Of JZ Moyo, spies and the truth

This week I was attacked by some misguided Zimbabweans at home and in the diaspora who accused me of starting a smear campaign against their former leaders in Zapu and its combat wing during the war, Zipra.

My article was entirely about the ANC, Zapu's allies during the war and not about the former Zimbabwe liberation movement.In the article I pointed out the ANC's weaknesses and inability to weed out moles within its party structures some of whom could be responsible for leaking information to the right-wing media,the opposition and to public protector Thuli Madonsela's office.

In the article published by this website, I also pointed out how apartheid and Rhodesian agents infiltrated both Zapu and the ANC's political and combat wings in exile in Zambia and Angola.

The work of the moles inside the liberation movements resulted in the deaths of senior leaders such as Jason Ziyaphapha Moyo, Zapu's number two man, Zipra army commander Alfred Nikita Mangena and MK's Thami Zulu whose real name was Muziwakhe Ngwenya.

The ANC and Zapu were not the only liberation movements infiltrated by colonial agents.Swapo and Zanu too were targeted.JZ as Moyo was known in the struggle is the reason why am now being attacked by misguided Zimbabweans sitting comfortable in their air conditioned offices either at home or in the diaspora.

My accusers are people who know nothing at all about my history as a Journalist in Matabeleland in the 80s.Only ignorant people like them can open their mouths and accuse me of waging a smear campaign against Zapu and Zipra.

Where were they when I risked my life in the 80s to exposse human rights abuses and mass killings of Zapu supporters in Matabeleland and the Midlands.Where were my accusers when my reports in the BBC and other western media organisations helped trace Zapu detainees on the verge of being executed by security agencies.

I am happy because some former detainees who included the late Welshman Mabhena later came to me and thanked me for reporting about their illegal detention which forced human rights organisations to pressure the government for their release.

The same accusers would not believe me if I told them there were people in the Fifth Brigade who saved the lives of Zapu supporters in Matabeleland after they disobeyed orders from their superiors.

Some of those who disobeyed orders from their commanders paid the ultimate price.I guess some of my accusers were at crèche during those days and never saw anything that some of us witnessed.As the only Bulawayo based foreign correspondent at the time-I got to be trusted by Zapu leader Joshua Nkomo who followed my reports on the BBC'S Focus on Africa programme every evenings and the entire party leadership in Matabeleland.

Nkomo would send his people to pick me up sometimes at night to go to his house.He would, on a number of occasions, show me villagers who had fled their homes after the Fifth Brigade invaded their villages.

I became close to many Zapu and former Zipra commanders since most of the local Journalists worked for Zimbabwe Newspapers and could not be trusted by the party to report the truth about what was happening in the province.

It is therefore painful for me to hear some people accusing me of being an enemy agent simple because they can not accept the painful truth that one of their leaders had been a trusted informant of Rhodesia's domestic intelligence service-the Special Branch for 18 years.

Enter JZ Moyo-Nkomo's vice-president credited with moulding Zapu's war machine in the 70s after the collapse of Zimbabwe People's Army, Zipa.This was a joint force of Zapu and Zanu guerrillas armies.Since Nkomo and others were still incarcerated inside Rhodesia it was left to JZ to direct the war efforts from rear bases in Zambia.Zimbabweans salute him for his contribution to the struggle but was that all we knew of JZ.

In 1985, the leader of a three men Rhodesian CIO hit squad that assassinated JZ, Allan 'Taffy' Brice made startling disclosures about Moyo's alleged involvement with the Special Branch.This is supported by his interviews with Peter Stiff-former Rhodesian police superintendent turned internationally respected author in his book-See You in November.

Taffy led the operation to assassinate both Zanu and Zapu leaders in Zambia.His team of former special forces men-Ian Sutherland and Chuck Hind succeeded in blowing Herbert Chitepo to pieces in a car bomb in Lusaka in 1975.

Then another hit-JZ Moyo in 1977.Taffy was also the lead man when the CIO ordered him to take out Robert Mugabe while attending the Lancaster House talks in London in September 1979.The mission, according to Taffy, was called off at the last minute.

He made several attempts to assassinate Nkomo in Zambia and abroad but failed.Do my accusers know everything that happened in liberation war camps in exiles?.I doubt that since they appear to be maopic and blind to reality on the ground.
According to Taffy-who spoke to Sunday Star investigative reporter Kitt Katzman in June 1985, Moyo was one of the black nationalists who had been on the payroll of the Special Branch since 1959 when he was recruited.

Who is washing Zapu's dirty linen in public here?Did I ever accuse JZ of being a Rhodesian spy?Would the same misguided people accusing me of a smear campaign against Zapu be saying the same things if I was referring to a Zanu leader.I doubt that.

I hear some are saying I could have been a sell-out during the war.I will not waste my energy responding to nonentities who know nothing about the struggle.As  a Journalist I simple reported on  allegations by those who were part and parcel of the war with inside information about the happenings in exile and within the intelligence community.

If allegations of Moyo's alleged involvement with the SB have been revealed in a book that becomes public knowledge for all to see not a secret.As I mentioned in the article on Tuesday, Taffy revealed that Moyo's death was a big mistake-a result of a mix up between Rhodesia's two security arms-the CIO which was in charge of external operations and the SB which was responsible for internal security.

According to Taffy, a former British Special Air Services(SAS) man who also fought alongside the Americans in Vietnam, Moyo's codename in the SB was Number 1.His disclosures to The Sunday Star sent shock waves in the corridors of power in Harare and in Zapu which was reeling from the massacres of thousands of its supporters by the Fifth Brigade.

"Nkomo knew there was someone at the top who was leaking information to the Rhodesians but he did not know it was his own number two man, " Taffy told the paper.I had just joined The Sunday News as a reporter in 1985 when I received a copy of The Sunday Star in our small newsroom at The Sunday News and could not believe what I was reading.

Everyone in the newsroom was silent for a moment because of Moyo's position in the party and his contribution to the struggle.Whether he was a SB informant or not-his contribution to the struggle will be recorded in the history books.

In a war situation,as the saying goes, sometimes you run with the hares and hunt with the hounds.I got to know most of my sources in the former Rhodesian secret service after I published a series of articles about the killings of Zipra and Zanla commanders, Alfred Mangena and Josiah Tongogara while working for The Standard newspaper in Bulawayo.

My mission was to establish the truth behind their deaths in exile.I expected to meet resistance from former Zanla cadres and Zanu politicians during my investigations but they surprised me.They were the most co-operative than my own brothers in the former Zipra.When I published details about how Mangena was killed in Zambia, I was attacked by some who included top officials.

But I did not receive the same hostile treatment after publishing my article about Tongogara's mysterious death.Thats how our people in Zapu failed to use available information channels to put across their side of the story.