Zapu's first intelligence officers

COMRADE Fox Adolphus Urayayi Ndambakuwa Muwani whose Chimurenga name was Larry Dube is one interesting comrade. He joined the liberation struggle from Ndola, Zambia on February 3, 1965 and went on to receive training in military intelligence in Russia under Zapu.

He calls himself "The Fox" and up to this day maintains that "I am an intelligence officer." And indeed, like a typical intelligence officer, gleaning information from him was not easy, especially the training aspect.

He went to Zambia in 1961, after Zapu had been banned in Rhodesia and worked at one of the biggest copper mines in Zambia, Nchanga Consolidated Copper Mine which he says had over 6 000 employees.

Also like a typical intelligence officer, Dube kept all the information about his arrest and the court proceedings where he together with other freedom fighters were sentenced to 10 years in prison.

In this interview with our team comprising Munyaradzi Huni  and Tendai Manzvanzvike, Fox narrates how, as a group of 12, they went for military training in Russia and were later deployed into Rhodesia as intelligence officers.

He also narrates how he was arrested and the tortuous journey in prison, but we won't publish his full narration because we want to publish some documents from the court process that led to their 10 year sentence to show how the Rhodesia regime handled cases involving these prisoners of war.

In the court case, Fox was wrongly referred to as Adolphus Mwane and he says he was cool with it.


SM: Briefly tell us about your journey till you went for training in Russia.

Fox: When Zapu was banned, George Nyandoro suggested that I should go to Zambia because the party was not banned in Zambia. So I went to the Copperbelt because I heard that they were recruiting workers from Zimbabwe.

I was in the youth wing of Zapu and I can tell you that all over the country, the late VP Nkomo was very popular. They called him "Chibwe Chitedza." The man was very, very popular and during that time there was no this thing that Zapu is for Ndebele people. I am from Daramombe in Buhera but I was Zapu.

MH: Ok, tell us how were you recruited to join the liberation struggle?

Fox: James Chikerema and the others leaders of Zapu travelled all over the towns in Zambia recruiting people. They were targeting Zimbabweans living in Zambia, especially those they knew were Zapu members.

I was recruited together with 11 other comrades. There were six Ndebele comrades and six Shona comrades. We were recruited to go for military intelligence.

I was with the following comrades, John Mashakada, John Gusha, Ephraim Musaka, Steven Gondo, Moffat Ndlovu, Richard Ncube, Shadreck Majaya, Elliot Moyo, Swithin Mbambo, Banabas Sithole and Clement Dube.

We were taken to Mbeya in a Ford vehicle and the driver was Bhebhe Dube. We arrived in Mbeya and stayed for two days. We then proceeded to Dar es Salaam where we went to the house of our representative Mandlela.

We stayed there for a week. Then on the day of our departure, Chikerema and Mandlela took us to the airport and via several African countries we were flown to Moscow. This was still 1965.

SM: You say you trained to be an intelligence officer. What kind of training do intelligence officers go through?

Fox: I got training in espionage and counter-espionage, administration, political science and politics.

When we got to Moscow, we found Stephen who was one of the instructors and some Russians led by Mr Boris. These are the people who trained us. We started with political orientation where we were taught the background of the Soviet Union. After that we were taught about the intelligence system of the British, the intelligence of the Americans, the intelligence of the Germans, intelligence of the Israelis and many other countries.

They warned us that when you go back home, you may meet intelligence officers from these countries so you should know how they operate. By the way, we were not staying at some military camp. We were staying at some private place and it was just the 12 of us with these instructors.

Sometimes, the instructors would take us into town and we would go to their libraries where we read a lot about Lenin. We would be taken to their parliament. We went to almost all important areas in Moscow, learning about Russia.

They told us that as long as you are here in Moscow you pretend that you are students at Lumumba University. They wanted us to help them arrest some Germans who were causing problems in that country. Indeed we got many of them arrested because they thought these students from Zimbabwe are harmless and they opened up. This was part of our training.

While on these missions, the Russian trainers would be monitoring us from a distance and they would be hearing everything we would be saying.

SM: So you didn't receive any military training?

Fox: We didn't have military training. It was all about intelligence, but of course we were taught how to use small arms for our own defence in case you would be discovered that you are a spy and had to defend yourself.

We had lessons in political science and were taught about the struggle back home. The training was from February to August 1965. Before we finished the training, we were taken for a holiday in Central Asia in Tashkent. I can tell you we had fun there and after this we went back to our place in Moscow. I got hooked to drinking whisky while in Russia and as I speak, I am the champion of drinking whisky. (laughs)

From Moscow we went back to Dar es Salaam, but we were never put at the same place with the comrades who had gone for military training. The third day after arriving we were taken to Mbeya then to Lusaka.

When we got to Lusaka, most of the comrades who had received military training were staying at Zimbabwe House but we were taken to some place, called Nkomo camp that was about seven kilometres from Lusaka.

SM: How were you deployed into Rhodesia?

Fox: Dumiso Dabengwa, Chikerema and Nyandoro came to talk to us. They said the first group from our group was supposed to be deployed into Rhodesia on the day that Smith declared UDI.

The first group comprised me, Mbambo and Dube who later became a sellout. In fact while in Moscow, our commander, John Mashakada was told by the Russians that when you get back to Lusaka, don't let this man, Dube get into Rhodesia. He will sell you out. When we got to Lusaka and we were chosen to go with Dube, we told Dumiso and Chikerema about this but they ignored us.

We went through the town of Livingstone into Victoria Falls. While in Livingstone, Dube started complaining that mari yamandipa haikwane. We left him there. We got into a train and when we got to the border, the train was stopped by Rhodesia police.

Fortunately they failed to detect anything and we went up to Bulawayo where we booked ourselves into a hotel. The next day I got into a train and came to Harare. On the way, I saw several members of the Special Branch but they failed to recognise me.

SM: What exactly where you supposed to do in Rhodesia?

Fox: We were deployed as provincial intelligence officers. I was supposed to cover Mashonaland West and Mashonaland Central as an intelligence officer. There was a conduct I was supposed to see in Rhodesia, Joseph Nyandoro the young brother to George Nyandoro. My task was to gather intelligence information and relay it back to Zambia to our leaders like Dabengwa. We were supposed to see how the Rhodesian system was operating and to see how our comrades could be deployed into the country.

This wasn't easy considering that the Special Branch was all over the place and that during this time, not many people in the country had political understanding so there were many sellouts.

SM: Ok, let's get back to your journey. You were on your way to Harare?

Fox: On arrival in Harare I went to Mbare where I used to stay with my brothers. I was told that kumusha kwanetsa because helicopter iri kumhara pamba asking kuti ndakaenda kupi. I got worried and I went kumusha secretly to see my parents. They told me how they were being tormented by the police.

They told me that they had told the police that I had gone to school in London. Vanhu vakaoneswa nhamo because of me kumusha. I think word got round that I was back and the torture got worse. Maiguru vangu, mukadzi wemukoma aiva nepamuviri pematwins akatorwa akaoneswa nhamo.

SM: Comrade explain to us exactly what happened because you just became emotional.

Fox: When I went kumusha, my parents told me that the police were looking for me. My, mother, mai vangu Emma, they almost killed her. (Tears rolling down) They were tortured. They told me it was unbearable, but they did not sell me out. They didn't release any information, even though they knew I had gone for training. Kunonzi kuzvara. My parents are late now, but God bless them.

Instead of selling me out, my parents suggested that I should go kwatete to hide there. I went there and tete welcomed me. She knew what was going on. I stayed there for about two weeks. After I left kwatete, the Special Branch arrived and harassed her.

Someone had sold me out. It later turned out that it was that Dube guy because during training in Moscow I had told him where I came from and a lot about my relatives.

In fact, some of my comrades about seven of them were arrested as soon as they were deployed into Rhodesia. I managed to dodge the police for a while, but the Special Branch was in hot pursuit.

I decided to go back to Harare and I was now thinking of going back to Zambia. The situation was really bad. The Special Branch was everywhere and I knew it was now a matter of time before I got arrested. I went to Mbare and organised with my brother that I would get transport to go back to Zambia.

After making the arrangements, the next day we woke up to discover that the whole house had been surrounded by the police and army. They shouted that I should get out of the house and if I tried anything funny they were going to shoot me.

I shouted back saying "indeed you have won!" They shouted back saying "the invisible man, nhasi takubata!" I got out of the house and I was arrested. I was taken to some torture place that was in Beatrice. After two weeks, I was taken to another place near Half-Way along Bulawayo road. While being taken to court in Harare that's when I was told how all my other seven comrades were arrested. Dube had provided the Special Branch with all the information.

SM: So you were taken to court and sentenced how many years?

Fox: We were all sentenced to 10 years in prison and we were taken to Khami Maximum Prison. The story was all over the media.

At Khami we were put in single dark cells that were so small that movement was very difficult. Food was so scarce at Khami that most of us grew so thin that one could see blood flowing in our veins. There was inhuman treatment and I think most of the comrades who served their sentences there have already told you.

I tell you the Lord is there. Up to now I really wonder how we survived.

We were at Khami prison until 1973. We were taken to Gweru prison. While at Gweru prison, three of our comrades managed to escape.

That was Duri, Morgan Tandi and Ignatious Muchero. However, Duri and Ignatious were captured while Tandi managed to go back to Zambia. At Gweru we were staying with some comrades from Zanu. We were later moved to Hwahwa Maximum Prison. Here we were allowed to do some farming.

Later I was put under home restriction where I was allowed to go within 20 kilometres radius of Harare Post Office.

Later I was released and I joined the Manica Freight Services as a shipping clerk.

N/B – The International Defence and Aid Fund for Southern Africa in its book titled "Ian Smith's Hostages: Political Prisoners in Rhodesia" published in December 1976 revealed that by the time of publication, there were a minimum of 1 905 freedom fighters incarcerated in Ian Smith's jails for political and ideological reasons, including 57 who were under death sentence.
The Fund went further saying "… a more realistic estimate of the total might be one approaching 3 000" prisoners. According to the Fund, at least 1 064 were held in detention under the terms of the Emergency Powers while about 841 were serving prisons sentences under Rhodesia's Law and Order (Maintenance) Act.