The story of Cde Jekanyika Munetsi

AFTER the bombing of Nyadzonia refugee camp in Mozambique on August 9 1977 the high command crafted plans to revenge.
At this stage of the war, the guerillas had become a formidable force engaging in guerrilla and a bit of conventional warfare.
And desperate Rhodesians, overstretched by the opening of the Mozambique front and overwhelmed by recruits who continued to join the liberation struggle in droves, resorted to mass and indiscriminate bombings.
The Rhodesians were committing genocides in a bid to break the spirit of the freedom fighters, but this failed, as we became more determined.
I was at Nora Base in Mozambique when the order to plan revenge attacks was given.
I had just completed my advanced training in Tanzania.
On returning from training I had been deployed to Tete Province which was under the command of Cde Perence Shiri, now Air Marshal of the Air Force of Zimbabwe.
I operated in the Nyahuwi Detachment alongside comrades Makwarimba, Gwangwava, John Chinoenda, Didwell Murwandiripo, John Ronda, Taru, Gain Azura and Natsai Mabhunu, among others.
After the bombing of Nyadzonia we intensified our attacks on the enemy, we were not going to give him any breathing space.
I was fresh from training and eager to participate on missions, especially those that sought to totally cripple the enemy.
Soon after deployment I was involved in the historic Mahutwe attack.
Mahutwe was an infamous forward Rhodesian military camp that supported their operations in Rushinga and Chesa.
The Rhodesian army, outnumbered by guerillas, became more dependent on its machinery; the helicopters, jets and bombs.
But these we took head-on, we were no longer a hit-and-run rag-tag outfit, but a highly organised and disciplined force that was taking the war to their door-step.
Decimating the Mahutwe Camp would further cripple the Rhodesians who were already limping.
Grounded, the Rhodesians became clueless; talk of catching guerrillas with their bare hands had long died.
The Mahutwe attack was my first battle and it proved to me that indeed our war had a spiritual element.
As much as we had been militarily trained, we still respected the lore of the land.
Coming from different backgrounds, almost all of us ended up believing in the guiding spiritual forces for many were the inexplicable things that took place which defied logic.
Nehanda had predicted ‘her bones would rise again’ to lead her children and many things, events and happenings pointed to the fact that indeed there was a spiritual hand directing and guiding us.
A spirit medium joined us.
Cde Makwarimba had visited a spirit medium a few days before the attack.
It was nothing out of the ordinary.
We always consulted chiefs and spirit mediums in the areas we operated.
We had carried out a thorough reconnaissance before engaging the enemy.
We left our base, in Mukosa, at around 4pm.
In our midst was the spirit medium.
Attacking a military base was not an easy task and it required sophisticated weapons and a whole army.
We had a recoilless and that was the first time such a big war machine was fired in Takawira sector, three 60mm mortar, two 82mm mortar, eight bazookas, six light machine guns among other machine guns and as usual every ZANLA cadre had his AK 47.
Three detachments came together to destroy Mahutwe; a detachment from Chesa, Madziva and ours, Mahuwi.
It took us an hour to get to our target.
A 200-strong ZANLA force was about to overwhelm the camp.
Since we were a large group, we tactfully approached our target in small groups to avoid detection.
The commanders positioned us in an ‘L’ formation.
Cde John Chinovava and other comrades positioned themselves in a nearby mountain, north of the camp.
From that vantage point, bullets would rain on the Rhodies.
The position would make it difficult for the enemy to return fire.
Other comrades and I, who had mortars, were positioned on the eastern side of the camp.
When we had all positioned ourselves, we waited for the signal to fire.
I was restless.
I was full of anger and could not wait to fire my 60mm mortar.
It had now grown dark and the enemy was at ease, enjoying drinks in their ‘canteen’.
This would be a soft-target I concluded.
At exactly 7:30pm, Cde John Chinoenda fired the first shot at the north eastern side of the camp.
What followed was total destruction of the Mahutwe Military Camp.
We caught them unaware.
For 40 minutes we relentlessly fired on the camp.
Satisfied we had inflicted enough damage, the commander gave the order to stop firing.
We did not suffer any casualty.
The Rhodies never returned to Mahutwe.
For three days we stayed at a gathering point which was about 15 kilometres from Mahutwe where we could see smoke rising into the sky from the decimated camp.
Mahutwe wooden military barracks and other structures were razed to the ground.
We heard that the survivors of that attack ferried corpses of their fellow soldiers in their military trucks and left for good.
The area became a liberated zone after our attack.
Compiled by Emergencey Mwale-Kamtande