Enos Nkala the 'mass murderer' who died a pauper

Zimbabwe's former Minister of Defence, in his last few years of life must have cursed the day he invited Robert Mugabe into his house, 4449 Highfields, sat down with others in what was the founding of Zanu in 1963.

Enos Mzombi Nkala played a key role in the the liberation struggle for Zanu PF and and after independance as a government Minister. As a trusted Lieutenant to Mugabe he was well rewarded with the strategic position of Defence Minister and played a pivotal role in the formation of the brutal Fifth brigade which decimated the Ndebele tribe in Matebeleland and Midlands in the Gukurahundi genocide.

As Minister of Defence and one of the most senior authorities behind the 5th brigade formation, and someone from the Ndebele tribe, whose rural home was in Esigodini, Enos Nkala was viewed with revulsion by survivors of the genocide and considered the mother of all sell outs for his part in the genocide. Enos Nkala is on record for issuing deliberately provocative statements right from the start.

Within three months of Mugabe coming into office, Enos Nkala on the 6th of July 1980 gave a chilling speech at a Zanu rally at White city stadium in Bulawayo which to the discerning eye, was a forewarning of the calamity to befall Matebeleland at the hands of Mugabe. Nkala's speech was calculated to instill fear upon Matebeland and declare Zanu dominance. This was affirmation of Mugabe's One state party agenda.

Matebeleland was and the home ground and powerhouse for Joshua Mqhabuko led Zapu opposition. Enos Nkala declared at the rally "I want to declare here for everyone to know that Joshua Nkomo and his group are in government by the grace of Zanu" Without mincing his words, Enos Nkala declared that, his duty was "Now to crush Nkomo and forget about him", likening him to "a self appointed Ndebele King" Enos Nkala warned that Zapu Mps were a group of tribalists that he would crush instead of submitting to them.

He went on to furiously announce that "They contributed in their own small way and we have given a share proportional to their contributions".

"If they now want more than their small share, then we have to tell them , they will not have any share at all" Nkomo will be relegated to history the same way as these people (Ojukwu of Biafra, Tshombe of Congo, Harry Nkumbula of Zambia and Oginga Odinga of Kenya) who tried to appoint themselves as tribal leaders.If anyone of those 15 Zapu MPs and their dissidents tried to subvert the government, we will deploy government security forces and the operation will be a one day wonder.

If they want to work against government, there is no doubt that we will crush them." In 2010 Enos Nkala, now realising the folly of his ways, declared that he did not want to be buried at the National Heroes Acre but his family later claimed that in 2012 he had told them that he is at peace with burial at the heroes acre. Enos Nkala, in comparison to the filthy rich multimillionaire criminal Zanu PFmembers, actually lived a destitute last few years of life and died a destitute, just like Nathan Shamuyarira Nkala of all political figures, knew exactly how the 5th Brigade was formed, operated and how who was directly responsible for the day to day operations of the murderous regime.

In his final years of life, Enos Nkala, admitted that he did utter those statements at White city stadium but they meant nothing more than bare political gimmicking with no malicious intents. In hind sight this is not true as no one can deny that such careless statements at a time of heightened political concerns, actually fueled tribal hatred and the real desire by those aligned to Mugabe to thwart any resistance by the Ndebele's.

Furthermore Enos Nkala aka the 'mass murderer' a name awarded to him by the people of Matebeleland over his misguided utterances, and actions during the gukurahundi era including actually being party to the formation of the fifth Brigade, failure to use his position as the Minister of defence to stop the massacre of his fellow tribe people, made several other glaringly irresponsible acts.

In 1986, Enos Nkala in the company of John Mbedzi and Perence Shiri who was the commander of the fifth Brigade, now the Airforce of Zimbabwe commander and also Mugabe's nephew at Pelandaba Stadium in Gwanda paraded all ZAPU officials and loyalists calling them dissidents. Nkala went on to announce that he regretted being of Ndebele origin. He added that if there was a magical soap to wash off tribal origins, he would have long done so.

As a result of his volatile speeches at public gatherings, especially on that day at Pelandaba stadium in Gwanda, in the company of the commander of the fifth Brigade (Perence Shiri), Nkala's name became synonymous with the gukurahundi massacres, hence the nick name 'mass murderer'. Enos Nkala, was well linked with Mugabe and Perence Shiri and knew all the inner workings of the Zanu PF government and state machinery. His 'book' if ever it is eventually published, will be shocking revelations to the people of Zimbabwe. At the moment, it is well known that prospects of the book being published are very unsettling to the Zanu PF politburo who would rather go to the grave with what they know.

Nkala's statements and actions throughout the gukurahundi era, for all intents and purposes, actually served as the fuel upon which the 5th Brigade's evil machinery operated on. Dumiso Dabengwa, who was incarcerated at Chikurubi Maximum Security at the height of the Gukurahundi genocide, is on record as saying that Enos Nkala, Eddison Zvobgo and Emmerson Mnangagwa paid him a visit in prison and Nkala offered him freedom if he was willing to defect from Zapu and join Zanu.

Dabengwa refused to betray his party, electing to die in prison. This information divulged by Dabengwa, proved to many that Nkala was pivotal to Zanu PF's execution of the gukurahundi genocide.

Jacob Mudenda, the Zimbabwe speaker of parliament, recently also revealed that, at the height of Gukurahundi, he was called to Matebeleland to witness what was happening and he shocked the nation last month when he admitted that he saw with his own eyes, the torture and murder of people by the 5th Brigade and rushed back to report back to Mugabe the horrors that he had witnessed,..of course to no avail.

Gukurahundi was a horrendous genocide which must be acknowledged by the Zanu PF government, explained and apologised for, victims compensated for, forgiveness, healing and closure facilitated and the nation moved forward, united as one. Part of the transparency comes through people searching for hidden crucial articles.