Opinion / Columnist
How Zipa was buried in Tanzania
21 Feb 2016 at 02:01hrs | Views
The unspoken story of the African National Council chapter closed on a clumsy note.It was like a divorce that was not announced publicly though confirmed in the bedroom.
ZIPA also failed to be effective because of the differences in approach between ZAPU and ZANU militants. However, guerrilla operations never ceased even during the ANC.
In the mid-70s, Zapu and Zanu were talking on a confident though cautious plane.
In January 1975 before the death of Chitepo, some militant characters among Zanu's freedom fighters were reportedly killed at Chifombu between Mozambique and Zambia.
It was understood that about 150 were summarily executed after what appeared to be a mutiny within the military arm of the party.
It was intimated that some of them had begun secret talks with Rhodesian soldiers.
The name "Nhari" came out at the centre of Zanu's troubles.
Upon further enquiry, Nhari must have defected from Zapu just like Robson Manyika and Rex Nhongo. It might have been that Nhari found the Zanu operational style quite incompatible with what he had been accustomed to in Zapu and thus organised an internal putsch.
The general conversations as well as accounts on Nhari so far dismissed him as a Rhodesian informer in Zanu.
The Chitepo saga polarised Zanu's relations with the Zambian government and took off their attention from engaging fruitfully with Zapu.
The investigations into the fate of Chitepo culminated in President Kaunda putting together a commission of inquiry which was made up of lawyers from Africa's independent states as well as OAU observers.
It was a tense moment for Zanu.
After the independence of Portuguese colonies in Africa, Zanu found an alternative haven in Mozambique and left Zambia when Frelimo took over in 1975.
It all came to pass and the Chitepo baggage was no longer a matter of daily preoccupation in Zanu.
On a related note, Zanu and Zapu had amassed some following as well military hardware in the countries that hosted them.
Some of the Zimbabweans who enlisted for the armed struggle turned out to have been immigrants who worked in the Copperbelt and other sectors of Zambia's economy.
At times, the Frontline States' governments came in with constructive as well as retrogressive contributions to Zimbabwe's inter-party struggles.
It was against such a background that the Zimbabwe Peoples' Army (Zipa) came into the picture.
On September 22, 1976, the deputy commissar of Zipa, who identified himself as Dzinashe Machingura, was interviewed by the Mozambique Information Agency and a transcript was published by the Liberation Support Movement Press, based in Canada.
Asked what Zipa was all about, Machingura said: "The Zimbabwe Peoples' Army is a product of the voluntary merger of the military of former Zanu (Zanla) and the former Zapu (Zipra).
"It was formed for the purpose of rescuing the Zimbabwe liberation struggle from a chaotic situation that had been created by the ANC leadership.
"It is an armed struggle, intensifying this armed struggle and carrying it to its logical conclusion and finally establishing a just socio-political order serving the interests of the people of Zimbabwe."
Zipa came into being in September of 1975.
Initially, the guerrillas took it upon themselves to communicate with the OAU Liberation Committee Executive Secretary, Hashim Ida Mbita.
In November 1975, the discussions proceeded under the eyes of Col Mbita in Dar es Salaam and Zipa was formalised in January 1976 after the Mgagao Declaration and the continued efforts to expel Ndabaningi Sithole from Zanu.
Sithole had been the founding president of Zanu and took centre stage at its first congress in May 1964 at Gwelo.
Mozambique became the headquarters of Zipa. Even though the concept was similar to the JMC; Zipa was not a timely resurrection of the former.
The arrest of Zanu's secretary of defence, Josiah Magama Tongogara, was the climax.
Tongogara and his aides were interrogated by Zambian police on suspicions of having had a part in the Chitepo puzzle. Incidentally the Zambian witch hunt for Herbert Chitepo's assassins created a hierarchical vacuum within the party.
In Zipa, the highest level of authority was an 18-member committee that had an equal composition from both Zanla and Zipra. Just below the 18 was a committee of 25.
Zipa's overall commander was Rex Mututswa Nhongo (Zanla), and some of the committee's members were Machingura, Alfred Nikita Mangena (political commissar, Zipra), Webster Gawuya (director of political affairs, Zanla), Report Mphoko (Zipra), Godwin Munaynyi (Zipra), Obey Mudzingwa, Sotsha Ngwenya aka John Dube (Zipra), David Todhlana (Zanla), Elias Hondo, Parker Chipoyera, Tendai Peperere, Lovemore Rugora and Sipho Ncube.
The reactions towards Zipa were varied.
The question had always been what was the ideological and political character of Zipa? Machingura had applauded the fact that Zipa had a strategic role of transforming itself into a political movement.
One of its departments was deliberately incorporated to work within the responsibilities of a commissariat.
In that way, Zipa was like a serpent shedding off its skin from the shades of the Muzorewa-led ANC. Bishop Muzorewa expressed his contention with Zipa when he referred to it as "the Mbita High Command".
The contradictions within Zipa would emanate from its real as well as imagined attributes. Most of Zipa's recruits had left Rhodesia during the 1975/76 détente period. The group was massive, with as much as 2 000 in one place at a given time.
Presidents Samora Machel of Mozambique and Mwalimu Julius Nyerere of Tanzania appeared to have been excited about Zipa.
Nyerere made some inference to the effect that Zipa was the "Third Force".
Machel in particular had ascended to the echelons of Frelimo as a trained cadre after the death of Eduardo in Mondlane in 1969.
In comparison to Frelimo, Zapu and Zanu had come from a very different gestation process altogether.
Zanu and Zapu came into being before the guerrilla army mutated into an armed wing of a nationalist movement. In that order, the military was subservient to the political leadership in both parties. However, Frelimo appeared to have had a heavy military top supported by some civilian politicians.
It was possible that Machel might have envisaged a similar outcome for Zimbabwe and tactfully facilitated the birth of Zipa.
In the long run Zipa, might not have enjoyed the full backing as well as acknowledgement of the high ranking political watchdogs in both Zanu and Zapu.
In as much as its official base was in Mozambique, Frelimo might have been given much room to interfere with the internal convulsions in Zipa if they so decided.
When the Zipra element meant for Zipa was dispatched to Tanzania from Zambia, they were alerted about the dangers of deserting Zapu.
An 800-strong detachment left for East Africa. Before the 800 went to Tanzania, they were addressed by Vote Moyo and Sam Madondo.
The two emphasised that the strength of Zapu and ultimately Zipra depended on their loyalty and commitment to the cause of liberty.
By design, Zipa was going to be independent of either Zanu or Zapu's mechanism of control.
Towards the Geneva Conference, Machingura openly suggested that Zanu secretary-general Robert Mugabe was welcome to join Zipa as an individual.
The code to be observed in Zipa disallowed slogans that were either for Zapu or Zanu. However, such rules were violated time and again.
On a realistic note, Zipa without the Zanu-Zapu allegiance was like a man who built his house in sand. When the contradictory waves came and the winds of mayhem blew, it was swept away.
It would be fair to argue that Zipa was founded on a borrowed model.
What made the Zipa effort more problematic was that the tensions between Zanla and Zipra quickly degenerated. When Zipa had found its space at Mgagao and Morogoro, the differences in the modes of training, caused some discomfort.
Whereas Zanla stuck to the Chinese-influenced outline, Zipra were confident in their approach which later took the name, "Guerrilla War Administration" (GWA).
In May 1976, after some quarrelling, a fight broke out at one of the Zipa camps in Tanzania.
As shooting continued into the dark hours of the evening, the Zipra element of Zipa made its way to a safe rendezvous at Iringa where the Zapu representative in Tanzania, Akim Ndhlovu, came to assist them.
The bloody breakdown of Zipa saw the complete separation of Zanla and Zipra.
There have been some inferences that the Gukurahundi factor of the mid-80s emanated from the confusion in Zipa.
Among the Morogoro-based Zanla Commanders in Zipa were Contsantine Chiwenga (commissar), Perence Shiri and Ausgustine Chihuri (Stephen Chocha).
Some of those from the Zipra component in Zipa were Eddie Sigoge Mlotshwa, Phillip Valerio Sibanda (Annanias Gwenzi) and Sam Fakazi.
After the Morogoro and Mgagao skirmishes, an investigation was instituted to determine the causes of what had transpired in May 1976.
A team was sent to the sites in Tanzania under the direction of the OAU.
During the tour of the camps, some human remains were discovered and a search for more bodies was ordered, only to be abandoned in August 1976.
The cause of the fracas was blamed on food shortages and the failure to desist from the prohibited slogans.
At the end of it all, Zipa was buried at Mgagao, Morogoro and Iringa in Tanzania.
In the meantime, some high ranking Zipra personalities who had gone to the Zipa central facility in Mozambique were detained by Frelimo.
One of them was Jevan Ben Maseko, who was also known as Enock Tshagangane.
An exchange of prisoners was arranged when President Kaunda decided to set free the top Zanla decision-makers who had been held in Zambia after the murder of Herbert Chitepo.
In that way, Zipa was laid to rest, but the scars were to remain for some time to come.
Zipa's Mgagao Declaration was no longer a basis for an ambitious extra drive to bring progressive forces of Zimbabwe into one force against Ian Smith.
After the collapse of Zipa, Morogo remained in the hands of Zipra.
The secretary-general of Zanu, Robert Mugabe, was at loggerheads with the party's president Ndabaningi Sithole.
Their contestation created a complicated landscape for Zipa.
Sithole was finally expelled from Zanu. He became the Zanu version of Zapu's James Chikerema.
Sithole also contested in the Internal Settlement elections that brought about Zimbabwe-Rhodesia in the late-70s. It was then that Sithole went and led a Zanu faction that came to be known as "Zanu Mwenje".
-------------
Tjenesani Ntungakwa is project advisor with Revolutionary Research Institute of Zimbabwe
ZIPA also failed to be effective because of the differences in approach between ZAPU and ZANU militants. However, guerrilla operations never ceased even during the ANC.
In the mid-70s, Zapu and Zanu were talking on a confident though cautious plane.
In January 1975 before the death of Chitepo, some militant characters among Zanu's freedom fighters were reportedly killed at Chifombu between Mozambique and Zambia.
It was understood that about 150 were summarily executed after what appeared to be a mutiny within the military arm of the party.
It was intimated that some of them had begun secret talks with Rhodesian soldiers.
The name "Nhari" came out at the centre of Zanu's troubles.
Upon further enquiry, Nhari must have defected from Zapu just like Robson Manyika and Rex Nhongo. It might have been that Nhari found the Zanu operational style quite incompatible with what he had been accustomed to in Zapu and thus organised an internal putsch.
The general conversations as well as accounts on Nhari so far dismissed him as a Rhodesian informer in Zanu.
The Chitepo saga polarised Zanu's relations with the Zambian government and took off their attention from engaging fruitfully with Zapu.
The investigations into the fate of Chitepo culminated in President Kaunda putting together a commission of inquiry which was made up of lawyers from Africa's independent states as well as OAU observers.
It was a tense moment for Zanu.
After the independence of Portuguese colonies in Africa, Zanu found an alternative haven in Mozambique and left Zambia when Frelimo took over in 1975.
It all came to pass and the Chitepo baggage was no longer a matter of daily preoccupation in Zanu.
On a related note, Zanu and Zapu had amassed some following as well military hardware in the countries that hosted them.
Some of the Zimbabweans who enlisted for the armed struggle turned out to have been immigrants who worked in the Copperbelt and other sectors of Zambia's economy.
At times, the Frontline States' governments came in with constructive as well as retrogressive contributions to Zimbabwe's inter-party struggles.
It was against such a background that the Zimbabwe Peoples' Army (Zipa) came into the picture.
On September 22, 1976, the deputy commissar of Zipa, who identified himself as Dzinashe Machingura, was interviewed by the Mozambique Information Agency and a transcript was published by the Liberation Support Movement Press, based in Canada.
Asked what Zipa was all about, Machingura said: "The Zimbabwe Peoples' Army is a product of the voluntary merger of the military of former Zanu (Zanla) and the former Zapu (Zipra).
"It was formed for the purpose of rescuing the Zimbabwe liberation struggle from a chaotic situation that had been created by the ANC leadership.
"It is an armed struggle, intensifying this armed struggle and carrying it to its logical conclusion and finally establishing a just socio-political order serving the interests of the people of Zimbabwe."
Zipa came into being in September of 1975.
Initially, the guerrillas took it upon themselves to communicate with the OAU Liberation Committee Executive Secretary, Hashim Ida Mbita.
In November 1975, the discussions proceeded under the eyes of Col Mbita in Dar es Salaam and Zipa was formalised in January 1976 after the Mgagao Declaration and the continued efforts to expel Ndabaningi Sithole from Zanu.
Sithole had been the founding president of Zanu and took centre stage at its first congress in May 1964 at Gwelo.
Mozambique became the headquarters of Zipa. Even though the concept was similar to the JMC; Zipa was not a timely resurrection of the former.
The arrest of Zanu's secretary of defence, Josiah Magama Tongogara, was the climax.
Tongogara and his aides were interrogated by Zambian police on suspicions of having had a part in the Chitepo puzzle. Incidentally the Zambian witch hunt for Herbert Chitepo's assassins created a hierarchical vacuum within the party.
In Zipa, the highest level of authority was an 18-member committee that had an equal composition from both Zanla and Zipra. Just below the 18 was a committee of 25.
Zipa's overall commander was Rex Mututswa Nhongo (Zanla), and some of the committee's members were Machingura, Alfred Nikita Mangena (political commissar, Zipra), Webster Gawuya (director of political affairs, Zanla), Report Mphoko (Zipra), Godwin Munaynyi (Zipra), Obey Mudzingwa, Sotsha Ngwenya aka John Dube (Zipra), David Todhlana (Zanla), Elias Hondo, Parker Chipoyera, Tendai Peperere, Lovemore Rugora and Sipho Ncube.
The reactions towards Zipa were varied.
The question had always been what was the ideological and political character of Zipa? Machingura had applauded the fact that Zipa had a strategic role of transforming itself into a political movement.
One of its departments was deliberately incorporated to work within the responsibilities of a commissariat.
In that way, Zipa was like a serpent shedding off its skin from the shades of the Muzorewa-led ANC. Bishop Muzorewa expressed his contention with Zipa when he referred to it as "the Mbita High Command".
The contradictions within Zipa would emanate from its real as well as imagined attributes. Most of Zipa's recruits had left Rhodesia during the 1975/76 détente period. The group was massive, with as much as 2 000 in one place at a given time.
Presidents Samora Machel of Mozambique and Mwalimu Julius Nyerere of Tanzania appeared to have been excited about Zipa.
Nyerere made some inference to the effect that Zipa was the "Third Force".
Machel in particular had ascended to the echelons of Frelimo as a trained cadre after the death of Eduardo in Mondlane in 1969.
In comparison to Frelimo, Zapu and Zanu had come from a very different gestation process altogether.
Zanu and Zapu came into being before the guerrilla army mutated into an armed wing of a nationalist movement. In that order, the military was subservient to the political leadership in both parties. However, Frelimo appeared to have had a heavy military top supported by some civilian politicians.
It was possible that Machel might have envisaged a similar outcome for Zimbabwe and tactfully facilitated the birth of Zipa.
In the long run Zipa, might not have enjoyed the full backing as well as acknowledgement of the high ranking political watchdogs in both Zanu and Zapu.
In as much as its official base was in Mozambique, Frelimo might have been given much room to interfere with the internal convulsions in Zipa if they so decided.
When the Zipra element meant for Zipa was dispatched to Tanzania from Zambia, they were alerted about the dangers of deserting Zapu.
An 800-strong detachment left for East Africa. Before the 800 went to Tanzania, they were addressed by Vote Moyo and Sam Madondo.
The two emphasised that the strength of Zapu and ultimately Zipra depended on their loyalty and commitment to the cause of liberty.
By design, Zipa was going to be independent of either Zanu or Zapu's mechanism of control.
Towards the Geneva Conference, Machingura openly suggested that Zanu secretary-general Robert Mugabe was welcome to join Zipa as an individual.
The code to be observed in Zipa disallowed slogans that were either for Zapu or Zanu. However, such rules were violated time and again.
On a realistic note, Zipa without the Zanu-Zapu allegiance was like a man who built his house in sand. When the contradictory waves came and the winds of mayhem blew, it was swept away.
It would be fair to argue that Zipa was founded on a borrowed model.
What made the Zipa effort more problematic was that the tensions between Zanla and Zipra quickly degenerated. When Zipa had found its space at Mgagao and Morogoro, the differences in the modes of training, caused some discomfort.
Whereas Zanla stuck to the Chinese-influenced outline, Zipra were confident in their approach which later took the name, "Guerrilla War Administration" (GWA).
In May 1976, after some quarrelling, a fight broke out at one of the Zipa camps in Tanzania.
As shooting continued into the dark hours of the evening, the Zipra element of Zipa made its way to a safe rendezvous at Iringa where the Zapu representative in Tanzania, Akim Ndhlovu, came to assist them.
The bloody breakdown of Zipa saw the complete separation of Zanla and Zipra.
There have been some inferences that the Gukurahundi factor of the mid-80s emanated from the confusion in Zipa.
Among the Morogoro-based Zanla Commanders in Zipa were Contsantine Chiwenga (commissar), Perence Shiri and Ausgustine Chihuri (Stephen Chocha).
Some of those from the Zipra component in Zipa were Eddie Sigoge Mlotshwa, Phillip Valerio Sibanda (Annanias Gwenzi) and Sam Fakazi.
After the Morogoro and Mgagao skirmishes, an investigation was instituted to determine the causes of what had transpired in May 1976.
A team was sent to the sites in Tanzania under the direction of the OAU.
During the tour of the camps, some human remains were discovered and a search for more bodies was ordered, only to be abandoned in August 1976.
The cause of the fracas was blamed on food shortages and the failure to desist from the prohibited slogans.
At the end of it all, Zipa was buried at Mgagao, Morogoro and Iringa in Tanzania.
In the meantime, some high ranking Zipra personalities who had gone to the Zipa central facility in Mozambique were detained by Frelimo.
One of them was Jevan Ben Maseko, who was also known as Enock Tshagangane.
An exchange of prisoners was arranged when President Kaunda decided to set free the top Zanla decision-makers who had been held in Zambia after the murder of Herbert Chitepo.
In that way, Zipa was laid to rest, but the scars were to remain for some time to come.
Zipa's Mgagao Declaration was no longer a basis for an ambitious extra drive to bring progressive forces of Zimbabwe into one force against Ian Smith.
After the collapse of Zipa, Morogo remained in the hands of Zipra.
The secretary-general of Zanu, Robert Mugabe, was at loggerheads with the party's president Ndabaningi Sithole.
Their contestation created a complicated landscape for Zipa.
Sithole was finally expelled from Zanu. He became the Zanu version of Zapu's James Chikerema.
Sithole also contested in the Internal Settlement elections that brought about Zimbabwe-Rhodesia in the late-70s. It was then that Sithole went and led a Zanu faction that came to be known as "Zanu Mwenje".
-------------
Tjenesani Ntungakwa is project advisor with Revolutionary Research Institute of Zimbabwe
Source - sundaymail
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