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‘I was there when Chimoio was attacked’

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The story of Cde Alice Masenguridza alias Cde Tizai Mabhunu

RHODESIANS in the then Chipinga (Chipinge) made millions of dollars from the tea estates in the area.
The tea was produced by none-other than the oppressed and impoverished blacks.
For back-breaking work, they earned paltry wages.
Long hours spent in the tea fields never translated to wealth for the blacks and everyone was forced to work in the tea fields.
Thus the issue of child labour on tea estates and sugar plantations in Middle Sabi saw many children from Chipinge joining the liberation struggle to break this unbearable yoke of colonisation.
Cde Alice Masenguridza alias Cde Tizai Mabhunu tells her story.
We were forced to work for our school fees.
We woke up as early as five in the morning to go to the fields before going to school.
Each student would have a basket that carried 20 kilogrammes of tea.
One only went to school, which began mid-morning, after filling the basket.
I soon discovered this was no way to live, especially considering that we saw white children go to school early in the morning and they never engaged in any sort of work, other than their schooling.
This was wrong and had to be rectified.
The only solution I saw was joining the liberation struggle.
Independence promised us a better life full of opportunities hence I decided to leave school and join the war.
I left my home village of Mutema in 1975.
Upon completion of military training in Mozambique, I was deployed to the Commissariat Department.
I was based at Nehanda Base in Chimoio.
I will never forget November 23 1977 for as long as I live.
Cde Revai, who was a member of General Staff, tasked me together with Cde Nelly Nehanda and Cde Muchaona Mabhunu to wash the clothes of some senior comrades.
The rains had just begun falling and there was not much vegetation, hence no cover.
However, on this particular day I just felt nervous.
For me this was a bad omen, I was almost always in a cheerful mood.
We collected the clothes at Whitehouse Base where members of the General Staff stayed.
We enthusiastically sang Chimurenga songs as we walked towards the river.
Christmas beetles joined with their melodious singing.
The river was not far and we soon began our chore.
As we washed the clothes, I saw a spotter plane hovering above Takawira Base.
It was 8am.
In no time we heard explosions.
There were jets dropping bombs at Takawira Base.
Soon the sky was filled with ugly helicopters dropping paratroopers around the camp.
To strike as many ground targets as possible, six mothballed Vampire jets that had been used in the 1940s were part of this heinous operation.
I then thought of Cde Bethune.
He had told us that spirit mediums had warned us of this attack a few days before, but the mediums had not been taken seriously.
Spirit mediums had warned people to stay away from the camp because they foresaw the enemy attacking the camp on that particular day.
I instinctively ran towards the west of the camp.
It was too late; we were surrounded by the enemy.
Helicopters were dropping bombs and spraying dangerous poison which ‘ate’ the flesh down to the bone while the paratroopers who were dropped by the helicopters and Dakotas were firing on fleeing survivors.
The paratroopers were deployed on three sides of the camp and sweep lines that were formed by the Rhodies were also effective in killing large numbers of refugees.
I was shot in the left leg, but for some reason, I did not feel the pain as I continued running for dear life.
I was shot again on the right leg.
I started rolling in pain and this worked to my advantage as soil stemmed my bleeding.
I then lost consciousness and only woke up three days later.
I remember hearing, from a distance, children and women crying for help, but I thought I was dead.
When rescuers came, they had bulldozers which were later used to dig mass graves to bury the dead.
One of the rescuers realised I was still alive and I was ferried to Beira where I received medical treatment.
This was the Chimoio massacre, popularly known to the Rhodesians as ‘Operation Dingo’.
Thousands of refugees, including women and children, were killed while hundreds more were injured.
We were all fortunate to survive as I later met with Cde Machona and Cde Mabhunu.
Others, however, were not so fortunate.
Compiled by Emergencey Mwale-Kamtande

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