The ManicaPost
CDE Obadiah Murehwa is an ex-combatant whose wartime experience sends a chill down the spine of many. He fought, commanded and survived battles, the most telling one being the August 1978 bombing of the Rhodesian 3 Brigade Military Camp (now Herbert Chitepo Barracks) from Cecil Kopje pinnacle and the annihilation of five military truckloads of soldiers near Nyanga, which later earned him injuries on both hands in a revenge mission by Rhodesian soldiers, which marked the end of a promising military career at ceasefire in 1979.
The Manica Post Senior Reporter Samuel Kadungure (SK) caught up with the now white bearded ex-combatant, whose Chimurenga name was Cde 10+10 Mandebvu, in Marondera to get an insight into his untold story.
Below are the excerpts.
How old were you when you joined the war?
I joined the war in August 1976 when I was 24 years old.
What prompted you to join the liberation struggle?
Then I was a temporary teacher at Kondo School in Mudzi, and had several encounters with comrades operating in the area. My first encounter with them was in 1973, and I quit the job to join the war due to the mobilisation I got from freedom fighters coupled with the general hardships we faced as black people and growing oppression by the minority settler regime.
Which route did you use and the journey to Mozambique lasted how long?
I crossed into Mozambique through the Nyamapanda border. I was working just near the border post and it was an overnight journey. The next morning I was in Mozambique, and was picked by Frelimo soldiers in Tete, where I met others and stayed for two days and then proceeded to Tembwe Training Camp where I received my first training under the tutelage of the likes of Cde Joboringo and Cde Easy Guy, among others.
What type of training did you first received and for how long?
It involved physical training, drills, marches and weapon handling — the AK and Chinese rifles. I was then taken to Nechingoya Training Camp in Tanzania for superior training. We were the pioneer group of 5 000 combatants to undergo conventional warfare training. We wanted to transform and take the struggle to a more sophisticated level. At Tembwe, we were trained guerrilla warfare, and in Tanzania we morphed into conventional warfare. Guerrilla warfare is largely hide and seek while conventional warfare is more advanced and detailed, and you do not retreat easily as you confront the enemy more directly. It lasted six months, and included drills, marching, handling of rifles, heavy machine guns, grenade chantry, anti-aircrafts and recoilless rocket launchers.
I performed well, and was selected to be one of the instructors, and took an instructor’s course for two months. We were about 300, and after training we were deployed in five camps in Tanzania to train others. I had the likes of Retired Col Mandebvu, and Cde Happyton Bonyongwe, who was the youngest instructor in the group.
Fast-forward, from Tanzania, where did you go?
I spent nine months training my group of 5 000 fighters, and was elevated to be one of the 12 commanders of the group that was deployed back home in 1978. When we got to our Mavonde headquarters in Mozambique, the group was split into three and my battalion of 400 fighters was deployed in Manica Province, covering Manicaland and parts of Mashonaland East.Our task was to attack and destabilise Mutare.
What were your prime targets?
We had a reconnaissance team made up of experts trained in Syria which identified targets to attack. They identified the Rhodesian 3 Brigade Military Camp (now Herbert Chitepo Barracks) and the Mutare Water Works. We were transported from our Gorongoza base and dropped near the border, and spent the whole night walking before camping in a plantation, waiting for the ideal time to attack the military camp. Those who had done the reconnaissance were directing us, they knew the route, the place to mount our weapons and the type of weapons to use.
I took instructions from the provincial commander Cde Paradzai Zimhondi, whose war name was Tonderai Nyika.
Which weapons did you use to attack the 3 Brigade Military Camp?
We had some recoilless — heavy rocket launchers. We loaded some booze inside it and then fired at the target. We had experts who operated different weapons like recoilless, anti-aircrafts, bazookas, land-mines and grenades. So we took our positions around 11pm, but launched our attack between 1am and 2am. I cannot remember how many shells were launched, but we bombed and annihilated the military camp from the top of the mountain overlooking Mutare.
The battle lasted an hour, and the enemies who were camped around Christmas Pass tried to fire at us, but launched one rocket at them and it was all silence afterwards. After being satisfied, I issued a withdrawal instruction, and we descended from the top of the mountain. We caused many casualties, but never suffered any as we were at an advantageous position.
How did you carry such heavy weapons to and fro the battle front?
These had, very heavy weapons. A recoilless has legs, and at best we
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