News / National
'Zipra failed to protect us from Mbokodo abuses,' claims MK veteran
07 May 2015 at 04:31hrs | Views
All Zipra photographs in this story except the Quatro camp in Angola, were taken in Zambia in 1977 by Zenzo Nkobi.
Cape Town - Former Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) cadre who testified at the Truth and Reconcilliation Commission (TRC) about human rights abuses committed by the ANC in exile says former Zipra commanders should have been summoned too because, he claims, they did nothing to protect them from torture by 'Mbokodo' thugs while attached to Zapu camps in Zambia.
Zipra were MK allies during the struggle for Zimbabwe's independence and against apartheid. Speaking in an interview at his home in the Cape Town township of Langa the former MK cadre told me he had recommended to the commissioners that Zipra commanders be called to give evidence about the abuses that took place in Zambia and Angola in the late 70s.
Zipra and MK, both backed by Russians and Cubans had military camps in Angola and Zambia. The struggle veteran whose guerrilla war name was Magagula is still bitter about the way he and other cadres accused of being enemy spies were treated by the ANC in exile.
"I have not forgiven those Mbokodo criminals who tortured and killed my colleagues for nothing. I don't hate Zipra as a former liberation movement but I hated its officers who did nothing when we were being abused by Mbokodo," Magagula told said.
Mbokodo, a Nguni name for the grinding stone, was the ANC's intelligence organ whose last head was Jacob Zuma, now president of South Africa. The organisation was accused by defectors and suspected spies of committing serious abuses in camps in Zambia and Angola.
According to Magagula, some of the beatings and torture of MK cadres accused of being apartheid spies took place in the presence of Zipra officers from their intelligence organ, the National Security Organisation (NSO) headed by Dumiso Dabengwa.
Magagula also lashed out at the late MK commander Joe Modise whom he described as a bully. That's what he called him at the TRC hearing. He became emotional as he related how both Zipra and MK officers allegedly sanctioned the illegal detention of suspected apartheid and Rhodesian spies.
During the TRC hearings, another disgruntled MK veteran, Samuel Nqibila also mentioned Zipra's failure to stop Mbokodo from abusing those accused of being apartheid informants and agents.
When I put it to Magagula that the command structures were different, he said the commanders of the two guerrilla organisations were like inseparable twins after their leaders set up the joint Zipra-MK military and political high command in 1966.
During his evidence at the TRC sitting in Soweto in May 1996, Magagula described how he and other comrades survived the horrors of Angola's camp Quatro-the most notorious, according to those who survived the purge.
"After completing my training in Angola, me and other comrades were sent to Zambia to do a survival course at a Zipra camp outside Lusaka. It was hell there but thank God we survived," said Magagula, now in his 70s.
He said the training with Zipra was to help MK cadres familiarise themselves with the tough conditions and terrain inside operational areas in Zimbabwe.
"I did recommend in my statement that former Zipra commanders and members of its intelligence organ be summoned to give evidence about the abuses but nothing was done," said Magagula.
The hearings which attracted local and international media, were also attended by relatives and families of those who disappeared or killed by both apartheid and ANC agents.
Magagula said he and others who were called to testify at the TRC had to be given state protection following threats to their lives allegedly by some former operatives of Mbokodo.
"To me Zipra and MK commanders were partners in crime inside guerrilla camps in Zambia," adds Magagula who has a Zambian wife. During the TRC hearings, the ANC,which was put under pressure to respond to the allegations by MK defectors, issued a statement apologising to South Africans about abuses at its camps in both Zambia and Angola.
I contacted a former Zipra camp instructor in Bulawayo who denied Magagula's allegations that Zapu officers witnessed torture of MK recruits.
The former instructor, who did not want to go on record about the allegations, told me that although MK cadres were forwarded to their camps for training and deployment inside Rhodesia and South Africa, his bosses were not part of the abuses against suspected enemy agents.
"Some of those boys (MK recruits) were cry babies. When they arrived at Zipra camps, they behaved as if they were on a tourism roller coaster expedition and wanted us to treat them like tourists," said the former trainer.
The former Zipra instructor added: "Our job as MK allies was to mould those boys into soldiers and that's what they became after completing their training. We did not feed them with wild fruits as some of them claimed at the TRC hearings."
But Magagula described some of the Zipra trainers and officers as maniacs who kept drinking their tea even during raids on the camps by Rhodesian airforce.
"Most of those Zipra commanders and camp instructors smoked marijuana because of the stress caused by the war. That's why they behaved like maniacs," Magagula told me.
According to the former Zipra officer, the only MK guerrillas who were under their command were those who were attached to them inside Rhodesia.
"Yes we did have a joint military command to discuss the war and operations, but we were not part of the disciplinary matters of MK cadres in Zambia," the former officer told me.
The joint Zipra-MK military command was set up after ANC leaders in exile who included Oliver Tambo approached Zapu for military assistance. The agreement between the two guerrilla movements was signed by Tambo for ANC while James Chikerema, representing Joshua Nkomo signed on behalf of Zapu.
The first joint MK-ZIPRA military unit, comprising 80 guerrillas was known as the Luthuli Detachment, in honour of ANC former president, the late struggle stalwart, Chief Albert Luthuli.
The combined guerrilla force under the command of Zipra's John Dube was deployed in Rhodesia in 1967 where it clashed with the Rhodesian forces in what became known as the Wankie campaign. On the first day of the clashes, according to war records, four Rhodesian soldiers and five guerrillas were killed.
After running out of supplies, members of the Luthuli Detachment were forced to retreat into Botswana where they were arrested and deported to Zambia.
The second MK-ZIPRA combined force, the Pyramid Detachment under the command of Zipra's Moffart Hadebe was infiltrated into Sipolilo in Mashonaland province the following year where it engaged a joint force of South African and Rhodesian forces.
According to Zapu, the Pyramid Detachment comprised 74 Zipra and 32 MK cadres. According to military records, 10 soldiers and 23 guerrillas were killed during the skirmishes which lasted more than a week. Captured MK and Zipra cadres were sent to jail in Khami outside Bulawayo.
They were released when Zimbabwe gained independence in 1980. When the Rhodesian war ended in 1980, Zipra donated its two military camps in Angola including a flat in Luanda to the ANC.
Former Zapu leaders have accused their liberation war allies, the ANC, now enjoying power in South Africa of abandoning them to the wolves despite all the sacrifices the Zimbabweans made for MK cadres during the struggle.
Zipra continued assisting MK recruits from Botswana to get to Zambia even after Zimbabwe gained independence in 1980.
Meanwhile the ANC has invited a former Zipra officer (name supplied) to speak about the Luthuli Detachment and MK-ZIPRA operations in Zimbabwe.
The meeting will be attended by politicians and MK veterans and is expected to be held at Luthuli House ANC headquarters on 26 May. Zipra has also handed over to the ANC records of MK cadres who died in the Rhodesian war.
The documents included details of the location of graves of MK cadres in both Mashonaland East and Matabeleland provinces.
Zipra, through the Mafela Trust was also involved in identifying the graves of both Zapu and ANC guerrillas who died in the war. Zapu guerrillas operated in three provinces, Matabeleland, Midlands and Mashonaland East.
NOTE: All Zipra photographs in this story except the Quatro camp in Angola, were taken in Zambia in 1977 by Zenzo Nkobi.
Kunene Thabo can be contacted at kunene2002@yahoo.co.uk
Zipra were MK allies during the struggle for Zimbabwe's independence and against apartheid. Speaking in an interview at his home in the Cape Town township of Langa the former MK cadre told me he had recommended to the commissioners that Zipra commanders be called to give evidence about the abuses that took place in Zambia and Angola in the late 70s.
Zipra and MK, both backed by Russians and Cubans had military camps in Angola and Zambia. The struggle veteran whose guerrilla war name was Magagula is still bitter about the way he and other cadres accused of being enemy spies were treated by the ANC in exile.
"I have not forgiven those Mbokodo criminals who tortured and killed my colleagues for nothing. I don't hate Zipra as a former liberation movement but I hated its officers who did nothing when we were being abused by Mbokodo," Magagula told said.
Mbokodo, a Nguni name for the grinding stone, was the ANC's intelligence organ whose last head was Jacob Zuma, now president of South Africa. The organisation was accused by defectors and suspected spies of committing serious abuses in camps in Zambia and Angola.
According to Magagula, some of the beatings and torture of MK cadres accused of being apartheid spies took place in the presence of Zipra officers from their intelligence organ, the National Security Organisation (NSO) headed by Dumiso Dabengwa.
Magagula also lashed out at the late MK commander Joe Modise whom he described as a bully. That's what he called him at the TRC hearing. He became emotional as he related how both Zipra and MK officers allegedly sanctioned the illegal detention of suspected apartheid and Rhodesian spies.
During the TRC hearings, another disgruntled MK veteran, Samuel Nqibila also mentioned Zipra's failure to stop Mbokodo from abusing those accused of being apartheid informants and agents.
When I put it to Magagula that the command structures were different, he said the commanders of the two guerrilla organisations were like inseparable twins after their leaders set up the joint Zipra-MK military and political high command in 1966.
During his evidence at the TRC sitting in Soweto in May 1996, Magagula described how he and other comrades survived the horrors of Angola's camp Quatro-the most notorious, according to those who survived the purge.
"After completing my training in Angola, me and other comrades were sent to Zambia to do a survival course at a Zipra camp outside Lusaka. It was hell there but thank God we survived," said Magagula, now in his 70s.
He said the training with Zipra was to help MK cadres familiarise themselves with the tough conditions and terrain inside operational areas in Zimbabwe.
"I did recommend in my statement that former Zipra commanders and members of its intelligence organ be summoned to give evidence about the abuses but nothing was done," said Magagula.
The hearings which attracted local and international media, were also attended by relatives and families of those who disappeared or killed by both apartheid and ANC agents.
Magagula said he and others who were called to testify at the TRC had to be given state protection following threats to their lives allegedly by some former operatives of Mbokodo.
"To me Zipra and MK commanders were partners in crime inside guerrilla camps in Zambia," adds Magagula who has a Zambian wife. During the TRC hearings, the ANC,which was put under pressure to respond to the allegations by MK defectors, issued a statement apologising to South Africans about abuses at its camps in both Zambia and Angola.
I contacted a former Zipra camp instructor in Bulawayo who denied Magagula's allegations that Zapu officers witnessed torture of MK recruits.
The former instructor, who did not want to go on record about the allegations, told me that although MK cadres were forwarded to their camps for training and deployment inside Rhodesia and South Africa, his bosses were not part of the abuses against suspected enemy agents.
"Some of those boys (MK recruits) were cry babies. When they arrived at Zipra camps, they behaved as if they were on a tourism roller coaster expedition and wanted us to treat them like tourists," said the former trainer.
The former Zipra instructor added: "Our job as MK allies was to mould those boys into soldiers and that's what they became after completing their training. We did not feed them with wild fruits as some of them claimed at the TRC hearings."
But Magagula described some of the Zipra trainers and officers as maniacs who kept drinking their tea even during raids on the camps by Rhodesian airforce.
"Most of those Zipra commanders and camp instructors smoked marijuana because of the stress caused by the war. That's why they behaved like maniacs," Magagula told me.
According to the former Zipra officer, the only MK guerrillas who were under their command were those who were attached to them inside Rhodesia.
"Yes we did have a joint military command to discuss the war and operations, but we were not part of the disciplinary matters of MK cadres in Zambia," the former officer told me.
The joint Zipra-MK military command was set up after ANC leaders in exile who included Oliver Tambo approached Zapu for military assistance. The agreement between the two guerrilla movements was signed by Tambo for ANC while James Chikerema, representing Joshua Nkomo signed on behalf of Zapu.
The first joint MK-ZIPRA military unit, comprising 80 guerrillas was known as the Luthuli Detachment, in honour of ANC former president, the late struggle stalwart, Chief Albert Luthuli.
The combined guerrilla force under the command of Zipra's John Dube was deployed in Rhodesia in 1967 where it clashed with the Rhodesian forces in what became known as the Wankie campaign. On the first day of the clashes, according to war records, four Rhodesian soldiers and five guerrillas were killed.
After running out of supplies, members of the Luthuli Detachment were forced to retreat into Botswana where they were arrested and deported to Zambia.
The second MK-ZIPRA combined force, the Pyramid Detachment under the command of Zipra's Moffart Hadebe was infiltrated into Sipolilo in Mashonaland province the following year where it engaged a joint force of South African and Rhodesian forces.
According to Zapu, the Pyramid Detachment comprised 74 Zipra and 32 MK cadres. According to military records, 10 soldiers and 23 guerrillas were killed during the skirmishes which lasted more than a week. Captured MK and Zipra cadres were sent to jail in Khami outside Bulawayo.
They were released when Zimbabwe gained independence in 1980. When the Rhodesian war ended in 1980, Zipra donated its two military camps in Angola including a flat in Luanda to the ANC.
Former Zapu leaders have accused their liberation war allies, the ANC, now enjoying power in South Africa of abandoning them to the wolves despite all the sacrifices the Zimbabweans made for MK cadres during the struggle.
Zipra continued assisting MK recruits from Botswana to get to Zambia even after Zimbabwe gained independence in 1980.
Meanwhile the ANC has invited a former Zipra officer (name supplied) to speak about the Luthuli Detachment and MK-ZIPRA operations in Zimbabwe.
The meeting will be attended by politicians and MK veterans and is expected to be held at Luthuli House ANC headquarters on 26 May. Zipra has also handed over to the ANC records of MK cadres who died in the Rhodesian war.
The documents included details of the location of graves of MK cadres in both Mashonaland East and Matabeleland provinces.
Zipra, through the Mafela Trust was also involved in identifying the graves of both Zapu and ANC guerrillas who died in the war. Zapu guerrillas operated in three provinces, Matabeleland, Midlands and Mashonaland East.
NOTE: All Zipra photographs in this story except the Quatro camp in Angola, were taken in Zambia in 1977 by Zenzo Nkobi.
Kunene Thabo can be contacted at kunene2002@yahoo.co.uk
Source - Thabo Kunene
