The Sunday News
We continue our interview with Lt-Col (Retired) Stanford Moyo pseudo name Cde Lloyd Zvananewako or Mabhikwa who in our last instalment spoke about how he failed to join the Frelimo forces in Mozambique from South Africa.
He continues his narration by telling our Assistant Editor Mkhululi Sibanda (MS) about how he left South Africa for Zambia via Botswana to join the armed struggle.
Lt-Col (Rtd) Moyo also explains events leading to the shoot-out at Mgagao between Zanla and Zipra. Below are excerpts of the interview. Read on….
MS: Tell us about how you left South Africa for the war.
Lt-Col (Retired) Moyo: We boarded the train for Botswana at Park Station in Joburg. At night we were in the train heading towards Botswana. I was with Lawrence Sibanda from the Mbuya area around Maphisa Growth Point in Kezi.
Others had remained behind for the next day train as we did not want to move together. While on board the train at around mid-night or early hours of the day, a group of police officers emerged from the next coach walking towards us.
I noticed they were pushing a stretchered person on something that looked like a trolley. A pistol was put on that person’s head. I quickly moved out of the coach, in fact I jumped to a nearby toilet where I threw away that pistol we had bought in Soweto, Joburg. I quickly returned to my seat. Little did I know that a vigilant police officer had seen my movements. But he pretended as if he saw nothing and when he was about to pass-by my seat he pounced on me.
He grabbed me by my feet and they tied me on the coach’s rails with me facing down. They then searched me and found nothing of interest. They cut the rope and I fell on my back. They moved on. I said nothing, but wished they should just vanish from the scene. They left for the next coach. After that we immediately arrived at Mafeking where we were whisked away by people who pretended to be taxi drivers who plied the route to the South Africa and Botswana border.
They took us to a certain house where they promised us hot tea early in the morning. However, they later raided us, robbed us of our money before chasing us from the scene and drove towards Kimberley.
MS: So, what did you do?
Lt-Col (Rtd) Moyo: Later that day we moved and crossed the border into Botswana. We spent half of the day moving towards Rakuna Station and in the evening we were in the train towards Gaborone where we found our colleagues, the six.
They were my home boys from Kezi, Cdes Max Mangwana Moyo from St Anna ko Chief Bidi, Njabulo Ndlovu from koSibanjana, Antony Sibanda from Marinoha, Godfrey Ndlovu from Mahetshe, Howard and Magigwana Ndlovu, the brother to Fomoja Ndlovu, who is also a war veteran. Together we took ourselves to the authorities in Gaborone. We were housed at the Gaborone Maximum Prison for security reasons because there was that fear that the Rhodesian security agents might pounce on the recruits and abduct them.
MS: How did you plan to go to the war, it seems you used to meet and strategise as homeboys.
Lt-Col (Rtd) Moyo: Some of us as youngsters were not much into party politics. I have to be honest with you when we went to war, I did not go there as a member of Zapu, I went to fight colonialism. That is why I even attempted with my friends to join Frelimo, which we used to read a lot about in South African newspapers. As for us meeting, we used to do that at Diep Kloof kuZone 6 during weekends at a house of Mthabane who came from Mangwe District. It was more to do with socializing but of course the issue of joining the war would always crop up.
MS: Tell us about your stay in Gaborone.
Lt-Col (Rtd) Moyo: At the prison in Gaborone we were joined by five guys, three of them were going to war like us but the other two said they were not interested as they were looking for scholarships to go to London. Of the two, there was a Mabhena fellow whom I saw after independence and was degreed. Those three who were going to war were Shumba, Lambathi and Chief Nyoni.
When we were asked by the authorities about our political affiliation, we all said we belonged to the ANC that was led by Bishop Abel Muzorewa as we felt if we mentioned either Zapu or Zanu we would be sent to Rhodesia, those two were banned by the Rhodesian government. We were later sent to Francistown and at the State prison there were three Zipra combatants, trained ones.
One of them was called Gutu. Gutu is the one who started introducing us to the military basics. He started training volunteers like us and he continued even when we got to Nampundwe in Zambia. For us who volunteered to be taken through our paces by Gutu, we were very happy and it made things easier for us when we started real training at Mwembeshi.
Gutu was of Mozambican origin and I tried to look for him after independence to no avail. Gutu’s initiative to introduce us to the military basics nearly put us in hot soup when we started our training as our instructors in particular Billy Mzamo noticed and queried where we had learnt those things.
I was one of those who were taken for questioning and we told the instructors the truth. As our stories corroborated they understood. They thought they had caught the Rhodesian agents.
MS: Take us through your stay at Nampundwe and beginning of training at Mwembeshi.
Lt-Col (Rtd) Moyo: We arrived at Nampundwe in October 1975. I am not sure of our number when we arrived in Zambia but three lorries were used to take our group from Lusaka International Airport to Nampundwe. Then in November we were joined by a group that had people like Sandlana Mafutha (Sydney Saul Dube), who died recently in Bulawayo.
They were also coming from South Africa. Immediately after came others like now Brigadier-General Exobious Tshuma, who coincidentally is also from Kezi. In Francistown we had been joined by the Mapheduka brothers, Polate Maphenduka Moyo (Soneni Mdlalose) and Glen Maphenduka Moyo (Bitwell) who were coming from school and had completed their Ordinary levels. It seems they had done well at school. They came at the same time with now Colonel(Retired) Nketa, Max Khumalo and Mangwende who came from Gokwe. Coming to Nampundwe we were there until March when we were joined by others coming from Mboroma. At Nampundwe we even grew maize which we ate as green mealies. From Nampundwe we moved to Mwembeshi as a group that was to be famously known as the Group of 800 which also comprised women.
Those women were the first to be trained under Zipra. Our group became famous for others reason as well.
MS: Which are those reasons?
Lt-Col (Rtd) Moyo: It was the first largest group to be trained under Zipra as before Zipra had not trained such a large contingent of people. We were preceded by the Group of 137. The Group of 800 also became famous for having among itself guerillas who were very political and they courted a lot of controversy. The Group of 800 also changed the dynamics at the front as a majority of its members were infiltrated into Rhodesia and a lot of fighting started happening. After our deployment at the front we were reinforced by the first group trained in Angola which had 2 000 plus members and those from Mwembeshi.
As for us we were the first to open Mwembeshi as a training camp and after about two or three months we were ordered to go and join our colleagues from Zanla at their camp at Mgagao in Tanzania. However, our stay at Mgagao was short-lived as problems cropped up there.
MS: What were your personal experiences at Mgagao, a number of people seem to avoid talking about that period especially from the Zipra side. I have seen some ex-Zanla guerillas talking freely about it.
Lt-Col (Rtd) Moyo: We stayed well with our colleagues from Zanla. Some of us at the lowest levels we had excellent relations. The relationship was good to the last day until the first shots were fired at us. In fact, we were warned about the pending danger by some of the Zanla comrades. They told us to run away. Our friends told us to run way on that fateful Sunday in June 1976, before the shots were fired, but unfortunately people were located in different parts of the camp and some had even gone out of the camp to play football. There was a football team made up of both Zipra and Zanla that had gone out to play with a team of Tanzanians. When they came back, they found the situation having changed and unfortunately lives were lost.
MS: So, what really happened on that day?
Lt-Col (Rtd) Moyo: On that dark Sunday, it was our turn to cook for both battalions or units that is Zipra and Zanla. The problem started at the kitchen. Our Zanla colleagues cooked lunch and Zipra were to cook supper. I was part of those who were on cooking duties. During lunch seven men from Zipra failed to get food. Among the seven was Magaisa who was the section commander of the Zipra group. He pushed an armed Zanla guy and took rice from a 200 litre drum and his men followed.
The food had been reserved for other people from Zanla. When I realized that the situation was getting out of control I dashed to the barracks to feed my home boys, that is people from Kezi who were not feeling well and were sleeping. I told them to eat quickly and be ready for anything. I returned to the kitchen to prepare supper. On my way I met colleagues from the kitchen who said ‘let’s run away’. That warning came from friendly colleagues from Zanla. Then gun shots started ringing. They intensified until the last light.
As Zipra we managed to get out of the camp. Our initial training at Mwembeshi helped a lot. The next morning, we were rescued by Tanzanians who took us to a military camp at Iringa. We took our strength and 44 men were found to be missing. So, we lost 44 men at Mgagao. There was a BBC report of 250 casualties and a big number of deaths. I am not sure whether they were combining the Mgagao deaths with those of Morogoro which had happened much earlier where Zipras killed some Zanla colleagues.
MS: In this shoot-out Zanla has been blamed for being trigger happy while Zipra has been viewed as a victim. From the way you are narrating it seems Zipra was equally to blame.
Lt-Col (Rtd) Moyo: It’s true. Myself I believe we have polarised some of these issues because of deliberately omitting information and saying things from a certain angle so as to blame one side. In fact, the Mgagao incident has its background from what happened at Morogoro which was a Zipra camp. There at Morogoro it’s known that a number of Zanla recruits lost their lives at the hands of Zipra especially from the now late Eddie Sigoge who was mentioned as the main actor. Sigoge is said to have armed himself with an RPK. The Mgagao incident to me was a reaction from what had happened at Morogoro. When we got to Morogoro to continue our training after Mgagao we were shown a big mass grave.
MS: How did you take those incidents?
Lt-Col (Rtd) Moyo: Those incidents almost killed my spirit. I was saved by Jason Ziyapapa Moyo who came and for some days was teaching us about the unity of Zimbabweans. He said it was embarrassing for Zipra and Zanla to be seen fighting on foreign soil when we were brothers. He said by fighting each other we were helping the enemy as we were reducing our own numbers. I was devasted to learn of his death when we got to Zambia enroute for operations in January 1977.
To be continued next week with Lt-Col (Rtd) Moyo talking about his deployment to the front.
