Tell the truth about Mangena's death - says MK veteran

Former Umkhonto weSizwe(MK) intelligence officer who was attached to Zapu security department during the Rhodesian war has challenged Zimbabwean leaders to tell the truth about the death of Zipra army commander, Alfred Nikita Mangena in Zambia in 1978.

In an interview this week, Moketsi Thwala, who trained as an intelligence officer at the KGB academy in Moscow in the 70s said Mangena's family and his children deserved to know the truth about how he was killed.

Thwala and a few of his colleagues escaped from the infamous ANC Quatro guerrilla camp in Angola which held disillusioned MK cadres accused of being enemy spies.The cadres claimed they were tortured by the organisation's security agency, Mbokodo while the Angolans watched and did nothing to protect them.

The MK veteran dismissed the Zapu official line that the Zipra army chief died in a landmine explosion while returning to his base in Lusaka.

According to Zapu, Mangena had been visiting some Zipra bases near the border with Rhodesia when his vehicle was hit by a landmine.He died on the scene for lack of medical attention.

" I knew Mangena very well because I worked with him when I returned from Moscow in the 70s.I was part of a 13 MK cadres who had just completed their training in Moscow.When we arrived back in Zambia, we were met at the airport by Zapu security officers who cleared us at the immigration department at Lusaka airport," said Thwala.
The MK veteran says after being cleared at the immigration,the Zapu officers took them to Joshua Nkomo's headquarters at the Zimbabwe House where they were received by Mangena and MK commander Joe Modise.The two commanders, says Thwala were close friends.

" While working with Zapu in Lusaka,I became close to Mangena because our task was to train Zipra cadres who had been selected to be part of Nkomo's security team," Thwala told me.

He says Mangena,who was the darling of Russian military advisors in Zambia, was assassinated because he had become too powerful in the organisation.According to the MK veteran, Mangena was seen by some top Zapu leaders as a big threat and had to be eliminated.

At one stage, says Thwala, Mangena was accused of trying to set up parallel structures within Zapu.The MK veteran told me the party leaders feared Mangena's influence among the guerrillas because many Zipra cadres had become more loyal to him as commander than to the political leadership.

"He may have been overzealous but Mangena was a brilliant soldier who earned the respect of the Russians and guerrillas of both Mk and Zipra," added Thwala.The MK veteran defected to Inakatha Freedom Party (IPF) when he returned from exile.

He dismissed claims by  some Zapu leaders that Mangena wanted to take over the party leadership in Zambia.
" The only truth my brother is that Zapu was afraid of Mangena because of his close connections to the Russians and his popularity with Zipra cadres in camps," said Thwala, now in his mid 60s.In 1997 I investigated the death of Mangena and the Zanla commander Josiah Tongogara and discovered that both men were victims of political assassinations.

The killing of Mangena was allegedly carried out by a group of 12 Zipra cadres who were members of a faction led by a top Zapu politician and soldier.

Former Zipra cadres I interviewed implicated four politicians two of whom are still alive.After my story was published by The Standard newspaper, some former Zipra commanders who included Report Mpoko dismissed it as lies.Three former Zipra cadres stormed our office in Bulawayo and threatened to teach me a lesson I will never forget.

But our story was supported by some Zapu politicians who were in Zambia at the time of Mangena's death.

"I watched Nikita moulding Zipra into a powerful, well organised and disciplined military machine to the delight of the Soviet advisors.Credit for Zipra's military successes should go to both Mangena and Jason Ziyaphapha Moyo," said Thwala,a father of four children.

MK and Zipra forged a military alliance in the 60s negotiated by Oliver Thambo and James Chikerema before he left to form his Front for the Liberation of Zimbabwe (FROLIZ).The joint ANC-ZAPU guerrilla force was commanded by John Dube of Zipra.

The structure of the military alliance was as follows:Joe Modise (MK commander), Akim Ndhlovu (ZIPRA commander), Archie Sibeko (Zola Zembe, MK chief of operations), Dabengwa (ZAPU chief of intelligence),Mjojo (General Tshali, MK chief of staff), Walter Mavuso (Mavuso Msimang,MK chief of communications) and Chris Hani (MK commissar) assumed responsibility at the military level for personnel, reconnaissance, intelligence
and logistics.

The latter involved the acquisition of ammunition and food supplies for the mission, as well as the means to transport them. Intelligence was left to ZAPU, due to their knowledge of the terrain and its people.

Thwala was called to give evidence at the Truth and Reconcilliation Commission (TRC) in the early 90s.He described how Mbokodo security operatives of MK rounded up suspected spies within the organisation in Angola and detained them at the notorious Quatro also known as camp 13.

Most of those detained by MK at Quatro were cadres who operated with Zipra in Rhodesia.Thwala says he operated with a group of Zipra cadres in the Sipolilo area whose inhabitants supported Zapu.Zipra operated in those Shona regions without any opposition as it was easier for them to cross into Zimbabwe via Feira in Zambia into Kariba and Mashonaland areas.