IN the last edition of the Struggle for Zimbabwe we looked at the formation of the Front for the Liberation of Zimbabwe (FROLIZI), a movement whose goal was to supposedly ‘unite’ the two liberation movements, the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) and the Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU).
The FROLIZI objective as expected was a dismal failure as all the organisation could count for was just a solitary operation while its members disbanded and rejoined their respective political parties.
The formation of FROZILI did not however stop ZANU through its military wing, the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA) from continuing with its activities and operations whose successes eventually led the Smith regime to give up and plead for talks.
This week we look at the launch of the north-east offensive which marked the beginning of the Second Chimurenga and the subsequent attainment of independence.
In 1971, ZANLA guerrillas began infiltrating the north-east corner of the country as part of preparations to launch sustained attacks against the enemy.
Before that, the last ZANLA attack on the enemy had been in May 1966.
Their new plan, a well-knit one, involved recruiting peasants as porters to assist in stockpiling weapons caches for attacks that would follow.
Mobilisation of new fighters also took place during this period.
This was a risky operation as possibilities of being sold out to the authorities were high.
In order to get appropriate information, the guerrillas used spying and regular contact with a few trusted people in villages to gather information on the enemy.
Leader of the 21-man unit, the late General Solomon ‘Rex Nhongo’ Mujuru that fired the first shot at Altena Farm on December 21 1972 said they had heard from people in the area that Marc de Borchgrave, owner of the farm had poor labour relations with his workers.
This played to their advantage as the oppressed farm labourers and those sympathetic to their colleagues willingly gave information on de Borchgrave and other key Rhodesian targets.
There was the danger of getting inaccurate information during the reconnaissance process.
This entailed that the Nhongo unit do their own reconnaissance without risking being caught in action.
It required skill and tact.
Nhongo however, said the choice of Altena Farm was random.
On the night of December 4 1971, two ZANLA guerrillas, Justin Chauke and Amon Zindoga, had crossed into Rhodesia near Mukumbura on the north-eastern frontier from Mozambique’s Tete Province.
Their mission was to begin laying groundwork for the guerrilla warfare.
To gather enough information from reliable sources, the first person they contacted on that brief reconnaissance visit was a local schoolmaster who had been in touch with FRELIMO guerrillas.
Chauke and Zindoga would later link up with Nhongo’s Nehanda sector unit which had created a base in the Chiweshe Tribal Trust Land (TTL) where Chief Chiweshe was assisting them.
Interestingly, as Nhongo would later reveal, no one in the group had any experience of war, but determination and courage were the driving factors among the group.
To successfully execute the task at hand, the group also studied the reaction and tactics of the enemy to come up with their own tactics as well.
Preparations for the actual attack took one hour.
They involved cutting of telephone lines and mining the road.
After this job, the unit retreated to Chiweshe TTL to monitor the Rhodesian response through the extensive network of contacts they had established.
The flow of information was smooth. The Rhodesian reaction came the following day with the unit receiving information to the effect that 15 truckloads of troops had moved into the area, backed by armoured trucks, helicopters and spotter planes.
Hours later, the Rhodesian Prime Minister, Ian Smith had shown yet another level of arrogance by claiming that Rhodesians were the happiest Africans.
Shortly after that, Rhodesian Security Forces issued a military communiqué that shook Smith to core.
But in his typical arrogant character, Smith, on New Year’s Eve, in a television and radio broadcast to the nation, described Rhodesia as a, “strong nation, sure of its purpose and confident of its future.”
However, he was in for a rude awakening.
From 1972 to 1974, ZANLA forces made more contact with peasants and engaged in guerrilla operations in the northern districts of the country.
One such operation was the dramatic capture of Gerald Hawksworth on January 11 1973.
For nearly a year in 1971, the freedom fighters had camped at one Obert Gwerevende’s home in Mt Darwin, stashing arms, doing political mobilisation, preparing for the start of the war.
It was at Gwerevende’s home where Hawksworth, a 29-year-old white land surveyor was abducted while his two friends Robert Bland and Denis Sanderson were killed.
It was this capture of Hawksworth that brought to the fore the threat posed by the freedom fighters.
Seven years later Zimbabwe celebrated its independence.