‘This is the real Jonathan Moyo’

By Air Marshall Perrance Shiri

Nyaya yaanotaura kuti akaenda ku Liberation Centre after he left Mgagao; the fact is Zanu ne Zanla leadership dzanga dzasungwa neZambian government following the death ya VaChitepo.

Mind you, death ya VaChitepo followed right on the heels ye Badza rebellion, saka it was alleged kuti makaita sei ana Badza? Makauraya VaChitepo.

Saka the entire leadership yanga iri incarcerated.

Ku military the only people vanga vari senior vanga vasara panga paina VaMujuru, vanga vari member ye High Command; Elias Hondo, anga ari ku Mozambique; then Dzinashe Machingura, anga ari ku Tanzania, who had just been promoted into the High Command.

Iye Elias Hondo had just been promoted into the High Command, VaMujuru had also just been promoted, na James Nyikadzino had just been promoted.

Vese vanga vari ku Tanzania or ku Mozambique. Ku Zambia ku Liberation Centre kwanga kusina munhu we Zanla.

And marelations had been severed by the Zambian government.

You should understand kuti panga pauya vana Sithole na Muzoerwa, in the context ye ANC yavo yanga yakonzerwa nema Frontline States kuti be united under Muzorewa, kwakagadzirwa a military wing ye ANC yainzi ZLC, Zimbabwe Liberation Council.

Ma leader acho anga ari Noel Mukono, Simpson Mutambanengwe, naana John Gwitira, uyu akunzi Gwindingwi.

If you read the Mgagao Declaration, one of the contentious issues raised was query yekuti why was Sithole taking on board rebels, people considered as rebels, ne Zanla; people who had been associated with the Badza-Nhari rebellion and making them part of the leadership ye ZLC, at the expense of people who had stood by him ari mujeri?

So those are the people who were considered as leadership ye Zanu ku Zambia but were not recognised ne Zanla and the majority. They were recognised by Sithole, who had no army at that point.

Then nyaya yekutaura kuti ndakaenda ku Mgagao ndikanorwara ndikaiswa pamubhedha weumwe shefu.

Chekutanga, time yaari kutaura, arikuti after June 1976, hakuna reinforcement kana trainee yakauya ku Tanzania during that time. Kwanga kusina.

Two, paiuya ma trainees or even vanga vachibuda vachienda ku (war) front, vaisvikira pa parade ground. Nearest place to the parade was hospital ye Zanla.

Dai paine munhu aita medical problem, one would have been rushed to the hospital yeipapo.

Dzimba dzaigara ma officers waitoenda behind some buildings, some other structures, waitoenda mberi kuma tents aigara ma officers.

It makes no sense kuti pane munhu akamuendesa kuma tent ema officers achitadza kumuendesa pa clinic panga paine mushonga wese ne medical staff yese.

It’s not possible zvaanotaura izvozvo.

Three, he mentions two camps that he says were in Tanzania: hakuna ma camp akadaro eZanla ku Tanzania.

The camps that were there at the end of the 1960s, kuma early 1970s, kwanga kuine Chunya ne Itumbi dzakaendwa ne the older guys vakaita saana Zvinavashe, ana Joseph Khumalo uyu akunzi Colonel Muzhamba.

Ndivo vanoziva about those camps.

After those camps were disbanded, kwakasara Mgagao Camp. Then kwanga kuine transit camp yainzi Kongwa kwekuti after training vanhu vaita recuperate and then they were deployed.

But by ’76 it had been disbanded wo.

Saka the only camp which was in existence in Tanzania pa time yaari kutaura iyi was Mgagao.

End of ’76 ndopakazotanga kuendeswa vanhu ku Chingweya; Mgagao and Chingweya, those were the camps anga ariko ari eZanla.

The only other people vakaenda ku Chingweya vasikana vaya vanombotaurwa vachinzi vakenda vari 70-chakuti ku Chingweya vachitrainwa na Elias Hondo na VaMuzhamba naana Samora Machel and it was Frelimo that was doing that.

They trained and they left zvobva zvapera, then we took over Chingweya end of ’76.

So those were the camps dze Zanla idzodzo – Mgagao na Chingweya. Idzi dziri kutaurwa idzi na Jonathan didn’t exist. Ma records eZanu, eZanla, hadzimo.

Then, the person Jonathan mentions, waanoziva waanoda kuti aite third party endorsement ndi David Parirenyatwa anga ari mwana wechikoro ku Nigeria. (Laughing)

Ko iye anotadza kuti paakasvika ku Mgagao anga ari commander ndiyani, waakaonawo ndiyani? Paakaenda ku Liberation Centre, vanga variko ndivanani, vaakataurawo navo ndivanani?

Anozotaura futi about going to Kenya.

Kenya kwanga kusina Zanla camp zvachose, kana representative tanga tisina ku Kenya.

Anotaura nyaya yekuenda ku Uganda. Ku Uganda kwanga kusina Zanla camp, kwanga kusina representative. Ku Uganda kunozivinwa kuti kwakazoenda some elements recruited by Sithole, and a few vakaenda on tribal lines vaimira na Sithole vakafanana na uya Gwitira wandambotaura, John Gwitira, ana Mlambo, Gordon Mlambo, nana Jonathan ava.

Yainzi Zanla Kampala as distinguished from Zanla. We didn’t have a Zanla Mgagao, tanga tisina Zanla Chimoio, Zanla Tembwe: taive Zanla — the military wing of Zanu.

Ana Idi Amin vanga vasiri vanhu vema detail ka; kuziva kuti Zanla yaarikutora iyi ndeipi. He was the Almighty, he had no time for details. (Laughing)

Apa zvanga zvamutsana na Nyerere ka. Saka Amin aida kuita one over Nyerere by also hosting Zanu. Remember Tanzania had rejected Sithole. So Amin akatora vanhu va Sithole.

Saka these people left Uganda at some point, came back to Rhodesia, worked with Rhodesian forces as extension of Rhodesian security services, Selous Scouts, trying to mislead povo vachizviti Zanla.

If you read your history you will know about how vakazorohwa ku Gokwe. Vakashedzwa ku parade ku Gokwe after they had confused the situation going around raping and killing villagers and messing things up for their handlers. Zvakamutsana ropa.

It was military wing ya Sithole yanga iri staffed nevanhu vamwe vaanga aita mislead kuno kumusha achiti ndiri kukendesai ku training ye Zanla vakapedzisira vaendeswa ku Uganda.

It was the equivalent of Dzakutsaku, Pfumo reVanhu ya Muzoerwa. Yake Sithole yainzi Ziso reVanhu, ndiyo yanga iri ku Kampala.

So munhu ari kutaura uyu haanawo vanhu vaangataure vanga vari ma commander muma camp aarikureva aya?

Mukatarisa “Chronicles from the Second Chimurenga” yamunoita ku Sunday Mail ikoko, inonzwa vese ma comrades vachiti commander wedu anga ari ani, commissar wedu ndinhingi, instructor wedu ndiani.

Iye haana waakasangana naye? Parirenytwa mwana wechikoro ndiye waakaona chete? Adii hake kusiya mwana wechikoro? (Laughing)

Pamwe anga aina ana Chimenya, uyu aizivikanwa ku Zambia nenyaya dzekutengesa. Hanti ndiye anga ari representative we Lonrho ku Zambia. Verenga book ra Fay Chung kana ra Phyllis Johnson uone how he’s portrayed iye Chimenya.

Jonathan was at Mgagao sometime around 1975. He must have come nema reinforcements akanga auya early ’75.

Akatiza ku camp; ndobva abatwa; ndobva adzoswa ne TPDF (Tanzania People’s Defence Forces). Pasina any problem, pasina chinongedzerwa, akango tiza from the camp.

Adzoswa, akaiswa muchikaribotso for purposes of interrogation. Any security organisation would want to know kuti problem yacho chi, une different agenda here?

He was released and he disappeared again. After the Mgagao Declaration, Sithole aitwa discredited, pakabuda information yekuti mukomana uyu anga achionekwa ari mu team dza Sithole ku Dar-es-Salaam.

Hence nyaya dzake dzekuzoenda kunana Zanla Kampala idzo.

Ndiyo nyaya ya Jonso.

Air Marshall Perrance Shiri is the Commander of the Air Force of Zimbabwe. He was speaking to the Editor of The Sunday Mail, Mabasa Sasa, in Harare on July 6, 2017