The ManicaPost
Post Reporter
THE death of Cde Moven Mahachi was a great loss to Zimbabwe for the nation lost a man whose life and work was admired and esteemed by many.
His achievements in life, both before and after independence, his stewardship to the ruling Zanu-PF party, commitment to fight injustice and his ability to organise people and his unwavering belief in the principles of socialism aptly described his being in a nutshell.
He was the Minister of Defence and Secretary for Transport and Welfare in the ruling Zanu-PF party when he died in a car accident in Nyanga on May 26, 2001. Cde Mahachi was one of the rising young politicians in the Government and the party. He was only 53 years old but he had packed 20 years of valuable experience in running Government.
Cde Mahahci was born on June 13, 1948 in the Devedzo area of Mutoko Village in Rusape. He went to St Vincent’s Primary School in Devedzo from 1958 to 1961. He later went to St Anne’s Mission Goto in Wedza for his secondary education from 1962 to 1966. Moven’s early political consciousness was derived from school experiences where he soon showed leadership qualities. Cde Mahachi did most of his education through correspondence. He obtained his O levels and A level, diploma in Agriculture with a New Zealand College and studied for a Bachelor of Communications degree with Unisa.
After completing secondary education in 1966, he went straight to join Cde Didymus Mutasa in communal farming. At Cold Comfort he was put in charge of cropping. He found himself quickly able to master scientific knowledge and achieved a high degree of success in cropping.
Cde Mahachi’s politics and public life were deeply influenced by theory and practice of the co-operative movement. When he left St Anne’s Mission in Wedza he went straight to join the Cold Comfort co-operative farm near Harare. He joined it at an early age and became a very active and creative member of the Cold Comfort Society under the leadership of Cdes Mutasa and Guy Clutton-Brock. Later he became vice-chairman of the Cold Comfort Cooperative Society.
In addition to teaching young Africans how to be self-reliant, the co-operative also provided civic education which eventually led to political issues. It was not long before the co-operative clashed with the Rhodesian regime which wanted to continue denying the people their basic human rights. Cde Clutton-Brock was deported, Cde Mutasa jailed for several years and the co-operative banned. Some of the remaining members of the co-operative then moved to another co-operative in Nyanga. Although he was very young, Cde Mahachi was appointed managing director of the co-operative there.
He worked very hard to keep the co-operative producing crops and vegetables for the market. Here he worked with the late Chief Rekayi Tangwena. Cde Mahachi joined politics at the age of 16. He was a well-known youth activist and organiser. In the 1960s, he mobilised the youth in Makoni District and Rusape in support of the nationalist movement. He was brave and courageous and committed to the goals of freedom and independence and justice for the locals.
He joined the youth leagues of all successive nationalist organizations. At the Nyafaro co-operative he met and worked closely with Chief Tangwena and his people who had taken to guerilla warfare to stop the Rhodesian regime from seizing their land in order to settle white farmers. Mahachi made contact with Frelimo commanders across the border in Mozambique and asked them to receive some of the people who had been evicted by the Rhodesian regime. Later he asked them to receive and train recruits to defend the villages of the Tangwena people as well as to broaden the areas of confrontation with the white settler regime.
In the 1970s Moven recruited large numbers of people to join the armed struggle and he worked together with the late Cde Maurice Nyagumbo who was the chief political commissar of the underground movement. The recruitment drive was organised and felt throughout the country. They fooled the security forces by using a special language which could only be understood by those participating in the programme. In March 1975 the late Herbert Chitepo was assassinated in Lusaka.
The party leaders met in Highfield and decided that Cde Robert Mugabe should leave Zimbabwe immediately and go to lead the guerilla war from outside. He was accompanied by the late Cde Edgar Tekere. At first they did not know which route would have the least risk of being arrested by the regime. They finally settled on going to Mozambique through Nyanga. They were heading for Chief Tangwena’s area.
The man who masterminded their trip and final escape was Moven Mahachi. The Rhodesian police put a security ring around Cde Mugabe’s house in Highfield with instructions that he should be arrested on sight. He and Tekere did not return to their homes in Highfield; instead they went to a house occupied by a priest in Highlands. Mahachi was tasked to take the two men to safety across the Mozambican border. When he was informed by security language where they were in Highlands, he visited them at night and put them in a small old car which no one would expect to carry the leaders of what had become a powerful movement.
