HomeOld_PostsUncle escaped the noose by a whisker

Uncle escaped the noose by a whisker

Published on

By Thomas Siziba

ON November 11 1965, the notorious Ian Douglas Smith declared the Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) in Rhodesia and the black majority still felt deprived of their rights.
In a bid to combat the UDI regime, though partly armed and without military training, some brave cadres embarked on mobilising youths and the underprivileged farm workers to protest against their colonial ‘masters’ by vandalising their ‘stolen’ properties.
This made my uncle, Cde Kenfred Khumbulani Sipeyiye Maphosa to be incarcerated and languish in prison for eight years for breaching the Law and Order Maintenance Act.
“We were tired of being oppressed and treated as subordinate to the Rhodies, so myself and some brave guys like Xavier Muchemwa, Changa Chirere, Steven Mudungwe and Never Tsiga decided to motivate the youths in Chinhoyi to fight against the UDI, he said.
Blacks were already revolting in some parts of the country such as Guruve, Mt Darwin and Hurungwe.
Ex-detainee Maphosa was among those youths who destroyed the Harare-Bulawayo railway line using explosives so that no train would be mobile.
He was also responsible for the cutting down of Telephone cables to inconvenience communication among the Rhodesians.
With the aid of some comrades, they managed to get some weapons which they used in their operations.
“The late, former member of the ZANU PF National Consultative Assembly, Cde Simon Kanhema gave us a rifle which we would use to mobilise and urge farm workers to help us in our cause,” he said.
Cde Maphosa said he participated in the burning of tobacco barns at farms like Mudotwe Banket, Kanjanda Farm located between Banket and Raffingora and some in Darwendale which were owned by the whites.
Partly armed, they gave slashers to farm workers to cut down maize.
“I remember one incident at Sweetman’s Farm in Banket where we burnt pigs and the pigsties,” said Cde Maphosa.
“We knew that these were serious crimes, but we were doing it to derail the settlers’ projects.”
However, some sellouts informed the Rhodesians about their activities and whereabouts and Cde Maphosa and the others were unfortunately caught before they ran away to Zambia, where they wanted to go and seek political asylum.
They were taken to Banket and Chinhoyi police stations that were manned by white Rhodesian officers.
They were heavily beaten and tortured.
Some of his accomplices, Never Tsiga and Cde Changa Chirere were given lesser sentences, two and six years in jail respectively for destroying farm animals and crops.
“As our case was regarded as ‘high treason’, the three of us were transferred from Chinhoyi to Salisbury Remand Prison, where we were incarcerated till the trial date at the High court,” said Cde Maphosa.
On March 28 1966, Sir Hugh Beadle sentenced the three to 21 years in jail each after Justice Jarvis had earlier on threatened them with death sentences.
However, they ended up staying eight years each in prison under harsh living conditions at Salisbury Central Prison.
During the incarceration, my uncle was staying in the same cells with cadres like the brothers Stanley Jacob, Nicodemus Matenga and Willard Madyamhuru.
After his release in 1974, he was put under house arrest and was supposed to report to Mbizi and Machipisa police stations every day after work.
Although he did this until independence in 1980, it did not stop him from attending political meetings and mobilising youths to join the liberation struggle.
“We liberated the youths from the yoke of colonialism so they could safeguard the gains of independence which we achieved from the evils of enslavement of the Western imperialist,” said Cde Maphosa.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Latest articles

Kariba Municipality commits to President’s service delivery blueprint

By Kundai Marunya IT is rare to find opposition-controlled urban councils throwing their weight on...

The resurgence of Theileriosis in 2024 

THE issues of global changes, climate change and tick-borne diseases cannot be ignored, given...

Britain haunted by its hostile policy on Zimbabwe

TWO critical lessons drawn from the recent debate on Zimbabwe in the British House...

The contentious issue of race

 By Nthungo YaAfrika AS much as Africans would want to have closure to many of...

More like this

Kariba Municipality commits to President’s service delivery blueprint

By Kundai Marunya IT is rare to find opposition-controlled urban councils throwing their weight on...

The resurgence of Theileriosis in 2024 

THE issues of global changes, climate change and tick-borne diseases cannot be ignored, given...

Britain haunted by its hostile policy on Zimbabwe

TWO critical lessons drawn from the recent debate on Zimbabwe in the British House...

Discover more from Celebrating Being Zimbabwean

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading