COMMENT - President Mugabe is one of Africa's last Liberation War Heroes.
A woman from Eritrea sitting next to me in the gallery whispered: “He is a legend!” There were tears in her eyes. And when I told her later that I came from Zimbabwe, she looked at me with disbelief. “You are from there? You don’t know what you have,” she said rubbing tears from her eyes. ‘Go and tell them we can have the UN headquarters moved from there. It was a mistake to have it there in the first place.”
(THE PATRIOT ZW) Mugabe holds AU spellbound
By
Alexander Kanengoni -
February 4, 2016
Recently in Addis Ababa, Ethopia
THE problem at the AU summit in Addis Ababa last week began when the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon, took to the podium and, like a school head teacher, accused African leaders of bad governance and undemocratic practices, singling a few for praise.
“Leaders should not use undemocratic constitutional changes and legal loopholes to cling to power. Leaders must protect their people, not themselves,” he lectured. It was not difficult to guess the leaders he meant. He was so authoritarian and swashbuckling you couldn’t believe it was the same man who cringes at the sight of the Americans and the Europeans at the United Nations. He praised President Alpha Conde of Guinea, President Ellen Sirleaf Johnson of Liberia, President Ernest Bai Koroma of Sierra Leone and Bishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa.
That is how the problem began.
So that by the time President Robert Mugabe, the outgoing chairman of the AU took to the same podium to deliver his farewell message, he put aside his prepared speech and for 20 minutes, spoke directly to the UN Secretary- General a few metres away from him.
“It’s a pity I speak immediately after the Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas because he represents a problem the UN has failed to resolve for decades. How long will the UN stand idle while Israel demolishes Palestinian homes and builds houses for its citizens on the rubble?” he asked the secretary-general.
Then he lambasted the undemocratic nature of the UN and how that has to change. He lamented the routine pilgrimages to New York each September to deliver hollow speeches in the General Assembly that no one listens to because decisions are made by the five members in the UN Security Council. He decried the hopeless position of the African because the whiteman deems him inferior. He warned if that is not changed and Africa given a permanent seat in the Security Council, they may pull out of the UN.
“Go and tell them that,” he challenged Ban Ki Moon, who kept holding his head down.
The summit responded with an ovation that rose and rose, rising to the roof of the conference center. Someone in the gallery screamed. President Yahya Jammeh of Gambia, unmistakable in his trademark white flowing gown and matching turban stood up clapping his hands. Then Paul Kagame of Rwanda followed, then Mahommed Buhari of Nigeria, then they all stood up. Later, everyone would agree it was an unprecedented historical moment. Jacob Zuma looked around and hesitated; you saw it in the way he looked around and the cumbersome manner in which he eventually rose. Robert Mugabe was writing his own bit of African history.
Yet he had not even started giving the grim details of the African story. He began with the horrible story of the slave trade when millions of Africans were shipped across the Atlantic to America to work in their sugar and tobacco plantations. That humiliation was followed by the colonisation of the continent until we had to take up arms to fight for our freedom and independence.
He remembered how Charles de Gaulle refused to grant Algeria independence because, he argued, it was part of France. There was a bloody 10-year war from 1954 to 1962 that claimed the lives of more than 300 000. Franz Fanon, a medical doctor who treated the wounded in that war would chronicle his ghastly experience into a historic book on the plight of the oppressed, The Wretched of the Earth.
Robert Mugabe remembered Ben Bella, the leader of that revolution and his enduring words at the formation of the OAU in Addis Ababa in 1963: “We must all die a little for people in apartheid South Africa to be free”. The sentiment constituted the bedrock upon which the philosophy of pan-Africanism was founded.
I looked down at Jacob Zuma from the gallery. He fiddled with a sheaf of papers on the desk in front of him. Perhaps he had been reminded of the xenophobic attacks that swept across his country in 2013 and left many fellow Africans dead. It was perplexing how South Africans forgot the sacrifices Africa made so that they could be free.
Robert Mugabe remembered Julius Nyerere and how he set up the liberation committee to help liberate Southern Africa, how all the liberation movements were offered military training facilities in the country. He remembered Nigeria and the difficulty it faced to pay its obligation to the OAU because of the war in Biafra at the end of the 1960s. And once the war was over, how Nigeria paid its arrears of seven million pounds in a single staggering lump. He remembered Kwame Nkrumah, Africa’s inspiration. He also remembered how every country in Africa was once a colony and how they fought to be free.
A woman from Eritrea sitting next to me in the gallery whispered: “He is a legend!” There were tears in her eyes. And when I told her later that I came from Zimbabwe, she looked at me with disbelief. “You are from there? You don’t know what you have,” she said rubbing tears from her eyes.
‘Go and tell them we can have the UN headquarters moved from there. It was a mistake to have it there in the first place.”
Ban Ki-Moon forced a smile but kept holding his head down. You wondered whether he understood what Robert Mugabe was saying. If he did, as we say in Shona, he must have wished the floor swallowed him.
At the summit, Robert Mugabe was the voice of Africa. He raised the meaning of being African to a new level by defining an African who was not confined to colonial borders.
“I am an African and I belong anywhere in Africa,” he said.
It was evident at the summit Africa listens and believes in voices similar to Robert Mugabe’s voice, the voice of the founding fathers. He told the African story. His leadership left an indelible mark on the African political landscape.
In his acceptance speech, the incoming AU chairman, President Idriss Deby of Chad admitted it was a daunting task to come after someone like Robert Mugabe because of the high benchmarks he had left.
And yet Robert Mugabe’s own story has not been told. There has been a spirited attempt by outsiders, especially our former colonisers to tell it. Their stories are driven by a dark desire to demonise his monumental African legacy. The British will dismiss any attempt by an outsider to tell Winston Churchill’s story; that is indisputable. We have to tell Robert Mugabe’s story.
And when at last he went to his prepared speech, back to programmes and strategies to fulfil Agenda 2063, he had already bared his soul. He is an African hero.
Labels: LIBERATION, ROBERT MUGABE, UN
Read more...
(HERALD ZW) Keep our history: Acting President
January 10, 2014
Farirai Machivenyika Senior Reporter
Acting President Joice Mujuru yesterday bemoaned the failure by liberation war luminaries to record the country’s history, especially the fight against colonial rule, and warned that future generations may never know the heroic sacrifices made to liberate Zimbabwe.
She said this while addressing thousands of mourners at the National Heroes Acre at the burial of one of the founder members of the liberation struggle, Lieutenant-Colonel (Retired) Harold Mtandwa Chirenda (69).
Rtd Lt-Col Chirenda died after a long illness at United Bulawayo Hospitals on New Year’s Day.
“I cry that this vital sentence which is and should be part of a national narrative is going to be buried away today: unread by those who live, unreadable to all those who follow. I am talking about Cde Chirenda’s great grandchildren who may never know or grasp the work he did in his lifetime.
“I am talking about my own great grandchildren who may never know or remember him. I am talking about your great grandchildren, dear comrade, who may never know your history, our history and thus their history as well,” Acting President Mujuru said.
She said much of Zimbabwe’s history had been buried with the death of people such as Rtd Lt-Col Chirenda.
“We have not written our story, we have great but mute heroes. We have not narrated our experiences even to this generation that lives. Much worse, our experiences are buried away with us, rendered eternally mute, when we die, one at a time we are all gone one day.
“Unless they spoke when they live, dead comrades don’t tell stories and our individual stories are a vital part of the story of our generation, of our people, our nation, our country. Who shall tell it? When? The veterans like Chirenda are going, are gone, who shall testify to his greatness?
“While they tell us that history belongs to the victors, our own situation cedes victory to those who lost the war.
“Our history has no tellers. We need to change history by writing it. Let’s begin now so we shape a heritage for our children, for generations to come who deserve to inherit and get inspired by the great deeds of their forbearers,” she said.
Acting President Mujuru said the late Rtd Lt-Col Chirenda never betrayed the values of the liberation struggle until his death.
“Beyond the human flesh, Cde Chirenda epitomised the values of the struggle which he never betrayed. Zimbabwe had to be free from colonial bondage. That is why he went to start a war. Zimbabwe had to be sovereign and secure. That is why he remained within the security structures of the nation until his retirement in 1995.
“Zimbabwe had to be defended at all times. That is why he remained active in national politics even after he retired from active duty. Zimbabwe’s resources had to come to her people again. Again, that is why he played his part in the land reform programme, indeed why he supported the policy of empowerment,” she said.
She added that the late national hero had left behind a legacy of upholding values irrespective of circumstances and said this should be an inspiration to future generations.
The Acting President said the Zanu-PF Government had adopted the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation (Zim-Asset) as a way of fulfilling promises made to the people to fully indigenise the economy.
She also said Zimbabweans had to rely on themselves to ensure the success of the programme.
“I call it ‘the none-but-ourselves’ assumption, the ‘iweneni tine basa’, ‘mina lawesilomsebenzi’ mantra we used in the struggle. Zim-Asset is a call to you and me – to all of us as Zimbabweans – to put shoulder to wheel, sweat a bit, so we recover our economy and grow it for the prosperity of all our people,” the Acting President said.
She said she had recently engaged some youths who showed their enthusiasm for Zim-Asset but had pointed out areas they thought had not been adequately addressed by the blueprint, especially information technology, and banking and finance.
“We certainly must give thought to such feedback and see how Zim-Asset can be made elastic enough to accommodate these two key enablers, or any other areas viewed as crucial,” she said.
Rtd Lt-Col Chirenda, whose Chimurenga name was Elliot Masengo, is survived by his wife, nine children and 18 grand children.
Labels: JOICE MUJURU, LIBERATION, ZANU-PF
Read more...
(NEWZIMBABWE) Zim history dying with its heroes: Mujuru
Hero’s send-off … Pall bearers with Harold Chirenda’s casket at the Heroes Acre Thursday
09/01/2014 00:00:00
by Staff Reporter I Agencies
ACTING President Joice Mujuru has said Zimbabwe's history is dying with its heroes as it remains largely untold from a local perspective.
Mujuru, who was addressing mourners at the burial ceremony of national hero Lt Col Harold Chirenda on Thursday, said it was important that the country's history was written for posterity.
"The majority of books on Zimbabwe's history have been written from a biased White perspective. We have not written our story, we are great but mute heroes," she said.
"While they tell us that history belongs to victors, our own situation cedes victory to those who lost the war. Our history has no tellers and we need to change history by rewriting it."
Chirenda died on New Year's Day after a short illness.
He was in the Zipra High Command together with the late General Lookout Masuku and Retired Brigadier General Ambrose Mutinhiri who attended the burial.
Mujuru described Chirenda, who trained her late husband and Zimbabwe's first post-independence army commander Solomon Mujuru, as "our great commander" and an "outstanding freedom fighter".
The event was however poorly attended with a number of Chirenda’s liberation colleagues conspicuous by their absence.
ZAPU leader Dumiso Dabengwa who worked with closely with Chirenda during the liberation struggle did not attend the burial along with Zanu PF national chairman Simon Khaya Moyo.
Dabengwa told NewsDay after the burial that he failed to turn up because he was attending another funeral in Bulawayo.
“I had to attend another funeral today (yesterday) of Ben Dlamini who was also an active member,” said Dabengwa.
“We worked together for a very long time (with Chirenda) and I attended the funeral parade this side in Bulawayo. It’s just that Dlamini’s body arrived on Wednesday and the funeral was today, so I could not leave the funeral also this side.”
Meanwhile, Mujuru urged the government to take another look at its ZimAsset economic blueprint to address areas of interest to the youth.
“Recently I met with a team of youngsters, they said: ‘Cde Vice President, you gave us ZimAsset and we are happy, it covers good ground. But have you noticed that it leaves out two key areas which speak to the youth directly?”’ she revealed.
“Defensively I retorted, ‘which two areas? ZimAsset has gone through various stages of the party and government, it was debated thoroughly, now you tell me it is inadequate?”
The youths however, told her that the programme was silent on information technology and the financial services sector.
“I stood back pensive” Mujuru said.
Chirenda is one of thousands of fighters who joined the liberation struggle at a tender age and rose through the ranks after receiving military training in Algeria between 1964 and 1965.
He rubbed shoulders with some of the country's revered fighters such as Albert Nxele, Nikita Mangena and Lookout Masuku.
Labels: JOICE MUJURU, LIBERATION
Read more...
(THOUGHTLEADER SA) The danger of making Mandela apolitical
By Nhlanhla Mtaka
It is true, nature has the capacity to force us humans to act. This was evident the day former president Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela died. On that day the message from Mother Nature seems to be clear: stop individualising the multiple and avoid the trap of making Mandela apolitical.
Mandela died on December 5, a day that arsenal of Pan-Africanism, Robert Managaliso Sobukwe, was born, in 1924. In African political history, Mandela and Sobukwe’s activities place them among other African giants like Kwame Nkrumah and Julius Nyerere who personified the African need and urge for independence and freedom.
But for so long government historians, some politicians, thought leaders and media practioners/houses have been altering the post-colonial and post-apartheid narrative. Especially about former president Mandela, to the point of trying to single him out as a unique man, better than Sobukwe, Biko, Nkrumah or Nyerere and yes even better than President Robert Mugabe. In essence this scholarship and idea, paints Mandela as an anomaly among Africa and Africans.
It was therefore, not surprising to hear President Barack Obama’s eulogy saying that “like America’s founding fathers, he (Mandela) would erect a constitutional order to preserve freedom for future generations”. Obama continued to compare Mandela to Gandhi. You will notice that here, Mandela is treated and singled out as being a better African — dead or alive.
There exists a danger with such a narrative, as the African intellectual Cheikh Anta Diop once warned Africans when he stated “every time when situations are not favourable to Western cultures, an effort will be made to undermine the cultural consciousness of Africans by telling them, there are no Africans”. Diop continues warning Africans not to fall into this trap because if they fall, they will be going round in circles in their quest for cultural, political and spiritual consciousness and emancipation.
One of the many problems with this false narrative is that it has the capacity to distort the whole African political history particularly the liberation movement’s importance and sociological meaning.
In her paper titled “Notes on the general features of national liberation movements” Mwesiga Baregu (1979) argues that national liberation movements were essentially a historical phenomenon responding to conditions of foreign domination, invasion, political domination, cultural sub-ordination and economic exploitation. They were thus inspired and driven by the desire to address these challenges, with the ultimate aim of bringing about national self-determination, political independence, equality and economic progress.
In defining the character of the liberation movement in the transformation process Baregu (2004: 97) presents that:
* The liberation movement is organised to overthrow an incumbent regime and capture state power by force. The political party is expected to win elections through democratic processes and persuasion of voters.
* The liberation movement is largely concerned with the mobilisation and radicalisation of popular dissent. The political party in power is preoccupied with the consensus building and, to extent, the suppression of deflection of dissent.
* The liberation movement, with its armed wing, is organised to prosecute armed struggle until it wins the liberation war. The political party is interested in demobilisation and disarming the guerrilla forces, or transforming them into regular professional army. Moreover, it has the challenge of winning the peace.
Looking at this explanation it should therefore not be difficult to conclude that Mandela was not a lone ranger. That his contribution to the national struggle, like that of leaders who came before him was a response to conditions of foreign domination, invasion, political domination, cultural sub-ordination and economic exploitation.
Given Africa’s colonial and apartheid history, one of the critical problem areas is the manner in which post-colonial and post-apartheid Africa is portrayed, and the extent to which the continent’s history has been falsified. The passing of Mandela calls for a continued interrogation of the manner in which African agency in the continent’s history is treated.
Africans must understand the trap and understand the stakes. If not, those who succeeded in divorcing the struggle of W.E.B Du Bois from that of Marcus Garvey, the struggle of Martin Luther King from that of Malcolm X will eventually succeed in divorcing Mandela from the liberation movement and context. Perhaps as a start, let us do as Mother Nature has reminded us. Let us use December 5 as a day to celebrate the lives and contributions of Sobukwe and Mandela to our collective struggle. In doing so we will avoid the trap.
Nhlanhla Mtaka is the group chairman of the Ingabadi Group
The problem is that there is no consensus program, complete with budget and schedules, to turn back the hoarding of land that happened under colonialism and apartheid.
Without it, the economy cannot change, and no amount of BEE is going to paper over that.
(BLACK AGENDA REPORT) Reconciliation is Not Decolonization
Wed, 12/11/2013 - 13:02 — Jemima Pierre
http://www.blackagendareport.com/content/reconciliation-not-decolonization
(HERALD ZW) A strange love for Mandela
December 9, 2013 Wenceslaus Murape Mai Jukwa
ajukwaAmai Jukwa and Garikai Chengu
http://www.herald.co.zw/a-strange-love-for-mandela/
Labels: APARTHEID, LIBERATION, NELSON MANDELA
Read more...
(NEWZIMBABWE) In Mugabe, Africa must seriously trust!
12/12/2013 00:00:00
by Bernard Bwoni
AS the media circus hijacked the memorial service of Nelson Mandela, certain ideological African themes are becoming more prominent and ineradicably embedded. There is a resurrection of the belief in the African ideology and the resonant acclamation President Robert Mugabe received at the mention of his name at the FNB stadium is affirmation of the credence.
The people of Africa, the real people of Africa know who their real heroes are and no amount of illusory media sophistry and air-brushing is going to change that. President Mugabe received a standing ovation and he did not even stand at the podium to give a speech. The man must be doing something very right. No let me rephrase that, the man is doing something right. Legends are born, not scripted.
It is that unwavering, lifelong and indelible ideological immersion to a cause that personifies Robert Mugabe amply. What is interesting to note is that the inexorable thunderous ovation for Mugabe was right in the glare of those hypocritical kingmakers with privy designs and ominous intent who have incessantly and historically misinformed and disinformed the world about Mugabe. The Mugabe frenzy that is sweeping across the African continent has no preclusion.
Those with inauspicious intentions on Zimbabwe have tried suppressing and smothering the ideologically-congealed Mugabe mania for it to resurface again and again as happened at the FNB stadium. Mugabe’s standing ovation was for an unshakeable belief in a cause and the ovation for Obama was sheer curiosity and that novel feeling of seeing a black man fronting the very threat to that African cause.
Mugabe is an extraordinary African. A man with the black African cause permanently ingrained to his whole being is what defines him. Zimbabwe has been under siege and the man has soaked all the demonization and onslaught with an unparalleled tenacity and resoluteness. He is a principled man with an indefatigable desire to deliver his people from the implacable neo-colonial structure which manifests itself in many forms to continually quell the African quest for lasting and real independence which seeks to economically liberate the continent and its people.
The tumultuous ovation he received in the FNB stadium was no gimmick. That was open recognition from real African people with an unfulfilled thirst for definitive emancipation and not the delusory independence they had to settle for. Mugabe represents real hope for the masses with an unfeigned and authentic proposal to truly liberate Africa and Africans. Do not believe the media hype about demons and dictators! That is just a smoke-screen to asphyxiate the African economic genesis that has the unique bonafide raison d’être of uplifting and upgrading the lives of black Africans.
Aid and donations have not done it yet! Most definitely will never do it and Africans eternally declassed to beggars and burgers! No real meat, no substance just barebones. No foreign aid is ever truly altruistic and the sooner Africans realise that the better. Only pessimism, calamity and undesirable negative anticipation shapes black Africa in the eyes of those with baleful and exploitation-inspired intrigue on Africa and representation of Africa is in terms of absences, delinquencies and alien.
Obama delivering a hot-air speech to the permanently economically crippled black people of South Africa at the memorial service of a revolutionary who could have forced an upgrade of their lives is one of the most strikingly sardonic moments in African history. As the themes continue to emerge, Mugabe’s ideals are resonating well with Africans continent-wide.
South Africa, a significantly unequal society with one of the highest gini-coefficient rankings in the world is on the threshold of a riveting social and political malfunction. Someone somewhere failed to fully address the obvious inequalities which define and are deeply entrenched in this ‘Rainbow Nation’ today. The standing ovation for Robert Mugabe, a real driver for change to address the historically and racially skewed inequalities and to economically empower the black people of Zimbabwe, is an affidavit to the inevitable cataclysmic unravelling in South Africa. Little brother will guide big brother towards the summit of economic freedom.
Mugabe is a visionary leader, period! The unique feature about this living legend is the unflinching fidelity to ideological course and epistemological substance. When South Africans stood up and gave a resounding ovation to the man who has dedicated his entire life to the Zimbabwean cause, the South African cause was instantly thrust on the agenda. The inequalities in South Africa are not going to be addressed by flamboyant oration from the neo-colonial point-man of those who wish to indefinitely degrade Africans to eternal bondage.
Africa must seriously starting putting trust in the Mugabe vision. The Mugabe inspired and perceptive astuteness which seeks to dismantle and restructure the neo-colonial DNA which continues to inextricably fasten Africa and its people to enduring subjugation.
Labels: LIBERATION, NELSON MANDELA, ROBERT MUGABE
Read more...
(HERALD ZW) UK invasion plot: Nujoma speaks out
December 4, 2013
Mabasa Sasa in ETUNDA VILLAGE, Namibia
Namibia’s founding President Cde Sam Nujoma chats to Zimbabwe’s Ambassador to Namibia Ms Chipo Zindoga at his residence in Etunda Village, Namibia
Any attack on Zimbabwe is an attack on the entire SADC region and will warrant a military response from the bloc, Namibia’s founding president, Dr Sam Nujoma, has said. The Father of the Namibian Nation spoke in the wake of revelations that Britain, under former premier Tony Blair, approached South Africa seeking co-operation in a military invasion of Zimbabwe during Thabo Mbeki’s presidency. South Africa rejected the overtures.
Diplomatic sources also told this paper that Britain had approached at least two other southern African countries to provide land and airspace for a possible invasion of Zimbabwe at the turn of the millennium.
This was when Zimbabwe had embarked on its revolutionary Fast-track Land Reform Programme.
It is understood that one of the countries (named) actually agreed but backtracked when Zimbabwe sent an envoy to ask the leadership of that nation why it wanted to assist in an invasion of a fellow Sadc member state.
The source said, “At least three countries were approached. One of them rejected the idea flatly, one listened to the proposal and then rejected it, and another went along and only stopped when Harare made it clear it was aware of the plot. That is where it crumbled, but this tells Zimbabwe to remain vigilant as such threats can never be consigned to history.”
In an interview in his home village of Etunda in Northern Namibia earlier this week, Dr Nujoma — who was president from Namibia’s independence in 1990 until 2005 — said while he had not been approached to assist in an invasion of Zimbabwe, it should be made clear to the whole world that such an action would never be tolerated by the region.
He said, “Namibia will never betray an African country to allow an imperialist country to use our territory as a base for aggression against any member of the African Union.
“If anyone attacks any Sadc member we will be there. These imperialists understand nothing, but the language of force. We are ready for them.
“Why all of a sudden is Renamo causing problems in Mozambique? Sadc should raise an army and wipe out the rebels who try and destabilise the region, like we did in the DRC.”
This was in reference to renewed rebel activity by Mozambique’s Renamo after having first instigated a civil war that ran from 1975 to 1992 and cost more than one million lives and affected its neighbour to the west, Zimbabwe.
Dr Nujoma said Africa must be prepared to confront the European Union and NATO in battle if need be.
“Member-states of the African Union must contribute to the Standing Force to defend the continent of Africa. What happened in Libya and now in Egypt should not be allowed anywhere else. No African country should be used to harbor foreign troops on its territory, including the American AFRICOM.
“We know they are stationed in Stuttgart, Germany and they have been there since the Second World War. Now they want to come to Africa. Africa should be prepared to fight them…
“It should be clearly stated that any attack on Zimbabwe is an attack on Sadc. I can be commander myself, we are already fighters and we don’t need guns or training from anyone.”
Dr Nujoma added: “We congratulate Zanu-PF and President Mugabe for fighting the machinations of the British and neo-colonialists in Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe is a shining example on the African continent…
“We say no to the return of imperialists in our lifetime and we follow in the footsteps of Robert Gabriel Mugabe,” he said.
Dr Nujoma urged the youth of Africa to follow in the example of the liberation movement generation that sacrificed much to achieve political independence.
Among sitting heads of state and government in the region, only Presidents Mugabe, Jose Eduardo dos Santos (Angola), Hifikepunye Pohamba (Namibia), and Jacob Zuma (South Africa) had a direct experience of the liberation struggle.
“The youth of Africa must follow in the footsteps of their forefathers. We must start fighting to liberate our economies.”
He said Africa had won many battles against the West before and it would draw from these experiences to continue resisting oppression as it strives towards economic independence.
Dr Nujoma said empowering African people was the next logical stage in the struggle for true independence, and this battle would be premised on improving education and building capacity in the citizenry to run economies and nations in the best interests of indigenes.
There was no reason why, he noted, Africa could not industrialise within the next 10 years and become self-sufficient.
“All resources of Africa must be used in the interests of the African people. Let us produce for ourselves… We are not poor, they (Europe) are the ones who are poor.”
Dr Nujoma said Europe was vulnerable at the moment and Africa must take advantage of this to surge forward economically and in asserting sovereignty over its resources.
He said he could not understand why Europe and America were busying themselves with developments in Africa and yet they were facing immense problems of their own back home.
“In Greece, in Italy, in Portugal and all over Europe, their people are dying of hunger. They are poor, they are suffering. Why should they bother us?
“Europe and America must concentrate on supporting their own people who are dying from hunger over there.”
A fortnight ago, Cde Mbeki said Blair’s regime put pressure on Tshwane to abet an invasion of Zimbabwe.
The British wanted to depose President Mugabe unconstitutionally and impose MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai in his stead.
Interestingly, around the time of these invasion plots, Tsvangirai told a rally in Harare that he was prepared to remove President Mugabe from office “violently”.
Before Cde Mbeki’s revelation, a senior officer in Blair’s uniformed service had also said the military option had been strongly considered.
Lord (General) Charles Guthrie, Chief of the General Staff of the British Army from 1997 to 2001, said Blair had asked him to look at an invasion of Zimbabwe. Lord Guthrie said his response was, “Hold hard, you’ll make it worse.”
Labelled Blair’s favourite general, Lord Guthrie is credited with conniving with the then Prime Minister to send troops to Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq.
In his memoirs (“A Journey: My Political Life”), Blair said, “People often used to say to me: If you got rid of the gangsters in Sierra Leone, Milosevic, the Taliban and Saddam, why can’t you get rid of Mugabe? The answer is: I would have loved to; but it wasn’t practical (since in his case, and for reasons I never quite understood, the surrounding African nations maintained a lingering support for him and would have opposed any action strenuously).”
A number of factors are said to have weighed against an invasion of Zimbabwe.
Firstly, the Zimbabwean military is battle-hardened, having been involved in frontline action almost every year from the start of the liberation struggle in 1996 up until the deployment in the DRC war that ended in 2003. The British Military Advisory and Training Team was in Zimbabwe from 1980 to 2000 and knew of the Zimbabwe Defence Force’s capacity.
Secondly, there were some 100 000 British white citizens in Zimbabwe at the time and London knew they would be affected by any invasion.
Thirdly, Britain was at the time over-stretched in Afghanistan and then afterwards in Iraq.
Another factor was that at the time the United States – Britain’s largest ally – appeared unconvinced about the efficacy of an invasion, especially after the experience of Somalia in the early 1990s when Zimbabwean troops essentially rescued American troops from a quagmire they had sunk themselves in.
Labels: LIBERATION, NAMIBIA, SAM NUJOMA, SWAPO, TONY BLAIR
Read more...
KK's sacrifices for Namibia immeasurable - Kawana
By Kabanda Chulu in Windhoek, Namibia
Thu 07 Nov. 2013, 14:01 CAT
By Kabanda Chulu in Windhoek, Namibia
NO MONETARY value can compensate for what the people of Zambia did for southern Africa and Namibia in particular, says Namibian presidential affairs minister Albert Kawana.
Reacting to some Namibians who have criticised their government for giving a N$13 million (K7 million) luxury house to former Zambian president Kenneth Kaunda and renaming a street after him, Kawana, who is also Attorney General, said drawing comparisons between the donation and what the retired statesman did for Namibia during the liberation struggle would be a shame.
"The sacrifices that Zambians under Kaunda made during Namibia's liberation struggle are immeasurable. Zambia opened the door to us under the People's Liberation Army of Namibia (PLAN). Many Zambians were killed, properties were destroyed," said Kawana in a statement to the Namibian Press Agency.
"Zambia had helped many liberation movements, including us, with bases to operate from. Zambian people that now live in the areas we were operating from are exposed to landmines. This house, no matter the value, cannot be compared to the many Zambian lives lost as a result of helping Namibians during the exile years."
He said the donation of the house was a token of appreciation to the people of Zambia.
"This is to say thank you, thank you a million. No monetary value can compensate for what the people of Zambia did for southern Africa and especially Namibia. Some of us are very emotional about these things," said Kawana.
"It is shameful for Namibians to criticise the decision to donate the house to Kaunda and the people of Zambia."
Following the handover of the house on Sunday, there have been heated debates across Namibia with some people criticising the decision, saying a cheaper house could have been found.
Others are saying Dr Kaunda was not the only Zambian who suffered for supporting Namibia's independence struggle and therefore the government should have donated money to the government of Zambia to build clinics, bridges, roads and so on, and not reward a "dictator who has more money than any of the Namibian ministers and can afford to buy his own property."
And according to the Namibian Sun newspaper, opposition Congress of Democrats president Ben Ulenga, who was one of the recipients of Zambia's hospitality during the struggle, said the development was a state-to-state gesture.
"This is not from a private person to a private person but state to state. N$13 million is nothing between states," said Ulenga.
"The house is not going anywhere. It will never be carried away from the country. It will remain Namibian property. When I was in Zambia, I heard that a certain house belonged to (former Namibian president) Sam Nujoma. Maybe the Zambian state or Kaunda gave it to him."
He said the house was not given to Kaunda as a person, but as a symbol of an era.
"During that time (exile), Kaunda was not acting in his personal capacity but was acting as statesman at a certain time in history. This is why the donation should not be measured out of personal relationship but of a state relationship," said Ulenga.
"It is a very appropriate gesture and it should not become a private residence, but rather a symbol of the history the two countries share. Let Kaunda's house be a place where Namibians and Zambians meet."
Dr Kaunda's new Windhoek residence was previously used to accommodate judges and expatriate senior public prosecutors.
It has three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a large lounge and a dining room on the upper level, with a self-contained lower level that also has a lounge, bedroom and a bathroom. There is also a swimming pool.
Labels: ALBERT KAWANA, KENNETH KAUNDA, LIBERATION, NAMIBIA
Read more...
'Hosting liberation movements helped Zambia forge bonds'
By Masuzyo Chakwe1
Mon 28 Oct. 2013, 14:00 CAT
ZAMBIA'S High Commissioner to South Africa Muyeba Chikonde says hosting liberation movements provided an opportunity for Zambia to forge historic bonds still reflected in the relations with South Africa, the SADC region and beyond.
And South Africa's deputy Human Settlements Minister Zou Kota says South Africa and Zambia will next year hold an inaugural Joint Permanent Commission (JPC).
Speaking during the 49th Independence celebrations hosted by the mission on Thursday, High Commissioner Chikonde said Zambia was always reminded of the humble role played as a home for most liberation movements in Southern Africa.
He said Zambians believed that the country could not enjoy the desired peace and unity if its neighbours and those beyond were not liberated.
"Living with our brothers and sisters in the struggle within our neighbourhoods had its own consequences of constant threats of attack from oppressive groups but it also provided an opportunity for us to forge historic bonds still reflected in our relations with not only South Africa but the SADC region and beyond," High Commissioner Chikonde said in a statement issued by first secretary for press and public relations at Zambia's High Commission in South Africa Patson Chilemba.
He said during the second quarter of 2012, South Africa maintained the first position as Zambia's top major trading partner with trade growing by 15.4 percent to US$956.1 million from US$828.4 million.
"In fact two of our partners today ARM-VALE and AFGRI have invested heavily in Zambia. In the case of ARM-VALE now known as Lubambe Copper Mine Limited completed ahead of schedule the construction of a modern world class mine and delivered the first copper concentrate in October, 2012 with production expected to exceed 45,000 tonnes of contained copper by 2015," said he said. "AFGRI has continued to provide support to farmers."
And deputy minister Kota said South Africa remained grateful for the sacrifice rendered towards the liberation struggles in South Africa and beyond.
She said Zambia was home to South African freedom fighters and helped greatly bring about freedom against apartheid.
Kota said the strong historical ties enjoyed between the two countries should lead to enhanced trade relations, adding that in this vein South Africa's department of international relations and co-operation minister Maite Nkoane Mashabane and Zambia's foreign affairs minister Wylbur Simuusa would lead the inaugural JPC in 2013.
She congratulated Zambia on making the region proud by successfully co-hosting the biggest ever United Nations World Tourism General Assembly, which attracted over 4000 delegates from across the globe.
Labels: LIBERATION
Read more...
(NEWZIMBABWE) Robert Mugabe: a hero and great patriot
25/09/2013 00:00:00
by Dharma Appavoo
ROBERT Mugabe is the greatest patriot and hero that has ever lived. He is the only leader that ever re-possessed land and deported the usurpers whilst they were in full occupation, and well-armed, resistive and prosperous.
Those foreigners were very powerful imperialists. They had become accustomed to simply printing title deeds in order to lay claim to any real estate within their “empire”.
In this way, the white farmers of Rhodesia were transformed from the Hoi polloi of the United Kingdom into the Squires of Rhodesia. They ended up as an opulent, hubristic, elegant, and sophisticated landed gentry. They were the sun-kissed monarchs of Rhodesia.
They possessed the title deeds for the finest agricultural land upon which the established 70,000 mega-farms. And they farmed the land for 110 years. They waxed rich, even to a point that exceeded the avarice of their own dreams.
But the physical labour was provided by the natives of the country. And these people were virtually enslaved. For over a century, they were serfs who stagnated in a condition of sub-humanity.
They were the tattered lackeys whose only reason to exist was to serve their white masters. They were the under-fed, shabby, unwashed, un-schooled, bare-footed tattered lackeys.
Then Mugabe arrived on the scene! He was a highly-educated, scholarly and erudite politician. He was a highly-focused, rebellious mono-maniac. When the white farmers threatened him and his organisation, ZANU, he stentoriously trumpeted his defiance.
And when the white farmers used their firearms and their military might, there was no constitutional way for Mugabe to defend himself. So he resorted to methods that disrupted and terrorised the entire farming community.
Within a few years, the entire country was discombobulated and Ian Smith realised that Mugabe was unshakeable.
Mugabe is the only native leader who ever re-possessed territory that was usurped by foreign colonisers. And he did so whilst they were in full occupation and whilst they were actively farming and prospering.
Mugabe also vowed to expel the foreigners and when their exodus was evolving, he expedited their repatriation.
Mugabe’s triumphs were unique. No other native leader has ever re-possessed land whilst the purloined real estate was actively occupied by the usurpers. Mugabe did it! And he did so single-handedly!
Comparisons are always odious, and at the risk of sounding mean-spirited, I aver that African politicians have been a ruination to their own people. With a very few exceptions [Nkrumah, Mandela and Machel], they have been self-anointing and intoxicated with prestige, power and opulence.
In any event, they did very little to denounce the white farmers or the British. And they did nothing to assist Mugabe. Mugabe’s neighbours stood by as mute spectators. Others were loquacious, but contributed nothing except lip service.
Opportunists such as Morgan Tsvangirai were the willing puppets of his enemies. But the natives of Zimbabwe trusted Mugabe and emulated his defiance. They saw the likes of Tsvangirai as transparent frauds and failures.
The white Rhodesians led by Ian Smith controlled a well-equipped and modern army and an Air Force. And the white Rhodesians were blatantly and raucously supported by the governments of the United Kingdom. And the rest of the Western world.
Although Ian Smith appeared to fight like a tiger, he realised that the white farmers were destined to fail. So he furtively stashed away a tremendous personal fortune in real estate and cash stored away in various foreign banks. Many in the Rhodesian intelligence services, which had hundreds of “safe houses” across Africa, simply helped themselves to this fortune, then retreated to South Africa where they retired in opulence and relished the Apartheid culture.
Almost every politician has access to the coffers of the nation, and some malfeasance is inevitable. I don’t know Mugabe personally, but I would not trust him with my credit card or cheque book because he is, after all, a mere mortal with foibles.
But, even if evidence can be adduced to prove that Mugabe had “dipped into the cookie jar, such a peccadillo must not be allowed to detract from, or eclipse the superlative accolades to which this great patriot is fully entitled.
The white farmers were aided and abetted by the news-mongers who delineated Mugabe as the ruination of Zimbabwe and as the devil incarnate. It is our moral obligation to discredit the demonisation and the character assassination of Mugabe. We should neutralise those negatives by relying upon simple truth.
We must offer monetary compensation to the exiled white farmers. They will be required to present authenticated documentation to indicate the price that they had paid for the land, as well as such documentation as will indicate that the seller was a native who was entitled to sell the land.
And then we must flaunt Mugabe as a patriot and as a hero who triumphed over gargantuan odds. We must do so by means of statues and posters, video documentaries, full-page newspaper exposure on a weekly basis for two years, re-name highways after Mugabe, re-name Victoria Falls, Kariba Dam and Lake Victoria after Rober Mugabe.
I have set up a Foundation that will attempt to saturate sub-Saharan Africa with the truth about the white farmers and Mugabe. I will place a statue and posters of Mugabe in the town square of every city, major airport and railway station.
Bumper stickers will be made available and pamphlets will be distributed throughout. The full story will be etched upon these items and on statues.
It is your moral obligation to contribute your energies, your cash, and your ideas.
Dharma Appavoo is the president of the Buddhist Group of North America. He can be contacted on e-mail: buddhablaster@gmail.com
Labels: LAND REFORM, LIBERATION, ROBERT MUGABE
Read more...
(SUNDAY MAIL ZW) Inside President Mugabe's memory bank
Sunday, 01 September 2013 11:52
President Mugabe
Yesterday, President Mugabe delivered a riveting account of the liberation struggle during the burial of Cde Kumbirai Kangai at the National Heroes' Acre. In the off-the-cuff speech, which captured the attention of many and left scores others awestruck by the President's sharp memory, Cde Mugabe delivered the account blow by blow. Today we publish the first of a two part series of the address.
Amai Kangai nemhuri yose yaVaKangai, Vice President Cde Joice Teurai Ropa Mujuru, National Chairman vedu, Cde Simon Khaya Moyo, Secretary vedu veAdministration, VaDydimus Mutasa, Nhengo dzePolitiburo ne Central Committee yeZanu-PF varipano, Maformer ministers varipano, Tichiyewukawo kuti tina former Deputy Prime Minster Professor Arthur Mutambara varipanowo, Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku, Our service chiefs, Baba Mukonori nevafundisi vose varipano, Masenior civil servants, Representatives of the war veterans, ex-detainees, restrictees and war collaborators, Nhengo dzose dzemumusangano, Mastudent activists vauya pano, Vakamirira business community varipano, Mafarmers representatives varipano, Members of the diplomatic corps, Vanababa nanamai vose varikusvimha vatinavo, Ladies and gentlemen, comrades and friends.
Tauyazve panharaunda ino raakunge Dare reChimurenga. Tirikudanwa zuva nezuva. Avamatatu zvino mazuva achitevedzana nendufu dzirikuuyawo dzichitevedzana dzemagamba, vatinoti magamba echimurenga, vakazvipira kwenguva refu; kutambudzikira nyika yedu kuti ruzhinji ruzova nemagariro akanaka.
Hatipuhwe nguva refu imiwe. Vakataura Pastor patakaviga vaEnos Nkala pano kuti tinokanganwa kuti tiripazororo panaapa. Rwendo rwatinonzi tifambe rwakareba. Zvakatsinhirwa pano zvinoramba zvichitsinhirwa nevafundisi kuti rwendo rwedu nderwenyama. Rwenyama rwupfupi asi rwemweya ndorurefu rusingapere.
Ndakati rwatinoziva nderwe nyama. Rwunematambudziko atinoyedza kugadziridza. Nderwune matambudziko atakayedza kwenguva ndefu kuti vataive navo panguva iyoyo tichivaronga vatibatsire kuti tive nemusangano unozoita tigadziridze magariro edu; nyama yedu ive nemagariro akanaka.
Takanga tisingatarise nezvemberi tichiti “Kufa kunouya hongu. Asi tinemagariro atinosungirwa kugadziridza”. Hatingati nekuti remangwana richauya nemufaro unove wenyama ungarwadze zvawo.
Ungatambudze zvawo nyama toiregerera ichirwadziwa, ichiita zvirwere zvisingasungirwe kuvapo zvinokonzerwa nevamwe. Kwete. Takati kana. Kana avo vanokonzera kuti nyama yedu kwazvo kwazvo zvatinonzwa kuti hupenyu hupfupi uyu.
Tofanirwa kufaranukaka uye nemufaro inga tinaanachiremba wani vanotarisa kuti kana zviri zvirwere chaizvo izvo mishonga inenge iripo. Vamwe vanoenda kun’anga; hedzo dzokandira hakata. Kurikuenda kuti nyama iyi ifaranuke irege kuwana vanoitambudza kana vaya vanonzi varoyi.
Zvino yedu yakanga isiri nzira yehakata nokuti varoyi vataiziva ndevava vakanga vabva kunze vatitorera nyika yedu, mufaro wedu, minda yedu magariro edu ekuzvitonga.
Vatofanana nemavirus aya anopa disease. Tikati izvi zvinemushonga wazvowo. Mushonga ndewekuti isu tirikunzwa kurwadziwa, varwere vacho, nyama yedu isati yarukutika chaizvo towunganaka. Ivava vanenge vaine nyamawo. Saka inyama dzavo nenyama dzedu dzaisungirwa kurwisana apa.
Hezvo vakambotigara matumba tikati “Haa kwete hatichada kuti murambe makatigara mumatumba”.
Madzitateguru edu akamboyedza kuzvisunungura kuti nyama dzavo dzifaranuke vakazvitadza. Tikaberekerwa isu takazvarirwa munyika yakange yavane ava zvino vasingade kuti nyama dzevamwe dzifaranuke. Tive nemufaro munyika yedu, tive nekuzvitonga, tiwone kuzviitira.
Uyu watirikuviga nhasi, hezvo waenda kuchikoro - Zimuto. Kuchikoro ikoko achiwona nhamo dzaive nemastudents. Vaneruzivo rekuti mastudents dzimwe nguva vanobva vaendererawo mberi. Asi aiva neruzivo rwekuti ave anewonororo inopfuura yevamwe, aneshoko ringaunganidze vamwe.
Aivawunganidza kuti varambe zvinenge zvisina kunaka sekudya kusina kunaka. Yaingove mviro mviro idzodzo dzebasa raakanga achazoita guru guru. Varipo zvakare vakanga vakadaro mune zvimwe zvikoro, mastudents vatakaronga mhiri uko vauya nepfungwa dzavaive nadzo dzekuti ayehwa takaramba fundo yatingapihwe nevadzvanyiriri.
Nyika yedu isati yauwa, mufaro wedu usati wauya, simba redu rekuzvitonga risati rauya zvinobatsirei kuti ndiwane kafundo ikako? Saka vaiwuya. Ndovazhinji vakatibatsira zvikuru kuti tironge chimurenga chedu. Tive nevarwi vaive nehungwaru ihwohwo; ruzivo irworwo asi vazvipira zvekare.
Zvino, yatirikutaura nhasi ndeyaKangai. Takataura neyaVaNkala. Chitarirai VaNkala havana kubuda kuenda kunze. Kwete. Vaiva muno mukati maive nevatungamiri vatakaronga kuti vave vanokwezva ruzhinji rwevanhu; vave vanopa gwara kuvanhu.
Asi tawona kuti isu chimurenga hachingabudirire nokuti simba raive nomuvengi wandati aititadzisa mufaro takanga tisinaro, ndoratainotsvaga kunze. Kunze takanga tisina misha. Yaiveko. Saka vatakaona kuti avava ngavarongwe ndavaya vana vaibuda kuenda ikoko kana taikwanisa kutora kune vakanga vatamira kunze sekuna anaZambia, vana vaikoko vaibva kunzvimbo idzodzo.
Ndovana vatakaumbirira kuita Dare reChimurenga. Vakanga vabuda kubvakuno vachienda kunze vari nhengo dzemusangano. Tikati: imi woye! Kuno hazvichakwanisika. Musangano nemusangano wataita wava kubhanwa. Chirongai dare ikoko, mounganidza vamwe vamungakwanise kuwana. Nhengo dzemusangano dzakabudawo kuenda kunze nevamwe vamungagone kuwana, moronga kuti chimurenga chedu chienderere mberi.
Vemuno mukati vachazenge vachiita basa rekutsvaga vangabude kuenda kunorongwa kuchimurenga ichocho. So, ndozvakaitika. Mativi maviri awa, kuno nekunze, kuno uku kwarinda pamusana pekushaiswa masimba nevasvetasimba, kunze uku, ngakusimbaradzwe kuti kana kwasimbaradzwa vanobva ikoko vozouya vosimbaradza mukati zvakare.
Chimurenga chedu hecho-oo chobva zvino chava nemasimba ekuti tikunde muvengi, chova chimurenga chevanhu. Saka zuva ranhasi tirikuviga waiva mukomana mudiki ari kuchikoro, akagozobuda achienda kuchikoro zvakare kuti anoita fundo yemberi. Asi akabva aneshoko rekuti nyika inofanirwa kurwirwa.
Haana kungoti zvandabuda kuno kunze, aaahh, zvanaka. Fundo yangu ndoiwana ndobva ndagara kuno kunzezve zvaiita vamwe. Mmmm, wakati ndaiwana fundo. Ndinoziva kuti shungu yangu ndeyekurwira nyika. Ndichange ndichinosangana nevamwe kuna anaTanzania, kuna anaZambia, tobatana, tokuchidza moto wechimurenga, hondo yedu yekuzvisunungura yobva yavamba zvino chaizvo izvo kuenderera mberi.
Tinozvitenda zvaakaita. Once again, we are gathered here to lay to rest a cadre with a long
standing record of the revolutionary struggle. The cadre, who passed on in unbelievable circumstances, and, this, only a few days ago, about a week ago, now.
The circumstances of his death are best known to the family and we were with Kangai at the last Politburo meeting and he even made suggestions in our meeting. We never noticed, but one or two amongst us noticed that he was unwell; but we, the majority of us, never noticed that he was unwell.
And the meeting went into (the) late hours of the night and the following morning, we were shocked to hear that Kangai was no more.
And the story was that he was taking a bath, a cold bath apparently, and suddenly, he fell, and that fall, was a fateful fall, for he was never to rise from it alive, so we are told.
That’s how he died.
The previous night at a Politburo meeting; the following morning, he is dead.
He had attended the meeting as a Politburo member in style, as if to say: “Goodbye, you won’t see me again and this is the last meeting I’m attending”.
Then, he passed on. His brother, Cde Reward Kangai, has told us about Kumbirai’s animated joy on the day before he passed on and the family’s shock, the turn of events after that.
We accept this sad occurrence. He is no more. But we cannot understand why.
And may I extend, in particular to Mai Kangai, who now has the burden of looking after the family without the support and love she had got to know, the deep condolences and sympathies of the party, of those in Government who had worked with him, of his dear friends, of my family and of my own.
Enos Nkala I knew in 1960, I said, but about that time, I did not know Kangai. Parties were banned here, but the enemy never rested. He knew we had prominent people outside.
After all, from detention we had asked Cde Chitepo, who had been asked for by Mwalimu Julius Nyerere to help with legal work in Tanzania because they did not have well-trained legal people, Tanzanians, at that time. . .they wanted a public prosecutor, and Nyerere asked for Chitepo and he insisted.
So, we said fine. You can go. Least did we know that one day we would be calling upon him to organise the party outside and so, as the parties were banned here, ZANU had been formed. We had made Chitepo the chairman of the party of ZANU PF as both ZANU, ZAPU were banned.
But from Sikombela in Gokwe, where we were, fortunately all of us, who were in the leadership of ZANU were detained together at Sikombela, so this gave us time to strategise as Sithole was there, VaMuzenda, VaTakawira, Edison Sithole, Mike Mawema and Morton Malianga.
The only missing guy was Enos Nkala who had become accustomed to being a jail bird.
So, we met and decided that since we had low capacity to meet as a party due to our detention and restriction status, let us commission those who are outside to form a revolutionary council and start training people for a revolutionary struggle.
Saka tiri kuSikombela, Chitepo used to come and we gave him
instructions as the chairman of the party to get other members of the central committee who were outside and vaanaChikowore, vaanaShamuyarira, nevamwe. They were outside. . .naana Mukono.
Get them together, form the revolutionary council and enhance it with other key people you are likely to get from our members of the party. We had this in writing. I put this in writing because I was the secretary general. But it was a decision we took at Sikombela.
And that is how Dare reChimurenga was formed. We asked Chitepo to free himself now from the obligation imposed upon him as an employee of Tanzania. He should now be free to organise the party from outside and this is how he and those he could get sat together.
Apparently, things didn’t go that well for a start. But later, they managed to get quite some people vaiveko kare vanaanaTongogara nevamwe vakazouya. AnaanaHamadziripi vakanga vabuda vanaana Rugare Gumbo vakange vapedza madegree avo kunaanaCanada vakazodzoka. He had been a youth of the party kuMasvingo. Ndokufomwa kwakaitwa Dare reChimurenga and Kangai himself apedzawo degree rake kuAmerica.
Achiri kuAmerica ikoko, he was doing a lot of work moving from one state to another, talking to individuals, other students from here and organising the party as our representative from ikoko. But this time he came back and joined the others.
Saka ndati the enemy never rested. In 1974, we were put together patakaita that inclusive political organisation yeUANC under Bishop Muzorewa. An armed struggle had already begun, but because vanaanaNyerere navanaKaunda wanted us to unite.
Well, takangoita zimano mano and we call this tamba wakachenjera. Taiti kana tadzoka kumusha nesu takanga tirimuprison, we were taken to Lusaka to form this organisation tichizodzorerwa kumaprison futi. Ndozvataiitwa. So, we went there, all parties and reluctantly, we agreed to form that foursome organisation –Zanu, Zapu, ANC yaMuzorwa and Frolizi yaanaChikerema naanaNyandoro - to be led by Bishop Muzorewa; that organisation was formed at the end of 1974.
Tadzoka kumusha, takaenda kumaprison edu. We were now in Kwekwe and not at Sikombela anymore. We were freed and we knew that we were not going to last for long. Taive netamba wakachenjera yedu.
So January 1975, we organised people muHighfield tichi recruiter. AnaEnos Nkala were now out navaana Morton Malianga. He said we must recruit as many people as possible. Sithole was arrested in February that year. Back to prison. Hanzi nekuti iwe haude; you are not listening to what the OAU wants.
Flimsy reasons and “you want to kill some other people”. March ’75: Chitepo is killed by a bomb in his car, small VW. It was then we had already Dare reChimurenga. We had already started organising some fighters and because there had been some revolt also the Nhari revolt - so called.
Vamwe vakomana vanga vafurirwawo nemamwe maleaders vanenge vachida kutora power saka vakange vaita revolt vaakubata some of the leaders, but they were rounded up by the Nhari group. And pakaitwa ANC yaBishop Muzorewa, vakange vasungwa kare; the Nhari rebels.
So, when Chitepo died, the party sat here. We had leaders of the party here. We had met kwaMushandirapamwe, Highfield, Mushandirapamwe Hotel, and it was then decided I should go and organise a take-over from what Chitepo had done. That’s then the journey we made with Tekere through Nyanga with Chief Tangwena so on and so forth.
But then, when Chitepo died, vakapomerwa mhosva. Those who were blamed for his death were his colleagues, kunzi ndimi mamuuraya and not the enemy. And our people at that stage were not capable of having a sophisticated mechanism of a bomb of that nature planted in the engine of a car in order to kill people. No. And there was no reason anyway for killing their leader.
So, later on, we discovered that it was the Rhodesians who had done it. So, as we went out after Chitepo’s death, those who had worked with Chitepo were locked up in Zambia. All of them, the leaders! And only two, I think, managed to escape; I think Mujuru and Zvinavashe, going into Tanzania.
Although they were wanted by the security in Zambia, they remained in Tanzania. But that situation then saw us having another group called Zipa vachiita nyay dzavo dzemahumbwe. They never wanted to lead the struggle. Vaingogara ikoko zvichinzi tirivashandi. Marxist ideas, which were distorted and never well-mastered, although they had aive mukwasha wangu ainzi ndiye expert wacho.
So, we had a situation which was ugly. Tekere and I did not have much time at all. But then came the need for us to deliver. And it was because of that we insisted kune vangavasisade kunzwa Zapu or Zanu at all. Hanzi hatichada. They just wanted UANC under Bishop Muzorewa. But Bishop Muzorewa is man of the Bible. He could not be expected to lead a struggle.
To lead an armed struggle. . . you can lead a spiritual struggle, yes. But the times did not demand spiritual struggle. Yes, priests and churches were praying all the time for peace in the country. But we had to do something physically to liberate ourselves. I renounced Kaunda for arresting our people.
I made a statement on Focus on Africa on the BBC to say he has arrested innocent people. I was actually interviewed, and they said but this is the man who has helped you all along and I said that is the more reason why we should criticise him kuti: he has helped us so much, why should he now negate his previous work?
That’s how I put it roughly. And for that I must say I was persona non grata even in Tanzania. They didn’t want to see me. I went to Ghana from London assisted by Samora Machel. We were together and I was staying in Keremani, Mozambique. So, we went to Ghana. Then we came back, landed in London. London–Tanzania, they said “No”. The chief was sent to the airport and said I could not come into Dar es Salam.
Why? And my passport was stamped “entry refused”. So, we spent three days by the airport and this was because I had denounced our friend Kaunda. When I got to Maputo, Machel told me the reason and I got to know it was because of that statement I had made.
But then ok, the Geneva Conference had to be attended and Tekere and I said, no, we cannot go. We must insist on the release of our people in prison in Zambia. We told Samora Machel that if we are to go we must have those people in prison because they are leaders of our party. “Which party?” Machel said and we said Zanu PF. And he smiled because the OAU did not want to hear about Zanu PF anymore.
So, I was in touch with JZ and I was saying to JZ, “Now look, this thing under Muzorewa is just a small creature”. And then now Cde Nkomo was also getting disillusioned. Plus ndaimufurira futi JZ ndichiti “You must, you must stop talking about Zapu being aligned”.
He said he couldn’t do it without those inside. But we were liaising. So, Samora told Kaunda that well, the people in prison have got to be released to go to Geneva and the same language. It so happened that all Samora wanted or the Frontline States wanted was for us to meet as Zimbabweans.
So, the Muzorewa group came to Mozambique. Sithole was there also no longer interested in Zanu. He was part of Bishop Muzorewa. And Samora told us that we now had to proceed to Tanzania because Nyerere wanted to brief us on the meeting we were going to have in Geneva. So, we were flown to Dar es Salaam. We had a meeting with Nyerere. There were various groups and we had to stay to register ourselves in the presence Nyerere.
He wanted to know what groups were there. VaMuzenda, Tekere and I said we were Zanu. Then vanaSilundika and JZ said they were ANC Zimbabwe, something like that, but hiding Zapu because they couldn’t say Zapu because it was banned. And Sithole said I am under Bishop Muzorewa. But Nyerere said you have got to be united. It was then we formed the Patriotic Front of Zanu and Zapu.
From Tanzania we then were sent to Lusaka, but I talked to Nyerere, “Please request President Kaunda to release our people”, and they said they were going to try. In the meantime, Sithole had now left, deciding to quit, leaving ANC yaBishop Muzorewa.
He made a statement to the BBC, saying he now is back to Zanu, but not the one, the Zanu we had, but his own. So, when we got to Lusaka, we had Sithole with Zanu; VaMuzenda, Tekere and myself with Zanu also then Zapu, of course. In the meantime, VaNkomo vakanga vabva now; he had flown from home.
We appealed to President Kaunda to release our people. We said we couldn’t go to Geneva unless those people in prison were released. We needed them and Kaunda said well it was easy for him to release those who had no cases, but Tongogara and another had actual cases to answer. We said fine and he proceeded to release them and amongst the people released were anaKadungure anaMayor Urimbo and Kumbira Kangai.
Sorry, I have gone round to give you the full background. And I now came face-to-face with Kangai and that was the time I got to know him. He was introduced to me. Rugare Gumbo I knew from before. He had been a youth before in Masvingo and working with VaMuzenda. We had also met before in prison in Harare. But this time, it was Kangai and I got the background, the degree he had done and so on and so forth. Well and good.
And it was the group now to go to Geneva, but as it happened, the court, also the next day after the release of these ones, almost a day or two, found that Tongogara had no case to answer. There was no evidence. And he and another, the other, I forget who the other one was, but those were released and now we were a complete team.
So, we now go to Geneva, have discussions with the British and remould ourselves later. That’s how we had this whole group and vaanaKumbirai Kangai vanga vari in it. So, we went to Geneva in October 1976, and discussed with the British team and they were not serious at all and it was the Labour party. Smith came one day and said, “I have better business to do back home”, aah and did not want to tag.
So, the meetings were being led by that Dutch fellow who was very prominent in the Rhodesia Front – PA Van der Wild and he was leading the meetings. I remember one crushing meeting at one time. Our group was late for a meeting that morning. We had been held up and he shouted: “How come you people are ggrrr?” and I interjected and said: “Come on, how long shall we wait for our independence?”
And we had the British Press, nonsensical Press. So, they say you always criticise Ian Smith, but you say you are a Christian and a catholic. Why don’t you give another cheek and I said to them, I’ve given this cheek and the other, but I do not have a third cheek to give. Give me a third one and I will give it.
So, we were together at that meeting navaana Kangai, who were the people who had formulated the programme of the revolutionary struggle - chimurenga. Then, kochiita ava vakomana vanga vachitamba zvavo ava, vanaana Dzino. They wanted to destroy this group. Kwanzi vese vaanaKangai, vaanaTongogara cannot come to the camp unless we admit them kucamp ikoko. Vanotitya and we had their IDs and guns. They were actually itching for a fight.
So, they prescribed an admission programme, how these people could be admitted into the struggle if they were conducting. Even anaTongogara; that they have got to apply one by one; aahhh! So, takati kuna Samora, we go to Geneva. Geneva ended in January. February we did our Patriotic meeting.
After this meeting upon our return to Lusaka and that was the command camp, command base so Rugare Gumbo naTekere on the third of the meetings; you take these comrades to go and do some unfinished work and unfinished work was to be done in some hotel. That is how we got rid of them. He was a hard worker Kangai. Very straight forward, very correct, very respectful also.
To be continued next week.
Labels: LIBERATION, ROBERT MUGABE, SPEECHES
Read more...
(TALKZIMBABWE) Zimbabwe: A new economic model for Africa
This article was written by Garikai Chengu on 1 August, at 11 : 28 AM
A bloodless revolution is silently taking place in Zimbabwe. President Mugabe’s Indigenisation of the land and the economy will set a precedent for the creation of a forerunning, economic model for Africa.
Consequently, a victory for Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe’s election is a resounding victory for the future of the African continent. Only ninety years ago, the British South Africa Company owned every square inch of Zimbabwe. Zimbabwean land and natural resources were taken violently and divided amongst European settlers.
All the while, indigenous Zimbabweans were considered subjects and assets, solely belonging to the British Crown. After decades of liberation struggle, Africans finally placed the crown on their own heads. But, in 2013, where are the jewels of this crown?
The mining and extraction of precious resources, like oil, natural gas, gold, and platinum, enrich Western corporations. Here, we see the West’s current control over Africa’s “jewels”.
Western economic control of Africa casts a shadow of poverty throughout the continent. Whether in the Niger Delta or the Democratic Republic of Congo, the majority of people experience lives of misery and receive very little benefit from the richness of their land.
In fact, Africa’s natural resources, land, and forced labour have fueled the world’s economy for centuries. To this day, Africa is still the world’s engine-room for economic growth.
In short, Africa fuels the global economy, while reaping little profits at home; this is the “black man’s burden.” Indigenisation is designed to allow Zimbabweans to free themselves of this centuries’ old burden. Lifting this crushing millstone is our generation’s greatest struggle.
At President Mugabe’s last campaign rally, he proclaimed that, “we must re-write the economic books for our children. Those books were written to suite the West’s agenda of exploiting our resources. Our children must know that our resources are more significant, more precious than their capital.”
Years from now, economic books will use Zimbabwe’s Indigenisation Program as a model for African decolonisation. African politicians will look to Zimbabwe as a point of reference.
As with tobacco, diamonds, cocoa and oil, Africa exports its precious resources to the West, only to buy them back at a premium. This is Africa’s greatest problem and biggest opportunity. The solution to this problem is simple: Africa must not only control its raw materials but also build the capacity to make them into finished products.
Indigenisation is the much needed bridge between poverty and industrialization, and therefore, transforming Africa into a first world power.
No longer will Europeans take our natural resources; no longer will they control our industrial processes. We will not be burdened; we will not be stripped of our land, our pride, our Africa.
If Africans indigenise our economies and resolutely build the capacity to refine our crude oil, gold and platinum, as well as the capability to cut and polish our diamonds, we will certainly turn this into an African century.
Clearly, Africa is not under-developed; she is over-exploited. Western foreign investors are merely foreign exploiters.
According to a recent UN Africa Progress Report, Africa loses 63 billion dollars, each year, through foreign multinational corporations’ illegal tax evasion and exploitative practices. This figure surpasses all the money coming into the continent through Western aid and investment.
It is for this reason that Zimbabwe’s new Indigenisation model emphasizes local ownership and foreign partnership with emerging nations, such as Brazil, Russia, India and China.
Zimbabwe’s Indigenisation Program is as much about looking inward as it is about looking east.
Today, I say, with confidence, that Zimbabwe is the only economically liberated, black nation in Sub-Saharan Africa. Zimbabwe has proved to her African brothers and sisters that it is possible, and indeed desirable, to take back our land.
Let us now look to our recent past for guidance into our new economic future.
A few years ago, the international media houses and Western academics repeated the same, twisted narrative about the Indigenisation of Zimbabwe’s land, claiming it was an economic failure, which only benefited ‘Mugabe’s cronies.’
The West’s economic sanctions on Zimbabwe were designed to cripple our economy, in an attempt to dissuade other African nations from emulating our cause.
Western sanctions sent a clear message to Africa’s landless and economically disempowered masses: “You can have your democracy, but keep the economic power in the hands of the white minority; otherwise, you’ll end up like Zimbabwe.”
The World Bank still estimates that a staggering 65% of Sub-Saharan Africa’s best arable land is still controlled by white settlers or multinational corporations. The World Bank also estimates that as much as 70% of the net wealth in Sub-Saharan Africa is owned by non-indigenous Africans or foreigners.
Clearly, the West is fine with other African nations adopting democratic governments, but any attempt to democratize the economy and the land is dealt with by NATO, the CIA, or economically destabilizing sanctions.
Nowadays, those same Western media houses and academics are admitting that Zimbabwe’s land democratization program has not only benefited over a million people, but also pioneered a more economically productive way of farming.
President Mugabe’s Indigenisation of land has created employment and support for the livelihood of over 1.7 million Zimbabweans.
This year alone, Zimbabwe raked in over a half billion dollars from tobacco sales. Before land Indigenisation, a handful of rich, white farmers would have greedily divided these profits, moving the money away from African pockets and into Western bank accounts.
In fact, the World Bank estimated that, “nearly 40 percent of Africa’s aggregate wealth has fled to foreign bank accounts.”
Indigenisation will combat this outflow of wealth by creating more African corporate owners. These local shareholders are more likely to save their rent in local banks, spend their dividends on domestic goods, and invest their profits in local businesses.
Today, 75,000 indigenous Zimbabweans benefit from the tobacco sales’ profits of a half billion dollars. Land reform is now possible in all African countries after Zimbabwe’s successful example.
With a rapidly growing and indigenously owned economy, many African nations will increasingly seek to emulate Zimbabwe. Years from now, African states will strive to achieve Zimbabwe’s economic success.
Say what you want to say about Mr. Mugabe, but today, Zimbabweans own Zimbabwe.
By re-electing President Mugabe, the people of Zimbabwe are making history. ZANU-PF will now have five more years to finish implementing a revolutionary economic model that will inevitably spread across the continent.
Garikai Chengu can be contacted at chengu@fas.harvard.edu
Labels: DEVELOPMENT, LAND REFORM, LIBERATION, ZIMBABWE
Read more...
(SUNDAY MAIL ZW) Latest: Adopt a mindset that promotes confidence- President
Monday, 29 July 2013 14:31
Sunday Mail Reporter
President Mugabe has implored Zimbabweans to adopt a mindset that promotes confidence in their capabilities and skills. Addressing thousands of Zanu-PF supporters at his final star rally in Harare on Sunday, Cde Mugabe said colonialists deliberately conditioned many indigenous Zimbabweans to believe the white man was superior. He said locals must instead believe in themselves and realise that they will not fail to run key economic sectors given the skills and sound education they have acquired.
The Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Programme seeks to make a cross section of Zimbabweans, including the youth, company owners and not just employees, he added.
“Muno zvainzi gold ndere Lonrho, Anglo-American nana Rio Tinto. They wanted us to benefit by way of labour and according to their economics. We must rewrite economics books our children learn. They were written to serve the purpose of colonialism. So, their economics must go and we must introduce our economics here.
“. . .Hezvi tinoda vadiki vedu vasimbaradzwe nokuti ndivo vachengeti venhaka dzedu. Mangwana, vakuru venhaka yanhasi vanenge vasisipo. Hatingavasiye vasina (nhaka). Ndokusaka takauya neindigenisation yakabatwa nava (Saviour) Kasukuwere.
“Our wealth is our wealth. We must own our natural resources. Our land belongs to us Zimbabweans. Zimbabwe’s land is an asset for Zimbabweans and must enrich Zimbabweans.
“If others want to have a share of our wealth, then they should come and join us not as masters, but as subordinates to us. Hatirambe. The main shareholding must be that of Zimbabweans. Isu tinenge takabata kukobvu, ivo vakabata kutete.”
Labels: LIBERATION, ROBERT MUGABE, ZANU-PF
Read more...
(THOUGHTLEADER SA) Open letter to all two-faced apartheid beneficiaries
July 9, 2013
by Nco Dube
Since it’s the open letter season, I thought I would pen a humble one to all unrepentant apartheid collaborators and benefactors who claim to love Madiba.
The love so widely professed for #Madiba by the former apartheid collaborators and benefactors should be shown in deeds. So many profess this undying love and admiration for #Madiba yet they continue to blissfully enjoy the fruits of the same ill that #Madiba so selflessly fought against without lifting a hand in the upliftment of the previously oppressed.
What Nelson #Mandela stands for is being deliberately twisted to suit certain sections of our society. #Madiba is now being touted as having sacrificed 67 years of his life for reconciliation. What a load of bull!
#Madiba sacrificed, fought and went to prison so there can be an end to apartheid, racism, injustice, economic exclusion and landlessness. The reconciliation comes as a result of an end to these things.
The hand of reconciliation that Madiba so generously extended is being undermined by a lack of commitment to transformation by the very same people who maintained, collaborated with and benefitted from apartheid. It’s now left only to Madiba’s party, the #ANC and the black society to bring about transformation to their own lives. Of course the #ANC as the ruling party has a huge responsibility to head up transformation, so are the formerly oppressed who need to rise from the ashes and be the change they want.
But above all, responsibility lies with those who perpetrated and/or benefitted from apartheid, to head the fight to erase the apartheid legacy.
Instead, they have become loud and critical bystanders who seem to revel in the failure of the #ANC to lead transformation while doing nothing to transform society themselves. They expect the #ANC to go it alone. This can’t be right.
It’s like invading a person’s home, striping it bare and burning it down. Bezixebulela umkhoma. All the fittings from the stripped home are distributed among yourselves to build your own homes. You exile, jail, kill and enslave the occupants of the home. When they finally rise up against you a settlement is negotiated.
Part of the settlement was that the occupants of the home need to be assisted, under their own leadership into rebuilding their house and that you are guaranteed not to lose your own house built from what was stripped from their home.
But then their leadership seems to be failing to help them rebuild quick enough while you fold your hands and carry on with your own life. Here is the confusing part, you then blame their leadership and the occupants themselves for being homeless. Fair enough, they should take the blame for continuously electing an inadequate leadership. Their fault is failing to rebuild but you are still responsible for them being homeless in the first instance! You still share responsibility to be involved and participate in the rebuilding.
The sad fact is that when the formerly oppressed rise up against the slow pace of transformation you will also be in the firing line because you are ultimately responsible for and/or are still enjoying the fruits of their suffering at apartheid’s hands.
The general feeling is that while the current government is fraught with its own problems that impede transformation, you are also not playing your part as agreed at Codesa.
You jump at embracing the reconciliation side of #Madiba so as to ignore what he expects of you in return for that reconciliation.
What are you doing to help black people rebuild? Are you forgetting that they still remember that the house you live in is built from their own home fittings? Yakhelwe ngamaqubu abo!
The point I’m trying to make is you can’t claim you love #Mandela while you are not, personally doing your part in transforming society. #Mandela’s struggle didn’t start with the fight for reconciliation among South Africans. It started with the fight against apartheid, injustice, racism, economic exclusion and landless ness. #Mandela was not born in 1994.
#Mandela was the commander-in-chief of Robert McBride, Solomon Mahlangu and many other MK operatives that you fight so tirelessly against just to even get streets named after. He led the same MK you claim was a murderous outfit. How could they be murderous when they were fighting against the same ruthless apartheid you claim to also abhor? We’re the Allied forces murderous for fighting against Hitler?
#Mandela fought against the Pretoria you fight tooth and nail to keep. How are you committed to reconciliation while embracing the remnants of apartheid, some of whom are deeply offensive to the black population.
It is hypocritical and disgusting to profess undying love for Madiba while you spitting on his face by impeding or not assisting in achieving the kind of society he dreamt of.
If you believe #AA and #BEE are reverse racism, then you have no business visiting #Madiba’s hospital to lay flowers.
For land reform to happen, you need to lose some of the land taken from black people, for economic reform to happen you need to lose some of the directorships, management and ownership positions you hold to create space for black people. It can’t happen while you continue to build on the advantages you already have.
For black judiciary officers to be appointed, it means no white officers should be appointed! Why be against this if you love #Madiba and what he stands for?
Spare us your crocodile tears about #Madiba if you believe it’s time for black people to “get over it and move on” while you have never contributed personally to transformation.
We can only move on when all that #Madiba fought for has been achieved. And no, it’s not the responsibility of a black government only to do that. It’s a shared responsibility.
The reconciliation #Mandela preaches is a genuine show of Ubuntu from a person who believed you were also genuine about your agreements at Codesa!
The fact is that #ANC failures do not absolve you of your shared responsibility to erase the apartheid legacy.
Labels: APARTHEID, LAND REFORM, LIBERATION, NELSON MANDELA
Read more...
(SUNDAY MAIL ZW) ‘The rear was a big war front’
Saturday, 08 June 2013 18:30
Born on May 7 1958, Cde Tendai Kuzvidza whose Chimurenga name was Cde Hondo Mushati, joined the liberation struggle when he was 17 years old. From the early days that he joined the armed struggle, death stalked him right until the end of the war as he survived the massacres at Nyadzonia, Chimoio and the attack at Mavhonde. Cde Hondo Mushati tells our Assistant Editor Munyaradzi Huni how he survived these massacres and the attack, he explains the similarities between the war that the Chinese fought against the Japanese and Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle and gives details for the first time about the stand-by force that was left in Mozambique as the country attained independence, in case the Smith regime wanted to play its usual dirty games.
MH: How did you make the decision that at 17 years old, you wanted to join the liberation struggle?
Cde Hondo Mushati: I was at a boarding school at Mt Selinda and this was the same time that Mozambique got independence around June 1975. The news about the liberation struggle was all over and, remember, we were just a few kilometres from Mozambique. We used to go to this place called Espungabera on the Mozambican side to play football. This is the exact point that I used as I later crossed the border into Mozambique to join the struggle in July 1975. During that time, there was this wave about the liberation struggle and while at school, we spoke a lot about the struggle. On the day I left, young as I was, there was no time to say goodbye to both my parents and schoolmates. We agreed to leave the school in small groups and we left during the night. I left the school putting on three shirts and three trousers because we couldn’t carry bags. I was in Form 2. We woke up at school around 2am and walked towards Espungabera. I went straight to Mozambique together with two schoolmates, Herbert Marwa (who is now late) and I can’t remember the name of the other student. When we got to Espungabera we were taken by the Frelimo forces to a receiving camp called Machazi together with other recruits who had come from all over the country. This is when we started seeing that life had changed. The living conditions were terrible and the food was horrible. Some colleagues actually absconded and went back to their respective homes. There were no fixed meals, no blankets and we had to construct our makeshift grass-and-pole barracks. After about a month at Machazi we were then taken to a holding camp called Chibawawa where there were thousands of recruits.
MH: Who were the leaders at Chibawawa?
Cde Hondo Mushati: There was Cde Victor Rungani, whose Chimurenga name was Cde Chikudo. At Chibawawa we were put into platoons comprising about 45 people and companies comprising about 120 people for management purposes. There were no trained comrades at Chibawawa at that time except the Frelimo forces. We still had not received any training. After about three months, at Chibawawa, we decided to run away from this camp, about 20 of us, because we really wanted to find the camp where we would receive military training. We walked on foot towards Beira and when we got to Dondo, we were arrested and detained by the Frelimo forces who thought we were agents of the Smith regime. We didn’t have what we used to call a giyademarsh, which allowed recruits and comrades to move from one place to the other. We were released after a week when the Frelimo forces were convinced that we were not agents of the Smith regime. We were then taken to Nyadzonia camp in trucks.
MH: As you left school going to join the struggle, what was your impression about the liberation struggle?
Cde Hondo Mushati: The impression was that once we got to Mozambique, we would be given our weapons, come back as soon as possible, after maybe two weeks or so of training, and start fighting to liberate the country. This was not to be.
MH: So you got to Nyadzonia camp. What was the situation like when you got there?
Cde Hondo Mushati: We got to Nyadzonia, this was now early 1976. This is where most recruits who had crossed the border from St Augustine’s and Mutare were taken to. There were thousands of recruits there and later we were joined by some trained Zanla comrades. There was Cde Everesto, Cde Bhombadiari and many other trained comrades. When we got to Nyadzonia, we were excited at first because we met many recruits from all over the country and it looked like now we were a few days away from military training. Some recruits were taken to different training camps in and outside Mozambique. The comrades said I was too young so I wasn’t picked to go for training until the massacre at Nyadzonia took place.
MH: Comrade, take us through exactly what happened on this day when the massacre took place?
Cde Hondo Mushati: This was early 1976 and the massacre started in the morning just as people were going for the routine parade. Someone just blew a whistle and as recruits we knew that a whistle meant that we were supposed to rush for the parade to hear various announcement that the leaders would make. So the whistle was blown just before 9am and we rushed to the parade area, but before I got there, I heard gunshots. I could see bullets flying all over the place and at first I could not understand what was going on. I saw fellow recruits taking cover and in the confusion I followed suit. The trained comrades, who were I think less than 20, were shouting “take cover! Take cover! Take cover!” There were over 5 000 recruits and so you can imagine the pandemonium. I saw many fellow recruits falling down after being shot and only realised that we were under attack after I saw some recruits bleeding while others were dead. There was chaos. There was smoke all over the place.
MH: Did you manage to see where the gunshots were coming from?
Cde Hondo Mushati: There was no time for that. You could not see anything. Remember, we had not yet received any military training. We had been taught basic drills on how to escape in case of an attack and at that time we didn’t have guns. So defenceless recruits were being slaughtered. At Nyadzonia all the gunshots were coming from the ground force. It was terrible, I tell you, because the Rhodesian forces were using heavy weapons. So I went to the ground and started crawling towards nearby bushes. We were crawling over dead bodies, we left some badly injured recruits as we crawled to safety. We got to Pungwe River and I don’t know how exactly because I was not a good swimmer. I just went into the river and swam to the other side. We could still hear the gunshots even after running for almost 10km. Many recruits died while trying to cross this river. I saw many recruits being swept away by the river. They waved goodbye and they were gone. It was heart-rending. The water in the river turned red as injured comrades also tried to swim across. You have never seen such a thing and you will never see that again.
MH: By this time you really didn’t know what had happened? You didn’t know there was some sell-out called Morris Nyathi who had sold you out?
Cde Hondo Mushati: I didn’t know and I didn’t know Nyathi personally. It was only after we had gathered at some place near Chimoio that’s when we were told that Nyathi is the one who had sold us out to the Rhodesian forces. We were told that Nyathi had actually directed the Rhodesian forces to Nyadzonia and he was at the forefront as we were being massacred.
MH: When you look back at the Nyadzonia massacre, do you think there is anything that could have been done to prevent the massacre? I mean do you think it was ideal to have about 5 000 defenceless recruits being protected by about 20 trained comrades?
Cde Hondo Mushati: At that stage I don’t think there is anything that could have been done. No one ever anticipated that the Rhodesian forces could do such a horrible and inhuman thing. From a military point of view, it was not ideal to have 5 000 recruits being protected by about 20 comrades, but I don’t think people thought Smith could be so courageous to come in vehicles to carry out the massacre in Mozambique. Some comrades thought Smith forces would not be courageous enough to come into Mozambique because there were many trained Frelimo soldiers, but then Nyathi deceived everyone.
MH: How many people died at Nyadzonia?
Cde Hondo Mushati: As we gathered, we were told that over a thousand people had died during this massacre. We felt really bad. This is when many of us discovered that indeed the Smith regime was there to kill blacks.
MH: As recruits, after this didn’t you think you could not win the war against this ruthless regime that was armed to the teeth?
Cde Hondo Mushati: No, not at all. Remember, we were not armed. If we had our guns, I think we would have fought back and many of us regretted this. We said, “if only we had our guns” but then we had not yet received military training. If 5 000 men were armed, I don’t think Nyathi would have brought the Rhodesian forces to slaughter us. Nyathi had been to the camps and he knew exactly how the situation was like. He had all the inside information.
MH: Let’s talk about the issue about sell-outs during the liberation struggle. How prevalent was this and how did you feel seeing that a black man had orchestrated the slaughter of so many defenceless blacks?
Cde Hondo Mushati: Sell-outs have always been part of the struggle and even now we have them in different forms. The struggle was really affected by the actions of these sell-outs. By the way, it was not only Nyathi who sold out. There were many sell-outs who came with tape recorders hidden in their clothes and others who came with small cameras so that they could inform the Rhodesian forces about the whereabouts of the struggle. Nyathi was just one heartless, shameless, cheap and stupid sell-out. As we gathered at this place outside Chimoio, we spoke about what had happened. To raise our morale, we sang revolutionary songs saying we now should be trained so that we teach Smith and his forces a lesson. The massacre gave us more courage and it hardened our resolve.
MH: After the attack at Nyadzonia, where did you go?
Cde Hondo Mushati: Like I told you, we gathered at this place just outside Chimoio. After a few days, we were then taken to Chimoio at Takawira One, which was a training base. There we were trained by Cde Agnew Kambeu, Cde Chocha (now Commissioner Chihuri) and others. This training was at first about physical fitness, toyi-toyi in the morning, bayonet fighting, individual tactics for self defence, shooting using the semi-automatic rifle, then using the AK-47, the light machine guns and I was also trained on how to use a bazooka. This training took four months. I left home really looking forward to this training and after what happened at Nyadzonia, when I got my chance for training, I really went all out for it. This made me one of the best students during training. I trained with Cde Kangara, Cde Darlington Munyaradzi (who was once PA to Cde Mujuru), Cde Santana Tongai (now Cde Kaneta, who is still in the army) and many other comrades. After excelling during this training, we were selected to go for the instructors’ course so that we could become trainers. The comrades I mentioned above were part of this group of about 25 comrades who were chosen to go for the instructors’ course which lasted for about two months. After this training, we then started training some recruits at the same camp. After a short while, we were chosen to go to China at the Nanking Military Academy.
MH: Why were you now being sent to China?
Cde Hondo Mushati: We were sent to do staff officers’ course, which was basically a special training for people that had good grounding in terms of politics and military training. This was now in 1977. About 50 of us went for this course led by Cde Kenny Ridzai and his deputy was Cde Kennedy Zimondi, whose name was Cde Tapera during that time.
MH: How were you received in China and how did your training go?
Cde Hondo Mushati: The Chinese really surprised us. We were received very well. The first two weeks, there was no training. We were taken on a tour of China to give us a brief background on how China attained independence. We went to all their historical places where major battles were fought, where Mao Tse Tung used to command his troops, where Chiang Kai Shek, the great traitor in China, commandeered over one million forces to attack Mao and we went to Mao’s mausoleum. This tour gave us a picture of how the Chinese fought their struggle against the Japanese who had colonised their country. We were really inspired to continue with our struggle. The Chinese made us believe that we could defeat the enemy despite our challenges.
MH: If you are to compare the way the Chinese fought for their country and how our liberation struggle was fought, what would you say were some of the similarities and differences?
Cde Hondo Mushati: The similarities were that like us they fought a guerilla warfare which was later transformed into almost a semi-regular warfare. Their war was supported by the peasants, the common people. The other common thing was that they first mobilised the general population. They fought from the rural areas and went to attack the urban areas later. They made sure that the average person understood the reason to fight the war before they fought their war. This is how the Zimbabwean struggle was later executed.
MH: From what you saw, what you learnt and these similarities between the Chinese struggle and the Zimbabwean struggle, how would you describe the historical bond between these two countries?
Cde Hondo Mushati: The Chinese were oppressed by people from outside, the Japanese. The Japanese recruited traitors within the Chinese populace just like Smith did here. We have many lessons that we learnt from each other and we went through the same struggle. The Chinese gave us a lot of assistance materially and that bond remains strong up to this day. That’s why when things come to a head, the Chinese will always stand by us and we will do the same for them. Cde Tongogara also went to this Chinese military academy, but he went much earlier than us. We were in China for six months and we returned to Mozambique. First we went to Maputo then to Chimoio.
MH: What were you doing in Maputo?
Cde Hondo Mushati: We were taken to a place called Xai-Xai where we had to brief senior Zanu leaders about our training in China. There were members of the High Command like Cde Kenny Ridzai, Cde Agnew Kambeu and Cde Joshua Misihairambwi. After this briefing that’s when we got instructions to go to Chimoio as instructors. At Chimoio I was personally responsible for special training in individual tactics which was part of self-defence and attacking the enemy.
MH: Was Chimoio a training camp?
Cde Hondo Mushati: Chimoio was a big place. There was a training camp at Takawira Two, there was a place called Osibisa for pregnant women, we had a place for young recruits, matoto, who were too young to go for military training, there was a security place, there was the Wampua Political Training Centre and many other various places for logistics and armament. Chimoio was a vast place and I was based at Takawira Two, which was a training camp. I was an instructor with people like Cde Seven Tembazvako, Cde Santana Tongai, Cde Remigio Zimondi and others.
MH: You told me earlier on Chimoio was also attacked while you were there. Take us through what happened on this day?
Cde Hondo Mushati: Like I said, Chimoio was a vast place composed of various camps. Some of the camps were about 2km apart. On this particular day, we were busy training the recruits at Takawira Two and suddenly we saw jets hovering above. In the blink of an eye, serious bombardment started. There was no time to really understand what was going on. Bullets were flying all over and bombs falling all over. People were screaming and crying. People were running stark naked so that they could not be easy targets of the Rhodesian forces. This bombardment started well before lunch time.
MH: As an instructor, when such bombardment starts, what is your first instinct? What did you do?
Cde Hondo Mushati: We shouted to the recruits to take cover and gave them instructions to crawl to safety. Fortunately, at Takawira Two, we had many anti-air machine guns. The enemy did not manage to para-drop, to drop paratroopers. In other bases, the enemy dropped paratroopers and they shot defence-less women and children at close range. I remember at some camps, the Rhodesian forces even slept overnight executing the injured comrades and only left the next morning.
MH: The first time you were attacked at Nyadzonia you had not yet received military training and you didn’t have guns. Now you were an instructor and you had your gun, what did you do?
Cde Hondo Mushati: We were not supposed to shoot at the enemy. Remember, I said in our area, the enemy was using aircraft. We had many recruits and so the more we exposed ourselves through shooting back, the more we would put the recruits at risk. We didn’t want to do that. Our anti-air machine guns fired back while we tried to find a way to escape with all the recruits. The enemy quickly realised that around Takawira Two there were anti-air machine guns and they stopped the heavy bombardment around that area and concentrated on the camps where there were children and pregnant women. I remember very well that at Takawira Two, the casualties were not more than 50. We crawled out of the camp and escaped. However, we managed to come back to search for people who had been injured and to see those who had died. We were with Cde Mupunzarima and other members of the general staff. We walked through the area and the sight was horrific. Bullet-riddled bodies were strewn all over, body parts could be seen all over and some people were put on stretchers and taken to Gondola. The situation was just unbelievable. We could not identify who was who and the only solution was to put all these people into mass graves. As an instructor I felt really bad. Very, very, bad.
MH: Do you think there is something you could have done?
Cde Hondo Mushati: War is about people dying, people being attacked and being injured, but what happened at Chimoio cannot be described properly in words. We did the best that we could. We had learnt lessons from Nyadzonia, that’s why we had mounted anti-airs around Takawira Two where we had so many recruits. Some of the comrades who were defending the recruits with the anti-airs actually died after they were bombed.
MH: You escaped death for the second time. What do you do after this? Do you sit down and pray and thank God for saving you?
Cde Hondo Mushati: We thanked God through the spirit mediums. Remember the spirit mediums were an important part of the struggle. They even directed how to fight the war and sometimes they could even warn us to move away from a place if an attack was imminent?
MH: So why didn’t the spirit mediums warn you about the attack at Nyadzonia and Chimoio?
Cde Hondo Mushati: Some comrades still tell me that some senior people were warned about these attacks, but, like I told you, people were sort of relaxed. Some people just didn’t take advice, they didn’t respect the advice from the spirit mediums. Some bases had even been electrified and I don’t think in a serious war situation this was safe. After the attack at Chimoio that’s when we learnt never to put too many people in one place and not to hold people in one place for too long.
MH: So after the attack at Chimoio, where did you go?
Cde Hondo Mushati: After Chimoio I went to Tembwe. Training was now part of my way of living. I was called to go to several training camps to train comrades individual tactics. I trained over 5 000 comrades at Tembwe. I was at Tembwe until the end of 1978. Chimoio was attacked in 1977 and Nyadzonia in 1976.
MH: You told me that at some point you were assigned to train Cde Herbert Ushewokunze and Cde Sydney Sekeramayi. How did this come about?
Cde Hondo Mushati: Yes, I was still at Chimoio when I was assigned to train these senior party officials. I trained them in individual tactics and bayonet fighting.
MH: Comrade, these were qualified medical doctors and they were senior party officials and you were given the task to train them. Didn’t they look down upon you and did you really take them through the mill just like any other recruit?
Cde Hondo Mushati: Let me talk about the late Cde Ushewokunze. He was really excited to be trained. He was really excited to handle the gun. He was just like one of those recruits. Cde Ushewokunze we used to call him Mangurenje. He liked that a lot. He would say “Ndini mangurenje, chitima cheHwedza.” He took things easy. They all didn’t show that they were highly educated and that they were senior party officials. I won’t talk much about Cde Sekeramayi because he was, as he is today, a cool guy. They were just part of the group we were training.
MH: No special treatment?
Cde Hondo Mushati: We had been told about who they were in terms of positions in the party, but we were told to treat them like anybody else. But you know when you deal with such people, you use your discretion on how to treat them, you tone down your language a bit but still achieve the same objective. We took them through the mill. Toyi-toyi and everything. They related very well with the other comrades. During the struggle, we didn’t talk much about our education. Once you crossed the border, you assumed a new name and you became a new person. So we were all equal. Their training, where I was, took about six weeks. I also trained Retired Colonel Katsande later at Tembwe. I also trained people like the late Mike Munyati and even one of your photographers at Zimpapers, Lee Maidza. I trained thousands of people.
MH: Comrade, there are reports that you the instructors made the recruits to go through hell, ill-treating recruits during training, and that some female recruits were sexually abused. How far true are these allegations comrade?
Cde Hondo Mushati: I am not sure about ill-treatment. Life during the liberation struggle was very tough. If someone came from home as a recruit, he or she went through various processes before they were admitted for military training. They would be secluded from others for the purposes of vetting to make sure that these people have genuinely come to join the liberation struggle with no other motives. That process was necessary, but maybe one could say this was unfair treatment. This vetting was done by the security department. This was quite a rigorous process and, true, some agents of the Smith regime were caught. As for the sexual abuse of female recruits, these were isolated cases. But remember during the liberation struggle we had rules that we had to follow. It was not allowed to have sex. It was taboo during the struggle to sleep with a woman. But I cannot deny that some people broke the rules, but they were punished. The female victims of this abuse, which I said was not very prevalent, were then taken to Osibisa if they got pregnant. I know that Cde Meya Urimbo was given the responsibility to talk to those who would have engaged in such acts. He would counsel them and if the female comrade got pregnant, it was a rule that the responsible comrade was to become the husband once the country became independent.
MH: After Tembwe you said you were sent to Mavhonde camp?
Cde Hondo Mushati: Yes, I was chosen to go to Mavhonde to train some recruits there. There were thousands of recruits there also being trained and deployed to the war front. Mavhonde was very close to the border. I trained many recruits who included people like Cde Chinx and Marko Sibanda the singer. Some of the instructors there were people like Cde Seven Tembazvako, Cde Remigio Tapera and others. The training programme at Mavhonde was hectic. Mavhonde was Mavhonde.
MH: What do you mean Mavhonde was Mavhonde?
Cde Hondo Mushati: This was at the height of the struggle around 1979. The enemy was really feeling the pinch and Smith agreed to go to Lancaster for the talks. All his bravado talk that “not in a thousand years” was gone. Despite the talks, we were churning out more and more comrades to the war front.
MH: And once again, death followed you at Mavhonde. Tell us what happened.
Cde Hondo Mushati: The Rhodesians wanted to make a statement at Lancaster through the attack at Mavhonde. They came with all the heavy weapons and they wanted to really bring Mavhonde to the ground. Fortunately, experiences in the past had taught us a lesson and at Mavhonde, we were prepared for the Rhodesian forces. We were well equipped and surrounded by anti-air machine guns. That’s why I am saying Mavhonde was Mavhonde. Even the training here was rigorous.
MH: When the attack started, what were you doing?
Cde Hondo Mushati: I was busy training the recruits. The comrades who were manning the anti-air machines guns spotted the jets and they started shooting. Everyone was shouting “ndege, ndege, ndege!” Bombs, including napalm, were thrown all over. In no time the base was turned into a burning furnace. Fortunately, we had dug many trenches at Mavhonde and when the attack started, we crawled into these trenches that we used to call mahandaki. Once again the Rhodesian forces were using jets and we could not fire back using our light machine guns. The anti-air comrades took care of business. We instructed the recruits to crawl into the trenches, but unfortunately some comrades died. I remember, even now this picture still comes to my mind. I saw Cde Dhuma, who was a member of the General Staff, a dark guy in complexion, quiet and cool, I saw him lying there buried inside one of the trenches. One of the bombs had uprooted a big tree and this tree landed right on top of this comrade together with two others.
MH: Yes, Cde Chinx spoke about this incident during my recent interview with him.
Cde Hondo Mushati: These comrades were buried alive by this big tree. This was really painful. We dug up the trench and found Cde Dhuma and these comrades. No scratch, no nothing. They were dead. Mavhonde was attacked towards lunch time and the attack didn’t last that long. We were able to re-assemble after three hours. The jets were gone. It was quite a quick but fierce battle. I can’t remember the exact number of the comrades who died at Mavhonde. I was very close to Cde Dhuma and his death really affected me. Up to now I still see his image lying lifeless in the trench. There was no time to mourn except to sing our national anthem facing home to salute the fallen hero. After this we buried the comrades and the struggle continued.
MH: Why do you think the Rhodesians chose to attack Mavhonde at this time when the Lancaster talks were in progress?
Cde Hondo Mushati: What I remember very well is that the hardcore Rhodesians, including Peter Walls, were not interested in talks.
They didn’t want the war to end to the extent that they had even planned to attack comrades who were in assembly points.
At one stage during the Lancaster talks, they wanted to put comrades into three assembly points — one for Zipra, one for Zanla and one for female comrades from these two fighting forces.
The idea then was to come in and bombard these assembly points. That plan was there, mooted by Peter Walls, but it was thwarted.
MH: Let’s continue with your journey. After surviving at Mavhonde, where did you go?
Cde Hondo Mushati: We went to a place called Samakweza in Inhaminga towards the route to Malawi. Zanla established another base there.
MH: Why were you going to this new base instead of preparing to come back home after the Lancaster talks?
Cde Hondo Mushati: This is where that group that was to remain in Mozambique waiting for any eventuality during and immediately after the elections was stationed. We were given instructions that we were not going to be part of the comrades going to assembly points. We were to remain in Mozambique in case Smith was trying to play some of his dirty tricks. I was one of the battalion commanders in this group.
MH: What instructions were you given?
Cde Hondo Mushati: We were told that we were not to be part of the people who were to witness the lowering of the British flag and the hoisting of the Zimbabwean flag.
For strategic reasons, we were to remain in Mozambique. Many people were not sure what Smith would do next.
We were told to remain at Inhaminga and keep on training so that we remained fit and ready for battle. We even had some female comrades among this group.
The information about this group was only privy to very few senior leaders of Zanu.
Cde Tongogara had given the advice before and after the Lancaster talks that not all comrades were to go to the assembly points.
Even those who were at the front, not everyone went to the assembly points for strategic reasons.
MH: How big was this force and how equipped were you?
Cde Hondo Mushati: We had a big force there of between 5 000 to 8 000 comrades.
Most of the comrades in this force were those who had received training in different parts of the world.
This was like an elite force led by Cde Zvinavashe. We were very confident that if Smith and his forces had tried to do anything funny, we would overrun them.
We had the capacity to wage a serious war and we were very ready. We were armed to the teeth.
We were being updated about developments that were taking place in Zimbabwe by people like Cde Gurupira and Cde Kasikai, who would shuttle between Mozambique and Zimbabwe.
MH: How did it make you feel that you were fighting to free the country but now you were not going to see its birth?
Cde Hondo Mushati: I felt a bit discouraged because I really wanted to be there.
This event was being broadcast live on radio and we could feel that we were missing something. We followed everything on radio and the mood was just unbelievable.
We were happy. We sang and rejoiced but still on high alert.
MH: After realising that indeed Smith’s dirty games were over, how did you come into Zimbabwe? Did you sneak into the country secretly?
Cde Hondo Mushati: We came into Zimbabwe by rail through Machipanda Border Post.
We were later taken into trucks and we drove in convoys. There was nothing to hide now.
This is when the Rhodesian forces knew that we had been put on standby in case of any eventuality.
We came into Zimbabwe in June 1981. We felt so good coming to a free Zimbabwe.
I can’t even describe the mood.
MH: So, comrade, did you ever go to the war front and are you happy with the role that you played at the rear?
Cde Hondo Mushati: No, I didn’t, but the major war was in the rear. All the major battles you want to talk about during the liberation struggle, happened in the rear.
That’s where most of the people died. For people to be at the war front, it started with the training, which was my specialty.
The other thing that I want you to know is that the rear was a big war front. The most dangerous war front, where you could be attacked without any warning.
At the war front one would expect to engage in a battle any time, but not at the rear.
But Smith brought the war front to the rear through the numerous massacres, that’s why we have many people who died at the rear.
MH: When you came back you joined the army? Tell us briefly about that.
Cde Hondo Mushati: When I came back, I went to Llewellyn Barracks in Bulawayo.
I was in the army until I became a captain. While in the army, I was deployed to Mozambique in 1983 to deal with the Renamo menace and secure our fuel pipeline.
Of course I was later deployed to other army operations and I then left the army in 1992.
Labels: LIBERATION, ZANU-PF
Read more...
