The ManicaPost
Freedom Mutanda and Sifelani Tonje Post correspondents—
As the war trudged towards its end, intrigue and enemy penetration threatened to make the guerrillas and their leadership lose focus and concentration. At the front, the enemy used some of the ‘supporters’ to throw some spanners in the works as the freedom fighters suffered near death escapades among the povo and lived to tell the tale.Admittedly, the great revolutionary, Mao Ze Dong, enthused that any liberation army had to have intimate ties with the povo for it to successfully wage a war against an oppressive enemy; so it was with the ‘boys’ who had to be a fish in water for them to survive the jungles of warfare following the surge in numbers of those who went to join the ZANLA and ZIPRA fighters in 1975 going forward.
Sponsoring sell-outs was one way in which Ian Smith used to sow seeds of disunity among Africans with the result that the war was derailed a little bit in its forward march.
Meet Cde John Jongwe aka Stanley Mauto Zvionere and his real name is Sydney Jenya, born on 13 November 1957.
I first met General Josiah Magama Tongogara soon after my return from training in Nachingwea, Tanzania as one of the 5 000 strong Sungamberi group at Quelimane in Mozambique. He asked us what appeared to be a simple question: “Now that you are a trained group, how are you going to use your guns?’’
We all laughed thinking that indeed the question was an easy one. We volunteered our answers that he dismissed as incorrect. We had all hazarded answers that we were confident would score highly on his scale of marks. We said it was to kill the enemy and bring independence to Zimbabwe.
He dismissed that and went on to say, “the gun is there to defend the povo. We talk to the povo and if anyone wants to drive a wedge between you and the povo or attempts to force you not to talk to them, then you use the gun’’.
I remember the Provincial Political Commissar, Cde Dominic Chinenge rallying us by saying, “murume watete, ngatifambe nayo hondo.’’
Let me start my story to where it all began. I met those two liberation war heroes as a result of my having gone to Mozambique to fight against a recalcitrant, rogue and racist regime.
On 22 July 1975, six boys and myself left Chabvukwa Village deep in Dondo country under Chief Musikavanhu and crossed the border to Mozambique. It was more of an adventure for us as we had listened to the radio stations in Zambia and the newly independent Mozambique. At Keta (Chibota), we met three girls namely Eness Matangandire, Esther Mlambo Gwatidzo and Priscilla Muusha. We proceeded to Mudhe poshto, Matchazi and finally, we arrived at Espungabera.
Some spotter planes hovered over Espungabera at the end of August 1975. Numbers of arrivals were swelling at the place and the FRELIMO authorities could not risk an attack that would kill thousands of refugees; thus, the commandant at the place ordered trucks to ferry us to Chibawawa in October 1975.
Our life at Chibawawa was a living hell. The only building there was a thatched room which stored food. Therefore, all of us had to sleep outside or go and use the pig sties as resting quarters. The place was said to have been a Portuguese farm. It follows then that the place was lice infested.
In today’s parlance, we had to make do with the zero-zero-one eating regime which means we had one measly meal a day. Our commander at that time was a civilian named Mutasa and his deputy was Andrew.
Going for training
On my way from gathering firewood, I heard a piercing whistle sound; I dropped everything that I was doing and went straight to the assembly point as was the custom. We stood in our companies as leaders chose the people who had to go for training. They sought people who were physically fit; I was one of those who were chosen; they used Dodge trucks to ferry us to Beira via Dondo camp.
It was at Chibawawa that I met George Gapara, a brother-in-law who had left Zimbabwe with his entire family including Mavis his wife (my sister) and Vusimuzi, their son. Such sacrifice!
We had to wait for Mapinduzi, a Tanzanian ship that would carry us to Mtwala port in Tanzania.
The trainees were taken from Chibawawa and Nyadzonya; as we went to Tanzania, we heard chilling stories of the Nyadzonia massacre that left our bodies numb.
Our resolve to fight the regime strengthened on hearing the blood curdling yarns that depicted the Rhodesian regime as despotic and willing to use brute force to achieve its intended mission.
I was at Nyadzonya base at Nachingwea. It was called ‘kumasengere’ or ‘chinyuka chebere’. It was called by the latter name because there would be hyena stools in the spring every morning. We would scoop away the droppings and drink the water.
For nine months we sweated in our training led by Tanzanian instructors such as Lieutenant Maclika (Soft guy) and Sergeant Mweta.
I specialised in tactics-planning, strategies incorporating attacks, advance and assault and searching a dead body in the twinkle of an eye.
We went to Quelimane in a Nigerian air force plane. We went to Siyaya base on our way to Mkumba, a Frelimo posto and then went to Beira. There, we met Cde Tonderai Nyika and Tinzwei Goronga. At Mumengu, a former pig farm which was lice infested, I was deployed to the Musikavanhu sector as an assistant to Cde Stan Matipe. I asked to be excused as it would have meant fighting in my home area of Chabvukwa, Mugondi and Bangira. That would have exposed my relatives to the regime and it would have led to dire consequences.
The security department understood my plight and I was immediately transferred to the Monomotapa sector that covered Mutambara, Zimunya, Buhera and Charter (Chivhu); I was under Cde Nherera whose deputy was Chihombe Madhara.
As we traversed the Buhera-Zvemoyo area, I assumed a new nom de guerre, Stanley Mauto Zvionere.
Zinhanga attack
It was in 1977, towards the end. We had settled well in Buhera as the povo had understood our mission to liberate the country with their help, of course. Zvimbwidos and mujibhas came with food to our bases and indeed our relationship with the people enabled us to wage our war successfully. There are many battles I engaged in but the Zinhanga attack always leaves me with a chuckle as what I learnt in tactics back at Nachingwea came to help us in decision making.
Zinhanga is close to Gaza village in Buhera. We had a pungwe. I suspect there could have been a sell out among us. Rhodesian soldiers came from the eastern direction and we were to the west but the povo were sandwiched between two fighting forces. They fired at us and used a searchlight.
We did not return fire for fear that the povo would get badly hurt and the propaganda machine of the regime would go to town about the contact claiming that the freedom fighters were killing their own.
There were a few casualties mainly on the civilian side but no death. We made a hasty retreat but it was done tactically.
Mhari base attack
In Charter (Chivhu) district, there is Mhari Mountain; it acts as a border between Buhera and Charter districts. Detachment commander, Cde Zaire, called on all sections in his detachment to meet at Mhari mountain base. He could have wanted to issue some instructions to us. That was in early 1978.
Cde Nherera led our group to the base. A group had gone there a day before. When it arrived there, it caught a military intelligence operative moving about and interrogated him before beating him up. Later, all sections arrived there and presumably owing to the darkness, the operative slipped away.
When food was about to be distributed the following morning, the first helicopter fired at Cde Forward who was dishing food to fellow comrades who had come for the briefing.
He fired at it and then an avalanche of the planes came; the dreaded arumanyas, helicopters and Dakotas converged at Mhari base. We fired at them and the contact got very intense as the planes re-fuelled at Mombeyarara at a place we called Ogaden meaning to say there was no cover.
We could not go to Mombeyarara to stop the refueling as we would be snuffed out from afar.
More planes came as ground forces fired at us. I had my trusted AK-47; it is light and releases a hail of bullets rapidly. In the ensuing battle, a number of people lost their lives and got injured.
We met at the gathering point and counted our losses; a number of mujibhas and chimbwidos had lost their lives.
That presented problems as parents became reluctant to allow their children to visit our bases for fear that a similar massacre would occur. I never saw Cde Forward again.
Next week, we look at how Cde Stanley Jongwe nearly died from food poisoning. We will see how he became a top notch instructor yet he went to war as a Grade 7 recruit.
Don’t miss a copy of your favourite family paper to read his riveting story. For your views and opinions, call, whatsapp or sms me at 0777582734 or email [email protected]
