The ManicaPost
Tendai Gukutikwa
Post Reporter
THE battle of the Mudzimu-Ndiringe and Chitura Mountains remain etched in the minds of the Saunyama people in Nyanga.
The battle was a result of those who had sold out the liberation fighters’ base to Rhodesian soldiers.
Two helicopters ambushed a group of recently recruited liberation war fighters as they enjoyed a meal that had just been brought to them by the Tsvito community.
Of the 12 recruits, only two survived by a whisker.
The rest perished on the spot.
Narrating the ordeal in Chitura Mountain where the remains of the ambushed fighters were exhumed on Wednesday, the squad’s commander, Cde Sydney Musarira, also known as General Obasanjo, Cde Elias Zvichapera or Cde Mhere Yenyora said the attack happened when he had left for the other base he commanded in Tanda, Makoni.
“When I saw the helicopters flying past Tanda, I knew that someone had tipped off my team’s location and that it would not end well, but we could not do anything from Tanda. We were also fighting a deadly war in Tanda where I gunned down two helicopters.
“It hurt us so much because these recruits were fresh from training. They had just joined us. The Rhodesians were ruthless.
“While we took refuge in Thomas Mapfumo and Oliver Mtukudzi’s war songs, they would fly around the villages in their helicopters playing the same songs on loud speaker while shooting to spite us,” he narrated.
Cde Musarira used his several names to evade being captured by the Rhodesian soldiers as a $100 000 bounty had been put on his head in February 1978.
Pamphlets with his pictures, labelling him a terrorist on the run, were thrown from Rhodesian helicopters in Nyanga, Tanda, Chikore, Mukarakate and Mutoko Villages.
A sell-out seeking to bag the $100 000 reward is suspected to have informed the Rhodesians about the Mudzimu-Ndiringe and Chitura Mountains’ base with the belief that Cde Musarira was among those who were camping there.
“I was shocked. I do not even know how they got my picture, and I suspect that someone close to me had given them the picture.
“I would constantly change my war names because the Rhodesians wanted me dead at all costs. I had instilled so much fear in them through my war skills. I gunned down two helicopters and killed a good number of Rhodesian soldiers in Tanda,” he said.
Cde Musarira said because of his war skills, he was promoted to be a detachment security commander when the war ended.
One of the Tsvito villagers who was among those who helped bury the freedom fighters who lost their lives during the Nyanga battle, Mr Dhodhodho Saunyama said after bombing the comrades, the helicopters circled above the villages.
“The soldiers instructed us to go and check on our relatives who were staying on the mountain as they had killed all of them. At first we were afraid to go there because we thought they had left grenades and landmines to kill us.
“We, however, went the next day and it was indeed a sorry sight, most of these fighters were our sons and daughters from this area. We hurriedly buried them in the caves,” said Mr Saunyama.
Tsvito Village head, Mr Peter Mazarura said before their exhumations, mysterious occurrences had been the order of the day in the village because of the late freedom fighters’ restless spirits.
“They were coming to us in our dreams, asking to be reburied. They were confusing people fetching firewood such that they would end up wandering all over the mountains. That is how we knew that the comrades were demanding a proper burial,” he said.
However, remains of four fighters only were exhumed on Wednesday by members of the Fallen Heroes Trust of Zimbabwe.
AK47 rifle bullets were recovered with the remains.
The remains of four more freedom fighters were missing from where the villagers say they buried them during the liberation war.
A total of 18 human remains were reburied last week on Friday at Matumba Six Shrine at Old Mutare.
At the time of going to print, 10 had already been exhumed from various mass graves in Nyanga.
Initially, plans were to exhume the remains of 30 cadres in Nyanga District.
However, only 18 coffins were available, according to Cde Gift Kagweda, the Zimbabwe Liberation War Veterans Association’s Manicaland Chapter chairperson.
“Eighteen coffins were donated by Doves Funeral Services and we are grateful of that. However, we are still in need of 12 to 15 more coffins because we have identified the remains of more than 30 comrades that need to be exhumed in the district. We are appealing to well-wishers to come on board and support this noble cause,” he said.
