about the behaviour of the enemy. He said it was also difficult at the front to make regular forays to the rear because comrades were being detained in pits by the military intelligence.
Mafutha also put to members of the High Command, that he doubted that they had full appreciation of what was happening at the front because a majority of them had never crossed the Zambezi River and joined the forces there, to just assess the situation. He came short of telling them that they lacked field experience. However, at the end the issue was resolved amicably and we were given more than 130 troops, ammunition and we embarked on the journey back to continue with our operations.
MS: Then the ceasefire came immediately after that.
Cde Ndlovu: During the ceasefire period I moved with my unit to Mike Assembly Point at St Paul’s Mission where I was appointed Chief Commandant. But I must point out that the ceasefire to us was a big disappointment, akulanto eyasibhowa njenge ceasefire. We even called for a meeting where we gathered the villagers at the Songo Stores and told them that we were very disappointed, but we could not go against what our leaders had agreed on.
We pointed to them that into leyi izasikhathaza kusasa, we are going back to square one. Some of the villagers even advised us against moving into the Assembly Points. Also as fate would have it we lost 12 comrades under Poktiva at Cross Jotsholo when a bus that was transporting them to St Paul’s was bombed by a Rhodesian military aircraft. However, some still managed to escape and that was serious violation of the ceasefire agreement.
That Cross Jotsholo incident almost led to some comrades moving out of the Assembly Point at St Paul’s. As for the units that were under my command we walked all the way to St Paul’s because we were not sure of the intentions of the Rhodesians. The first unit to move into St Paul’s was the JZ battalion that came straight from the rear in Zambia. The other battalion from the rear was Chinamano. All in all we had five battalions at St Paul’s.
MS: Then as the Chief Commandant of the Assembly Point what was your role there?
Cde Ndlovu: I am the one who deployed the battalions and was in charge of the security of all the five battalions. I chose the right and secure places where they could be deployed in case the Rhodesians attacked. In fact the way they had deployed was not good militarily according to my analysis and I had to re-arrange that.
In fact those battalions from Zambia were not militarily deployed and you could see the difference between those who had been at the front and those who were at the rear. When the commanders came uGilbert Khumalo (Nicholas Nkomo) who became the camp commander deputised by Phibion Mutero (Ernest Sibanda) as well as Gedi we also told them we were not comfortable with the situation at the camp. Gedi called for a meeting of the commanders where I was appointed the Chief Commandant to look at the security and deploy the units. Immediately I started issuing instructions how all the battalions were to be positioned and some of their commanders tried to resist, but bekwenza kubani.
I was armed with a machine gun and bangena emfolweni. Ngangibatshela okokwenza. I used to attend meetings of senior commanders armed with a machine gun and Mutero would complain about that. I would say what if we are bombed by the Rhodesians.
MS: In all this where was Pamhodzi which had the so-called hot-heads like Mafutha, Jijiji and Castro.
Cde Ndlovu: They had deployed along a thicket, which was adjacent to the camp and very alert. Leziyana kwakungokhanda tshisa (hotheads).
MS: Then at St Paul’s I am told a grenade was thrown at the quarters of senior commanders and Gedi almost lost his life. What happened since you were in charge of security?
Cde Ndlovu: It was over money, the guerillas were not happy that some people were getting more. On the first day the guerillas ran amok and started shooting randomly and even near some homesteads. That resulted in Dumiso Dabengwa coming to the camp. Dabengwa came in the company of a pay officer who was a woman, but the guerillas said no one should get the money unless that woman revealed the pay structure of everybody including senior commanders such as Lookout Masuku and Rex Nhongo (Solomon Mujuru).
They were armed, ready to shoot anyone who dared move and get the money from the pay officers. So DD tried to persuade people to get their money, but they said “Cde DD two, three steps backward”. Being an accomplished guerilla DD read the mood correctly and allowed the woman to talk to the guerillas in a bid to appease them.
It was at that time the guerillas then forced that woman to reveal the pay structure and in fear she spilled the beans. Then Dabengwa decided to take the issue to Dr Joshua Nkomo. Then after DD left the guerillas that night decided to raid the commanders’ quarters where they threw a grenade. Some of the commanders included Thodlana (Tshaka Moyo) from the NSO but they survived without any injuries and it was only Gedi who was injured.
It was my battalion Pamhodzi that diffused the situation after I had addressed them and told them to contain the situation. We were ready to start a fight with those undisciplined elements. That was September 1980. From the APs I was attested into the Zimbabwe National Army as a Captain.
