Unsung hero of Zimbabwe's 'dissident era' speaks out

BULAWAYO - A village elder in Nkayi who shocked many in the district by confronting hardcore dissidents and persuading them to surrender to authorities in 1988 says the government must honour community heroes even those who are not members of Zanu-PF.

In May 1988, the elder, who prefers to be called Timothy heard that there were heavily armed dissidents in the forest who were reluctant to surrender after the government had offered them amnesty. Timothy, without thinking about his own life, went to confront the dissidents and assured them they would be safe if they handed themselves over to the authorities.

Timothy did not only end with verbal assurance to the dissidents. He  also offered to accompany them and be there when they emerged from the forest to hand themselves over to government officials at the local sports ground.

The dissidents were not willing to risk their own lives after two of their colleagues, who were unarmed, were shot dead by the soldiers when they tried to hand themselves over to the authorities.

I covered the killing of the two dissidents for the BBC. The granting of amnesty to the dissidents followed the signing of a peace deal between two former struggle icons turned enemies-Robert Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo.

The so-called unity accord which was signed on December 22, 1987, came as a huge relief to the inhabitants of Matabeleland who had been brutalized, families massacred and terrorized into submission by the Fifth Brigade forcing thousands to flee across the border into Botswana.

I first met Timothy at a sports ground in Nkayi where the ceremony to welcome the surrendering dissidents was held. When I introduced myself to him he was shocked to learn that I was the BBC correspondent he had been asked to look for by the dissidents before surrendering to the authorities.

"Sir, you are a wanted man. I tried to look for you but I did not know where to find you," Timothy told me before the ceremony started. By a stroke of luck, the message from the surrendering dissidents had already been relayed to me by a friend of mine who was a pastor of the local Agape Church at Nkayi business centre.

The dissidents said they were regular listeners of BBC African Service's news programmes like Focus on Africa and Network Africa. Since the pastor relayed the message at night before the day they surrendered, I had no means of travelling to the area at that time of the hour. So I waited for the morning to make transport arrangement to get to Nkayi before the ceremony.

As I was still cracking my head with transport to get to Nkayi, lady luck smilled on me. A reporter from The Chronicle told me the then governor for Matabeleland North, Jacob Mudenda was also going to meet the surrendering dissidents.

I quickly rushed to the governor's office in the CBD and asked his secretary if I could get a lift from him to Nkayi. Governor Mudenda, a descent, humble and respected politician he was, agreed to offer me a lift in his own official car and we got to Nkayi before the ceremony began.

Even though the BBC was being accused of negative reporting of the country I was, by then not classified as enemy until 1989 when police ordered that I be arrested and be charged with reporting lies about police corruption at the Beitbridge border post.

Unlike in 1980 when Zanla and Zipra guerrillas emerging from the bush heading for assembly points were met by Commonwealth monitoring forces, when the dissidents surrendered there were no international human rights activists.

They were on their own. They only had assurances from the officials that no harm would befall them when they surrendered. Church leaders attended the ceremony to make sure the process went smoothly.

The ceremony went smoothly but not before the Nkayi dissidents read out a statement to a few foreign Journalists who managed to arrive on time. Everyone from the villagers to the soldiers wanted to see the dissidents who had been operating in Nkayi who included the infamous Khiwa.

"On behalf of the gallant Zipra forces, we are here today as a response to the amnesty offered by the government. We, however, wish to make it clear that we were not dissidents killing innocent people but the situation which you all know forced us to take up arms and return to the bush," said the group leader who spoke fluent English with confidence.

The dissident leader said some former Zipra cadres who had already been intergrated into the army could not watch and do nothing while innocent women and children in Matabeleland were being massacred by the Fifth Brigade. Thats why they took up arms to die fighting than to wait to be killed in their homes.

As he uttered those words, women who were in the crowd shed tears. The Nkayi dissidents earned the respect of the locals and the foreign Journalists present as they appeared well organized and had brought with them demands which they wanted the government to meet.

Their demands included descent accommodation while waiting to be intergrated into society, assurance that they will not be harassed by state security agents as guaranteed by the officials.

When the ceremony was over, I managed to speak to the leader of the group. He explained to me that they were genuine former Zipra guerrillas not state sponsored or South Africa trained dissidents.

He told me he suspected the soldiers killed their colleagues who had gone to their base to surrender. This was after his group had allegedly killed fake dissidents and captured one who allegedly admitted working for the state agency.

"We met many bogus dissidents in the bush and discovered that some were on government payroll. We killed scores of South Africa sponsored Super-Zapu dissidents who were deployed to destabilize Zimbabwe," said the former dissident leader.

Throughout the 80s, Nkomo denied that genuine Zipra cadres had turned to dissidency after deserting the army with their weapons. The government, which accused his party Zapu of being behind the dissidents failed to provide proof to support its claims.

When I met Nkomo soon after speaking to the dissident leader at Nkayi, he said: "If those dissidents told you they were former Zipra, they were lying because Zipra disbanded after independence and its intergrated into the new national army."

Nkomo described former Zipra guerrillas who joined dissidents as criminals even if they had genuine grievances for deserting the military. What Nkomo mearnt was that Zipra and Zanla, the two former liberation movements ceased to exist after intergration into the national army.

Although the government never appreciated Timothy's help to bring the dissident problem to an end in Matabeleland North, he is proud of what he did for his people.

"I knew I was taking a risk when I confronted the dissidents but in life you have to make sacrifices for others," said Timothy, now 65.

In the early 80s the dissidents, often described as army deserters were said to be numbering about 600 and operating in the two Matabeleland provinces. Less than 30 were reported to be operating in the Midlands including the notorious Richard Gwesela. But only 135 in total responded to the government amnesty.

The government gave the impression that over 100 dissidents operated in Matabeleland North but when the amnesty was proclaimed only 42 handed themselves over. In southern Matabeleland, the Gayigusu, Thambolenyoka, Desheka and Fidel Castro territory, an estimated 400 dissidents were said to have operated in the province but only 54 turned up to hand themselves over at a Gwanda recreational centre.

The pysdo dissidents, operating along the lines of Selous Scouts did not report to police on the day of the amnesty. They simply returned to their bases. Why did the government deploy more than 10 000 soldiers to hunt down less than 500 dissidents?

Villagers talked about Gayigusu being surrounded by soldiers at one homestead in Matobo but managed to shoot his way out of a hut where he was eating roasted meat. Many believed the soldiers had no intention of killing the infamous dissident. Thats why, according to the villagers, the soldiers allowed him to escape.

Those who operated in Matabeleland South around the Matobo, Gwanda and Kezi area were the most famous and controversial of all the dissidents. Three of them, Gayigusu, Fidel Castro and Ndevuziqamulamankomitsho were the most charismatic. Thats why when they surrendered, I rushed to Gwanda in the company of Godwin Matatu, the late Africa Correspondent for the London Observer newspaper.

Ndevu, as he was popularly known by villagers in Matobo, was a tall man with beared that could be mistaken for a 'mpostoli.' Stories were told of him singly handedly fighting scores of soldiers in the mountains of Matobo. He knew the terrain better than anyone.

Fidel Castro-so named because his beared resembled that of the Cuban leader, Fidel Castro. Unfortunately he was killed in the late 80s in Matobo. When I filed a report to the BBC, the presenter, Hilton File, originally from Sierra Leone, joked. "Are you sure the dead man is Fidel Castro. What was he doing in Matabeleland?"

The Matabeleland South dissidents became known as 'osilambe over', 'sibanengi over' and 'sidinwe over.'

That's how they behaved when approaching villagers demanding food. Some of the dissidents were simply criminals with no political motive. Take for example one of the dissidents who surrendered in Gwanda carrying a bag full of thousands of dollars.

The Zimbabwe Dollar was a very powerful currency during that time. Because he had declared his cash to the authorities he was not asked to account for it. A local bank manager was more than happy to open an account for the former dissident.

---------------
Thabo Kunene can be contacted at kunene2002@yahoo.co.uk