The Sunday News
CDE Stanley Ndlovu pseudo name Cde Mercy Sigola or Mcben Muthi commanding a section of 10 guerillas, was forced to use stretcher beds to cross the raging Zambezi River with Rhodesian forces in hot pursuit.
Besides contending with water of the mighty Zambezi and closing in Rhodesians, Cde Ndlovu and his unit had to deal with the hippopotamuses which were also a nuisance in the water.
They harassed them all the way. On Friday last week our Assistant Editor Mkhululi Sibanda (MS) spoke to Cde Ndlovu about his exploits on the battlefield during the armed struggle where the ex-fighter spoke about his training in Zambia and Tanzania, deployment to the front in January 1977 in the Binga and Lupane areas where they had to announce the beginning of the war to the two strategic districts which were later to be used as a corridor by guerillas being deployed from Zambia.
Below are excerpts of the interview. Read on…
MS: May we start by you giving us your background, who is Stanley Ndlovu?
Cde Ndlovu: I was born on 26 April 1955 at Seula Village in Matobo District, Matabeleland South Province. Seula is closer to the border with Botswana, it is one of the last villages in the Kezi area as one moves closer to Botswana.
I went to school at Seula where I completed Standard Six in 1969. After school I moved to Bulawayo where I got a job at Rhodesian Tin and Steelware Manufacturers Limited which after Independence changed its name to Monarch.
I worked there for two years as in 1971 I left for South Africa where I got a job emajaradeni in Johannesburg. I also worked at Khayalami area at a horse riding training school.
It was a menial job as our duties involved cleaning the horses and at times instructing those who were learning how to ride them.
However, in 1974 I left that job and got another menial job this time as a garden boy as people doing such jobs were called then.
MS: Let’s come to politics, how did you start your political activities and what influenced you?
Cde Ndlovu: In 1975 I came home briefly during the holidays. During that time like most blacks I was aggrieved by the treatment of blacks at the hands of whites, there was a lot of discrimination, black people were getting slave wages. A lot was happening that was degrading blacks.
We were treated as sub-humans both in Rhodesia and South Africa. A black person was nothing in the eyes of the Boers. A number of young people were crossing the border to join the armed struggle.
To add to that Jane Ngwenya, the now late National Heroine had a programme on radio where she was urging Zimbabweans to go to Zambia and join the armed struggle. Her message was very inspiring, it could turn boys into men and lions. Jane’s voice gave me a lot of courage and after my return to South Africa I did not stay there long as I left for Botswana en-route to Zambia.
MS: When you left South Africa how many were you?
Cde Ndlovu: I was alone, it was a solo journey. I travelled all the way to Francistown where I met others at a Zapu house, which was in an area called Minestone. That’s where I met comrades like Saul Dube, who operated under the name Sandlana Mafutha, we came from the same village. He was also coming from South Africa where he had been working.
MS: How was the situation in Francistown?
Cde Ndlovu: It was okay, but we were living on the edge as there was information that the Rhodesian security agents were watching us. So there was that threat of being abducted by the Rhodesians. In fact, there was no security there, if it was there we did not see those tasked with doing those duties. Maybe they were there secretively.
MS: How long did you stay in Botswana?
Cde Ndlovu: I was there for some months before we were flown to Zambia. From the Lusaka International Airport we were driven to Nampundwe Transit Camp where we were joined by others. Those were coming from another camp. Our number rose to more than 800, that is why we became known as the Group of 800.
After some time we were taken to Mwembeshi Camp, we are the ones who opened that camp with our instructors such as the now late National Hero, Stanley Gagisa and Busobenyoka. At Mwembeshi we are the ones who put up structures, we constructed obstacles and so on. I think we were at Mwembeshi for about three months before we were told that there had been an agreement that as nationalist forces we should have one army, the Zimbabwe People’s Army (ZIPA).
That development meant combining Zipra and Zanla forces. It was pronounced that all training camps for the forces were to be situated in Tanzania and Mozambique. So under ZIPA, Zambia was not to host any training camp.
MS: That is how you moved to Mgagao in Tanzania and how was it there?
Cde Ndlovu: Yes, that is how we were taken to Mgagao to have a combined training with Zanla. At Mgagao problems started surfacing, firstly we felt as Zipra we were disadvantaged as that was not our camp, we felt like outsiders.
I think the commanders anticipated that there could be problems as Rex Nhongo from Zanla and Ambrose Mutinhiri (Zipra) came to address us where they explained the concept of ZIPA, which on paper was a good thing and if it had been successful could have seen us as a nation avoiding problems that we encountered post-independence.
There was also suspicion that we as Zipra we were already trained and Zanla colleagues felt we were up to some mischief. There was shortage of food at the camp and that sparked the skirmishes that broke out, resulting in the death of over 40 Zipra comrades.
What also happened was that three or so days before the Mgagao skirmishes, there was an ugly incident at Morogoro which was a Zipra camp where Zanla comrades were going through this combined training with Zipra. Some Zanla colleagues lost their lives there during a shooting incident. So all these conditions made co-existence difficult, resulting in the collapse of ZIPA.
After escaping the Mgagao shooting we regrouped at Iringa Camp before we were moved to Morogoro where we completed our training. The commander at Morogoro Camp was Sam Mfakazi with Tjile Nleya, Philip Velario Sibanda and Stanley Gagisa Nleya as some of the instructors. Our training there took more than six months after that some of us were deployed to the front while others went overseas for further training.
MS: After training where did you go?
Cde Ndlovu: After completing training I was deployed straight to the front. Others from our group were sent for further training in countries like the Soviet Union.
I was with a group that was taken to Zambia from where we deployed to our operational area, DK. It was there where we were given missions by Cde Enoch Tshangane (late Major-General Jevan Maseko) who was the Chief of Operations. I was leading a group of 10, being the section commander. We were deployed at the beginning of January 1977. I was given the command of a section made of 10 men while the other section had comrades like Mafutha and Mabhikwa, the one you have been talking to in this column.
The two sections crossed together but split when we got to Binga as we had been given different missions. Cde Tshangane had ordered us to announce our presence to the enemy by destroying bridges using explosives and those missions were to be carried out within 10 days.
The orders from Tshangane were that we should go and destroy the bridge which was on the Kamative-Bulawayo Road, the Lubanda Bridge while the other section with Sandlana Mafutha was to take care of the Binga-Wankie (Hwange) area.
The completed mission was acknowledged by the regime and announced by Combined Operational Command of the Rhodesian government. After those missions we were to cross back to Zambia and report to the command element.
n To be continued next week
