News / Regional
Obert Mpofu 'fakes' his liberation war credentials
28 Nov 2014 at 06:44hrs | Views
OFFICIALS from the Zipra Trust have accused Transport minister Obert Mpofu of faking his liberation war credentials by over stating his role in the struggle.
Mpofu recently brandished his liberation war credentials saying he was the best commando but his former colleagues in Zipra say he is exaggerating his role.
Officials from Zipra Trust revealed that while Mpofu trained as a fighter, he immediately went to India to further his education and may not have been deployed at the war front as he claimed.
Mpofu reportedly told a gathering in Victoria Falls on Monday that he was the best trained guerrilla in the country, but the Zipra Trust officials said he only received normal training like anyone else.
According to the former guerrillas, when Zipra was working on plans to attack Wankie (now Hwange), Mpofu's brother - a staunch Zapu supporter - suggested that they use his sibling as a courier to his father in Jambezi.
They said a combined force made up of Umkhonto Wesizwe, the armed military wing of South Africa's ANC and Zipra - known as the Luthuli Detachment - crossed through Jambezi into the Wankie National Park and Mpofu's father, together with a Sibanda, drove goats to cover the detachment's trail by wiping the fighters' spoors.
However, Mpofu's father and Sibanda were later arrested after some villagers reported them to the Rhodesian security forces.
The family then decided to send the younger Obert to Livingstone to live with his brother fearing that he would also be arrested.
But Mpofu insists that if the officials from Zipra Trust were authentic, they would not issue a collective statement, but identify themselves.
"These are the people who worked with (the late Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian) Smith," he said.
"You must ask people like (Zapu leader Dumiso) Dabengwa about my role. I was trained in Morogoro and deployed in various parts of the country that include Binga, Deka, Mlibizi and Sipolilo (present-day Guruve)."
"If all those people saying I was never deployed are genuine guerrillas, they came when I was already furthering my education in India, they don't know me," Mpofu charged.
But a Zipra Trust official, Jack Mpofu, who said he was one of the commanders and used the pseudonym Daki, insists Mpofu was never deployed.
"Unless he was deployed by helicopter, he never crossed the Zambezi to the war front," he said.
"But Zipra had no helicopters."
Mpofu recently brandished his liberation war credentials saying he was the best commando but his former colleagues in Zipra say he is exaggerating his role.
Officials from Zipra Trust revealed that while Mpofu trained as a fighter, he immediately went to India to further his education and may not have been deployed at the war front as he claimed.
Mpofu reportedly told a gathering in Victoria Falls on Monday that he was the best trained guerrilla in the country, but the Zipra Trust officials said he only received normal training like anyone else.
According to the former guerrillas, when Zipra was working on plans to attack Wankie (now Hwange), Mpofu's brother - a staunch Zapu supporter - suggested that they use his sibling as a courier to his father in Jambezi.
They said a combined force made up of Umkhonto Wesizwe, the armed military wing of South Africa's ANC and Zipra - known as the Luthuli Detachment - crossed through Jambezi into the Wankie National Park and Mpofu's father, together with a Sibanda, drove goats to cover the detachment's trail by wiping the fighters' spoors.
However, Mpofu's father and Sibanda were later arrested after some villagers reported them to the Rhodesian security forces.
But Mpofu insists that if the officials from Zipra Trust were authentic, they would not issue a collective statement, but identify themselves.
"These are the people who worked with (the late Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian) Smith," he said.
"You must ask people like (Zapu leader Dumiso) Dabengwa about my role. I was trained in Morogoro and deployed in various parts of the country that include Binga, Deka, Mlibizi and Sipolilo (present-day Guruve)."
"If all those people saying I was never deployed are genuine guerrillas, they came when I was already furthering my education in India, they don't know me," Mpofu charged.
But a Zipra Trust official, Jack Mpofu, who said he was one of the commanders and used the pseudonym Daki, insists Mpofu was never deployed.
"Unless he was deployed by helicopter, he never crossed the Zambezi to the war front," he said.
"But Zipra had no helicopters."
Source - Southern Eye
