The story of John Mukuwe, alias
Cde 39 Steps
ON December 2 1976, I received the devastating news of the destruction of my home, the torture of my parents and their abduction.
They never came back and I am convinced they died a painful death at the hands of the Rhodesian forces.
This eats me up to this day; guva rababa namai vangu hapana.
I need closure.
My elder brother was reported to have crossed the border into Mozambique to join the liberation struggle after that atrocious incident.
We were the only two children in our family.
I was told all villagers were gathered at our homestead to witness how Rhodies brutally dealt with those who supported the ‘terrorists’.
My parents were accused of feeding the freedom fighters because their first born son Stephen had crossed into Mozambique to join ZANLA forces.
That day I made a brave historic decision to abandon school for the gun.
I went to war to avenge my parents’ cruel treatment.
Rhodies had to pay and Zimbabwe had to be freed.
I was 16 and in Form Two at Mavuradonha Secondary School.
One night I joined a group of some students who were political radicals.
They used to conduct meetings during the night.
I joined their meeting that night for the first time. Fortunately, they were finalising their escape plan to Mozambique.
In the meeting, there was Spiwe Ngwenya, Tobias Kadyakake, Maria Pachanja, Justine Chinhanga and Tichafa Ngwenya.
The following day, we were told by Kadyakake that we were to go to the graveyard and wait for him after the night study.
Cde Tichakunda, Cde Pedzi Scalo and Cde Everisto Nhamo came to our school in the middle of the night and escorted us to Mozambique.
The journey took us four days because we travelled during the night to avoid Rhodesian forces who patrolled during the day.
We met two comrades, after crossing the border, who led us to Kambototo Base which was commanded by a ZANLA cadre called Cde Mhaka.
I stayed at Kambototo for two weeks before I was transferred to Itubi Base.
Itubi was on the banks of Zambezi River.
We arrived at Itubi at around 10am in the morning, fortunately there were lorries carrying recruits to Beira where they would board a ship to Tanzania.
I was lucky to be picked up together with other four comrades I had arrived with to join the recruits who were going to Tanzania.
In Tanzania, we went to Nachingwea, a ZANLA military training base, where I received training for three months.
Upon completion of my military training, I was assigned to Tembwe, a ZANLA military training base, where I was to join the security department.
On July 4 1977, I woke up with a strange feeling that something terrible was going to happen.
I went to my position which was about two kilometres from the camp.
I was armed with an RPK machine gun, grenades and a pistol.
I took position under a huge Musasa tree and fell asleep.
Uncharacteristically, I was fatigued.
I was awakened by the sound of a spotter jet which flew past my position.
I was about to experience my first battle and I was confused.
While I was trying to assess what was going on, the sky was suddenly filled with killing machines.
I could clearly see helicopters dropping paratroopers to the east side of the camp.
The helicopters were followed by Hawks and Mirage jet Bombers.
In no time, the whole sky was filled with these horrid killing machines.
There was heavy bombardment in the camp.
I rushed up to a mountain about a kilometre from my position to where Cde Dhega had mounted the anti-air machine gun.
This was a surprise attack and the first time Tembwe had come under an attack.
There was heavy commotion in the camp, with people running in all directions for their lives.
I went to the position of the anti-aircraft machine gun.
It was a Chinese type 14.5mm 1958 model.
I managed to gun down two helicopters.
I was spotted by a Rhodesian soldier on their observation point.
My position was attacked and I was hit by fragments on my left leg.
I rushed towards the south of the camp and took cover under a huge baobab tree where I started firing on the enemy.
I relentlessly fired my RPK machine gun in the air towards some helicopters which were hovering around the camp till I ran out of ammunition.
My fire had no effect because of distance.
I realised that I was bleeding profusely and tore my shirt which I used to tie around my wound.
I began crawling towards the river in search of water.
I was thirsty from the gunpowder.
I crawled for about 30 minutes and was lucky to be rescued by Cde Dhega who was hiding in the reeds along the river bank.
Cde Dhega gave me some tablets for pain.
We stayed in the reeds until sunset.
We went to seek refuge in the village fearing that there might be other Rhodesian forces in the camp.
I was later ferried to Tete Hospital the following day for medical treatment.
I will live to celebrate the downing of those two helicopters in the attack that claimed the lives of more than 3 000 ZANLA recruits whose mass graves took three days to dig.
Compiled by Emergencey Mwale-Kamtande.
