HomeOld_Posts‘The Chimoio I know’

‘The Chimoio I know’

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By Emergencey Mwale-Kamtande and Chiratidzo Moyo

THIS year marks the 40th anniversary of the brutal attack of innocent Zimbabwean refugees and untrained ZANLA recruits at Chimoio in Mozambique on November 23 1977.
The attack, which the Rhodesian Special Air Service (SAS) described as a ‘one thousand kill raid’, achieved more than that as over 1 000 people were killed.
The dead included hospital patients and almost 100 school children.
The huge complex at Chimoio was actually several camps, some military and some civilian around a central administration core.
It included a school, a hospital which also catered for Mozambican villagers and massive stores of food and clothing.
All these structures were made of grass.
The camp was destroyed in an attack that began at dawn on November 23 1977 with a bombing raid followed by the heliborne landing of troops and the attack lasted for three days.
Professor Charles Pfukwa, a ZANLA freedom fighter, said Chimoio was the dream of every ZANLA recruit.
Chimoio, was the main ZANLA military training camp and had also a refugee camp and other several bases.
“Among the bases was the headquarters, Parirenyatwa base where patients were treated; Chindunduma which was for schoolchildren; Nehanda and Osibissa basis were for women; Chaminuka for security; and the Garage where vehicles were repaired while Takawira 1 was for untrained cadres and Takawira 2 was for trained ZANLA forces on their way to the war front,” said Prof Pfukwa.
And, being a cartoonist opened doors for Professor Pfukwa to go to Chimoio from Doiroi.
An announcement was made while he awaited military training at Doiroi requesting recruits with art skills to submit their names.
Prof Pfukwa, whose Chimurenga name was Shepherd Chimurenga, along with Sydney Chinyama and Auto Chimurenga submitted their names to be in the ZANU department of Information and Publicity.
And four weeks later, the three were taken to Chimoio where they were to receive training as Political Commissars at the Chitepo School of Ideology.
“I stayed at Doiroi for three months and it was the shortest one could ever stay as some got there in 1976 and stayed there until the end of the war,” said Prof Pfukwa.
“I was bundled into a Land Rover together with two colleagues, that was how I left Doiroi for Chimoio where I was to go to Chitepo base which was the school of political ideology.
“That is how I escaped the grinding poverty at Doiroi as most ZANLA recruits who joined the liberation would spend several months at Doiroi where hunger and starvation was the order of the day since the camp was overpopulated and many comrades would spend many months, if not years, before military training.”
Awaiting military training, which was a prerequisite into the Chitepo School of Ideology, Prof Pfukwa said he would visit the facilities at the school.
“I had access to books so I read Mao Zedong and a bit of Karl Marx,” he said.
“I met Cde Munyaradzi Machacha, Lovemore Mazivisa (now late), Knox, Chitiyo, Hambakwe (now late) as well as the late Mandebvu, among others.
“All in all, there were about 60 trainee Political Commissars and only three, including myself, were untrained.
“I could also afford to have breakfast at a time when one meal a day was very normal.
“Herbert Chitepo was a special base where political commissars were being trained and they were few hence they were given special treatment.
“There was a generator, decent meals, a hospital and nice clothes and all these things were very rare to come by in the liberation struggle.
“That was Chimoio for me, it was on visiting that I would go to Takawira 1 which was the training camp.”
Cde Pfukwa said he would spend the day at the HQ.
The HQ was the command centre which held most general staff, all High Command such as the late Cdes Josiah Tongogara, Rex Nhongo (Solomon Mujuru) and Elias Hondo, among others.
“Members of the General Staff included Felix Chimandiwe, Augustine, B Musoni and Machoro, among others,” said Prof Pfukwa.
Prof Pfukwa also said he would see people coming and going to the front since it was a transit camp.
He added that he could easily distinguish the trained and untrained cadres as they walked.
Trained cadres, he said, were more vigilant, alert and always carried their guns.
“I would spend my day at HQ, but at the end of the day, I would go to Chitepo which was near Parirenyatwa.
“Parirenyatwa hospital at Chimoio was well organised with enough medicine such that when I fell ill with malaria, I was well taken care of.
“If it were any other camp, I would have died, but at Chimoio, Michael Mambo, whom I suspect died at Chimoio, helped me at the hospital when I fell ill,” said Prof Pfukwa.
He added that basic education was emphasised at Chitepo School of Ideology as everyone had at least Ordinary Level.
The likes of Cde Munyaradzi Machacha, Lovemore Mazivisa, Grey Tichatonga and Victor Mhizha belonged to that breed.
Prof Pfukwa stayed at Chitepo School of Ideology from January of 1977 up to the beginning of April when he left for Takawira Base One where he attained military training.
“I enjoyed training because I wanted to go back to Herbert Chitepo,” he said.
“After training in July 1977, we went into specialised training and I could not fit and went into landmines and was trained by Jeppe, the coloured instructor.
“The little physics from school was helpful and one of my trainers, Cde Savage loved my diagrams because they were elaborate.
“He even took my book after training so that he would later use it with other groups upon completion of training.”
Upon completion of military training, Prof Pfukwa was chosen to be among five specialists in landmines and he was the smallest in the unit, but Cde Savage had confidence in him because he knew his expertise.
“We were taken to the HQ and were given new clothes and this was not an easy process since I was of small stature,” said Prof Pfukwa.
“I could not get a gun because of my height and the commander gave me his AK sub machine gun which I later lost in the front to another commander.
“That is how I left Chimoio in September 1977, before I came home and started operating in Manica Province.
“Three months later, when Chimoio was bombed, I was no longer there, but I think people were becoming too relaxed since no one ever anticipated that the enemy would attack this camp.”
The veteran fighter said although it is now 40 years after the attack, he still finds it difficult to visit that place because many comrades he knew and others who saved his life perished in that genocide.

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