AS the liberation struggle intensified, with the ZANLA and ZIPRA cadres gaining ground at the war front, desperate Rhodies resorted to chemical and biological warfare.

The Patriot tracked down some of the victims of biological warfare and below are some of their harrowing stories: 

 Cde John Waduka, alias Cde Zvabhenda Zvabhenda 

On August 8 1976, Morrison Nyathi sold out to the enemy and the Rhodesians attacked Nyadzonia killing thousands of innocent refugees and ZANLA recruits.

On ZANU Day, many recruits were waiting to go for military training to Tanzania.

After the gruesome massacre, the enemy poisoned water sources around the camp and food in the kitchen area.

Survivors were thirsty because of the gunpowder they had inhaled during the attack.

Many survivors were crying for water and most of them crawled to the kitchen and some water sources around the camp. Little did they know the water had been poisoned. 

They drank the poisoned water out of desperation to quench their excruciating thirst.

We lost several comrades to the poisoned water and food after the Nyadzonia attack.

Clifford Rutsate, alias Cde Sando Kano

I operated in ZANLA’s Gaza Province in Mpapa area along with Cde Brooks Chinembiri, Cde Zoo Tichatonga, Cde Stopper Chiridza, Cde Dust Fog and Cde Kanyau, among others. 

The Rhodesian security forces often ambushed us on our way to the war front in Gonarezhou Game Park, but we used to contain them, hence they changed their strategy.

The new strategy was to poison water sources.

This tactic was ineffective as we were always on the lookout for evidence of life in the water.

If the water was devoid of any living insects, we did not drink it. 

In June 1977, we lost four comrades to food poisoning during our stay at Chitubu Base.

We didn’t ask vanachimbwido to taste the food first. It was a fatal mistake on our part.

After consuming the food, four of our comrades started sweating and feeling weak. It was then that we realised that the food had been poisoned.

We drank large quantities of milk and took some traditional herbs to help us vomit the poisoned food.

I was fortunate to survive, but Cde Zororai Mabhunu, Cde Changa, Cde Pedzisai Mabhunu and Cde Endai were not so lucky.

Our investigations revealed that the poison was supplied by Rhodies who paid some villagers to become their accomplices.

The culprits were, however, apprehended, interrogated and punished.

In December of the same year, whilst we were in Mberengwa, we lost two comrades to clothes poisoning.

We gave a collaborator money so that a local businessman could buy us some jeans and canvas shoes in Zvishavane (then called Shabanie).

When the jeans arrived, we gave them to two of our comrades — Cde Chibi and Cde Mabhunu — who started sweating about an hour after putting them on.

They started feeling weak and sick.

Cde Chibi died four days later, at which point we realised the clothes had been poisoned.

We carried Cde Mabhunu on a stretcher to Mozambique for treatment. Unfortunately, he died along the way in Gonarezhou Game Park after two weeks.

In the wake of this tragic incident, we  intensified our security measures with regard to clothes.

This included asking anyone who brought clothes to first wear them and jog in one place until he broke into sweat.

This was the litmus test.

If the clothes were poisoned, the poison would be activated by the sweat. If there was any evidence of poison, we washed the clothes thoroughly before wearing them.

Sylvia Macheche 

In January 1978, my uncle, Ben Masembura, was given money by freedom fighters to buy them jeans from Bindura.

I, together with Tawanda Murwira, John Mandebvu and Lonica Masembura, delivered the jeans to the freedom fighters who were based on a mountain close to Masembura Primary School.

Among the freedom fighters were Cde Mudzimu, Cde Farai, Cde Tichatonga and Cde Johns Mhandu ye Mutema, among others.

We were summoned to the base later that day after eight combatants fell sick.

We were subjected to interrogation because the clothes were poisoned. When my uncle was interrogated, he confessed that he was aware that the clothes had been poisoned.

He said that Rhodesian police had questioned him about his order in a shop in Bindura because the police knew freedom fighters were buying jeans and SuperPro tennis shoes.

He was threatened that if the freedom fighters did not die he was going to be buried alive together with his wife and children.

Four of the freedom fighters died while my uncle was being interrogated.

My uncle was punished for failing to alert the freedom fighters of the poison.

The following day seven more freedom fighters succumbed to the poison and they were buried in Masembura, close to the primary school.