I lost my job at Risco for standing up to racism: Brig-Gen (Rtd) Matavire
BRIGADIER-GENERALS Brave Matavire pseudonym Cde Ncengani Gumbo and Mpandasekwa Mzheri in their post-independence postings have among other duties served at One Infantry Brigade with the former being deputy commander while the latter was once at the helm of the formation that covers the Matabeleland region. The two have served at One Brigade on different periods of their careers in the Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA). Although this might pass as mere deployment of the two, the pair, however, share a bond that goes back to the 70s when they were “growing” up in the Midlands city of Kwekwe. As youngsters, one night in April 1974, just the two of them, Cdes Matavire and Mzheri fed up with the injustices of the colonial regime led by Ian Douglas Smith boarded a Bulawayo-bound train on their way to Botswana en route to join the armed struggle in Zambia. The two now former senior commanders were products of the well-oiled Zapu underground structures and their journey to Botswana depended on that sleek network. On Thursday last week, our Assistant Editor Mkhululi Sibanda (MS) spoke to Brig-Gen (Rtd) Matavire so that he could give an account of his participation in the country’s armed struggle. He narrated how he and BrigGen Mzheri moved from Kwekwe until they got to Bulilima District in Matabeleland South Province where their contact was a Zapu member amd that is where they came across two ZPRA guerillas. The old man then guided them across the border into Botswana. Brig-Gen (Rtd) Matavire was to later on receive military training in Tanzania and the then Soviet Union before being deployed at the training camps in Zambia as an instructor. When Zapu President and ZPRA Commander-in-Chief, Dr Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo returned home in December 1979 after the announcement of the ceasefire, BrigGen(Rtd) Matavire, now a farmer in the Somabhula area near the City of Gweru was one of the few privileged guerillas to be part of the now late State Vice-President’s delegation. Below are excerpts from the interview. Read on….
MS: Cde Matavire, let’s start the interview by you giving us your brief background. Brig-Gen (Rtd) Matavire:
I was born Brave Matavire while during the war I was called Ncengani Gumbo. I was born in 1953 in rural Mberengwa District then Belingwe under Chief Mataruse. I come from a family of three, one girl and two boys with myself Brave being the last born. My father died when I was a toddler and I was raised by a widowed and very hard-working mother who managed to send us to boarding schools against all odds. I attended lower primary and upper primary school from home at the local school and for my secondary education I went to Chegato High, which is in Mberengwa. I did my secondary education at Chegato between 1969 and 1972.
MS: After Chegato, where did you go? Brig-Gen (Rtd) Matavire:
I spent 1973 in Kwekwe with my brother who was working there. I tried some A-level subjects through correspondence but could not proceed because money was a problem. I ended up getting a job at Risco now Zisco as a trainee boilermaker. We were 11 trainees on the apprentice programme comprising two blacks and nine whites. We had been selected after some entrance test where I had scored 50 out of 50 and my other black guy had scored 49 out of 50. The white guys who were selected had scored anything between 25 to as little as 15 out of 50. However, the two of us were on a daily basis made to collect tools from the storeroom to the training shed and back after use. As trainees were also getting some allowance, with the two of us getting 15 shillings while those guys were getting 30 shillings per fortnight because they were whites. They had that advantage just because of their skin colour and that didn’t go down well with us. Then there was this issue of naked racism, like if some spanner or something went missing, the cost recovery was effected on the two of us despite the fact that we were always searched when we left for home whilst the white guys were not subjected to the searches.
MS: How did you take that? Brig-Gen (Rtd) Matavire:
One morning I just decided that enough was enough and refused to go and collect the tools. Asked why I was not doing that, I replied that it should be the turn of the white trainees to do so as well.
MS: What was the reaction of the authorities?
Brig-Gen (Rtd) Matavire: Goodness! I had touched a raw nerve! I was shouted at and told that I was a communist terrorist, that I had links with Joshua Nkomo and Ndabaningi Sithole. The British South African Police (BSAP) were quickly called in and they took me to Redcliff police post. I spent a very long and unforgettable day with the police. The police then took me back. I was told to go home and come to work the next day. When I got home, I started to enquire from friends and some elderly people about the “terrorists’ the freedom fighters, Nkomo and Ndabaningi Sithole. A friend was up to date with the goings on. He even took me to a Zapu organising secretary at Amaveni Township whose name was Mr Wingwiri. The old man was prompt to his job and he gave all the details on how to go and join the “Boys”. Remember, I had been severely dealt with during the day by the police. I had been brutalised both mentally and physically. I wanted nothing less than to go and find a gun and get my sweet revenge. The following morning, I went back to Risco and like the previous day, I declined to go and collect the tools. I was quickly rushed to the administration offices, took the gate pass and they quickly gave me the few shillings that were due to me. They escorted me to the gate and told me never to set my foot with cracks at Risco. That’s how I lost my job. I then spent that day with my friend, Mpandasekwa Mzheri preparing on how to leave the country. I had the money for transport and we had been told how to move and the route. When I told Mpandasekwa that I was leaving that evening, he said that we were going together. So, it was just the two of us.
MS: Take us through your journey. Brig-Gen (Rtd) Matavire: All set, we boarded the train in Kwekwe and travelled throughout the night to Bulawayo where we arrived in the morning. From the Main Station, we proceeded to Renkini Long Distance Bus Terminus where we boarded one of the popular buses at that time that were plying the Matabeleland routes, Matambanadzo Bus Services, which was headed for Bambadzi in Bulilima District. We dropped off at Ntoli Hospital as per directives from the party officials. Our contact was some old man called Zaba whose home was just near the mission hospital. We had been linked to him by Wingwiri all the way from Kwekwe imagine. We found Zaba’s home and he welcomed us and told us to relax. We spent the whole day
asleep under a mango tree behind his homestead. In the evening, two trained guerrillas arrived at the homestead from inside Rhodesia heading for Zambia. The two guerillas were Cdes Richard Mataure and Gampu. We were now four and I started getting excited and feeling like one of the guerrillas. At around dawn, the old man, Zaba woke us up and we moved into Botswana. He took us to a BDF post and handed us over to them and he went back to Rhodesia. The BDF took us to Francistown and handed us over to some authorities who were in the company of a Zapu representative. After some documentation, we were taken to some prison (I later was told for security reasons). We would spend our day sitting in the prison courtyard. After a few days, we were taken to the airport and then flown to Lusaka. We found the now late Cde John Nkomo waiting for us and he drove us to Zimbabwe House.
■ To be continued next week with Brig-Gen (Rtd) Matavire talking about his military training.