The Sunday News
WE continue our interview with former ZPRA Brigade Political Commissar, Colonel (Rtd) Marshal Mhambi Mpofu pseudo name, Cde Lameck Mathe or Marshal Longfield. Col (Rtd) Mpofu in our last edition told our Assistant Editor Mkhululi Sibanda (MS) how he left his work, fed up with racism to join the armed struggle in Zambia via Botswana. Today Col (Rtd) Mpofu speaks about his training at Morogoro Camp in Tanzania in 1973. Below are excerpts from the interview. Read on . . .
MS: Last time you told us about how you were preparing to leave Botswana for Zambia. Let’s pick up the conversation from there.
Col (Rtd) Mpofu: It was in March 1973 when we were finally taken from Francistown (Botswana) and flown to Lusaka in Zambia. We were seven. From Lusaka International Airport we were driven to the Zapu headquarters, the Zimbabwe House (ZH). At ZH we met the then ZPRA Adjudant-General, Kenneth Murwira (Jeffery Ndlovu) among the senior comrades who were there. We were at ZH for two nights and were joined by two other recruits, Mpofu and Makhobe who were Zimbabweans but living in Zambia. We were then taken to the bush, but Silongoma, the guy we had skipped the border together to Botswana and was from Chiredzi decided not to pursue the military path, instead chose to further his education on a scholarship organised by the party. The Zapu officials had also asked me to go for a scholarship overseas as I had done well at O-level, but I refused and told them that I was in Zambia to train as a freedom fighter. However, Silongoma opted for the academic path. So eight of us as we had become nine before Silongoma decided against being a guerilla were moved to Mwembeshi.
MS: How long did you stay at Mwembeshi?
Col (Rtd) Mpofu: Things were happening so fast, so we stayed at Mwembeshi for just a week. It was at Mwembeshi that we met trained guerillas such as Elliot Masengo (late Colonel Harold Chirenda), Dingani and Busobenyoka. Masengo was to rise to become ZPRA Chief of Training. So during our brief stay there, we marvelled at the weapons those comrades were carrying. We asked Masengo to show us how those weapons worked. He then took us to some place where he started firing at a tree. That was inspiring. After a week we were driven in a Bedford to Morogoro in Tanzania.
MS: What were your first impressions of Morogoro?
Col (Rtd) Mpofu: It was amazing, you know Zapu had been in a crisis and several cadres had left the party, resulting in a few remaining. So when we got to Morogoro we found only 10 cadres undergoing training and were about to finish. ZPRA was starting afresh to rebuild its force.
MS: Do You remember the names of the 10?
Col (Rtd) Mpofu: Yes, of course. Among the 10 was Zvafa, the elder brother of the former Air Force commander, Air Marshal Elson Moyo. Zvafa, who, however, died during the war in Zambia was strikingly intelligent, he was gifted in sciences. Others were Siamangongo, Donald Ndlovu, Makanyanga, Seka Mbonisi, Renious, Godfrey Jubane, younger brother of former ZBC staffer, Maplot, Situlo Matiwaza, Skin and Emmanuel.
MS: You guys arrived at Morogoro in a group of eight, take us through what happened later on.
Col (Rtd) Mpofu: Other recruits started arriving in batches as well. Eight others arrived and in that group there was Todd Mpisi, Gilbert Khumalo (Nicholas Nkomo), John Simbarashe Hungwe (Magwaza). We also saw the arrival of another group that had comrades like the now late, Tshaka Moyo (Thodlana). We ended up being 50, but two guys ran away when we were either two or three weeks into training. The two, a Sibanda and a Maphosa could not keep up pace with the training regime, so they fled from the camp. One of them ended up having a homestead in Zambia, just near the Freedom Camp (FC), at a place the guerillas referred to as Filabusi. So at our pass-out parade, we graduated in a group of 48.
MS: That was 1973, who were the instructors at Morogoro?
Col (Rtd) Mpofu: The camp commander was Sam Mfakazi, the Chief of Staff being Jordan Gampu while the Political Commissar (PC) was Enoch Sebele, the younger brother of TG Silundika. Cde Sebele was a brilliant PC, he taught us a lot in terms of the ideology of the armed struggle. As for the instructors we had Eddie Sigoge, Enoch Tshangane (Jevan Maseko), Stanley Gagisa, Ben Mathe or Dubhu (Tjile Nleya) and Tshaloba who, however, didn’t stay long.
MS: I am told among your instructors, Sigoge and Gagisa were the toughest. How did you find them?
Col (Rtd) Mpofu: Tough yes, but not rough as widely said by some. It should be understood that they had to be tough because they had to produce better soldiers. They had to prepare us to be better soldiers against a well-equipped enemy. Their demands in our training were determined by the tasks we had back home. We were going to fight under very difficult conditions and therefore it naturally followed that we had to train hard. I remember when the Chief of Staff and eventual ZPRA commander, Nikita Mangena came to open up our training he said, “More sweat in training, less blood in the field.” He even assured our group that we were going to be the backbone of ZPRA because before our group we had only 10 cadres who had just finished training and us being 48 was considered a very big number that could make a change. Therefore, our training had to conform to the objectives of the situation at hand, we were going to operate under very difficult conditions. Our training had to be hard. We had some instructors who were very good like Sigoge and Elisha Gagisa who were doing physical training, and obstacle crossing. They had to take us through long marches and weapon handling and so forth, which needed someone to be physically fit and I think that came in handy, of course, they managed to produce the best soldiers because at that time we were also young at 20 or 21 thereabout. We could do anything that was supposed to be done and I think we owe our survival to some of those instructors. That group of five was one of the best, having been trained also by the Arabs themselves they used to refer to them as cruel, but I don’t think the Arabs were cruel but wanted to produce the best which they did out of them.
MS: Tell us more about your instructors and the training programme.
Col (Rtd) Mpofu: We had Tshangane taking us for combat tactics, which involved planning for the battle and so forth. Sigoge was for military engineering, a very sensitive area and physical fitness. Sigoge, a giant of a man and very light in complexion, would take us through marches, and physical exercises as I said. As for Gagisa another agile fellow and very fit used to share the physical aspect of training with Sigoge. Gagisa took us through medics as well. We also enjoyed the political orientation of Cde Sebele who had been to the Soviet Union. Later on, he was always with Nikita Mangena. However, he did not live to see Zimbabwe as he was killed in a hit-and-run accident in Lusaka in 1978.
MS: When did you complete your training?
Col (Rtd) Mpofu: We completed our training in December 1973. Some of the comrades in our group were immediately deployed to the front. However, from our group, I was among the three who were chosen soon after training to go for military specialisation in the Soviet Union. We left Morogoro for the Soviet Union in a group of four with one of our instructors, Eddie Sigoge being the fourth person. Of the comrades I had trained with there was Magwaza, but, unfortunately, I can’t recall the other.
MS: So it was just the four of you?
Col (Rtd) Mpofu: No. We met eight others at Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. From the eight there were comrades like Albert Mudiwa, Arthur Materere, Simon Chirimuta, Chad Chigwedere, Albert Mususa who is now living in the United Kingdom, Caleb Bhebhe, Moto and I am no longer sure of the other one. But all in all, we travelled in a group of 12 with Sigoge as the leader of the delegation and myself as his deputy. Those eight comrades were fresh recruits.
To be continued next week
