Lest We Forget

 

This woman’s month, we want to celebrate Phila. Her selfless dedication to the emancipation of our people, should not be undermined. It should not be forgotten! One can only hope, that her targeted body is dancing free and light. This is Phila Ndwandwe – the woman who refused to betray her comrades.  Her memory lives on!

 

In 1985, Phila was recruited into the ANC. She became an MK fighter. Three years later, she was abducted in Swaziland by Apartheid police. She suffered unspeakable horror and was tortured, in an effort to turn her into an informer. One always gets the sense that the fight against Apartheid, was a masculine one.

To a certain extent we cannot fault people for thinking that it is only men, through the sacrifice of their bodies who liberated this country, because somehow history chooses to ignore the women who fought alongside glorified men. Phila Ndwandwe was breastfeeding, when she was abducted, with a makarov in one hand and a baby in the other. Aaah! Mbokodo! Her family was made to believe that she had eloped to Tanzania, when the shallow grave of their child was a mere 10 kilometres from where they lived.

Her death and grave came to be known, when her killer asked for amnesty for her brutal murder. Her killers testified before the TRC that she was repeatedly beaten and kept naked for 10 days, until she made herself a pair of panties using a plastic bag. When they realized they weren’t going to get the Commander to betray her comrades, her killers blindfolded her, took her to a veld and shot her in the skull. When her remains were unearthed, the bullet hole in her skull was clearly visible and her killer testified that she had been shot while kneeling. Other articles have suggested that she was hit over the head and shot while unconscious. One of the men who murdered Phila, described her as “Brave. Very brave“.

 

Cde Takawira,  vice President of ZANU,  was born in 1916 in Mvuma and he died in prison in 1970. He was first buried in his home area in Chirumanzi and he was reburied at Heroes Acre on August 11 1982, 12 years after his death. 

 

He started his revolutionary activities in Highfield, Harare where he was a school teacher at Chipembere primary school. He later joined the NDP to broaden his activities where he became the chief spokesperson and later the External representative for London.

 

After the ban of the NDP, then ZAPU was formed and cde Takawira  was appointed Secretary for External Affairs again.

 

When ZAPU was banned, cde Takawira became instrumental in the formation of ZANU where he became the first vice President. 

 

He was arrested and detained at WhaWha, Sikombela and Harare central prison. He continued his revolutionary activities even when his health was failing. The Rhodesians denied him medical attention. 

 

Cde Takawira collapsed into a coma on 15 June 1970 and later died. Postmortem showed that he was suffering from diabetes and the verdict of the court was that he died of negligence. 

 

 

National Chairman of ZANU.  Chairman Chitepo was born on 5 June 1923 at Bonda in Nyanga. He organised the first phase of the armed struggle.  He died in Zambia on March 18 1975 when a car bomb planted in the garage of his Lusaka home exploded. Cde Chitepo was reburied in Zimbabwe on August 11 1981.

 

Chairman Chitepo was a brilliant school teacher, a B.A graduate of Fort Hare and a lawyer of King’s College and Gray’s Inn, London. He became the first black Zimbabwe Advocate and successfully defended the main political cases of African Nationalists.

 

He began his revolutionary activities when he returned to Rhodesia in 1954.  He was associated with all successive nationalist political parties. Because of his outstanding work as a lawyer,  he became Director of Public Prosecution for the govt of Tanzania.

 

After the ban of ZANU,  the ZANU central committee asked cde Chitepo  to lead the external wing. He gave up his job in Tanzania and went to Zambia to lead the revolutionary council.

 

The renowned ZANLA military guerrilla force was the result of his work.

 

He re-organised the Revolutionary Council into the DARE which became the central council for the prosecution of the armed struggle. 

 

He spelt out clear cut strategies and tactics and directed mass mobilisation support within the country. He restructured the Party in order to make it efficient. 

 

His enemies were also alarmed by his success such that they plotted his assassination

 

Second Vice President of ZAPU.  Cde Moyo died in Zambia on January 22, 1977 in a parcel bomb explosion.  He was reburied in Zimbabwe on August 11 1981

 

He trained as a builder and carpenter. He joined the trade union movement in Bulawayo in the 1950s. He also joined the Bulawayo branch of the Southern Rhodesia ANC and became its chairman. He was arrested and detained in 1959.

 

Cde JZ held executive posts in the ANC, NDP, ZAPU and PCC. When these parties were banned, he left for Lusaka as a member of ZAPU’s external wing to direct the first stages of the armed struggle. 

 

He built ZIPRA over many years in exile and mobilised world wide support for the freedom of Zimbabwe. 

 

Cde JZ Moyo advocated for the unity between ZANLA and ZIPRA and helped set up the Patriotic Front organisation PF that embraced ZANU and ZAPU 

Cde TG Silundika was born in Plumtree in 1929 and died when he suffered a stroke in his ministerial office on 9 April 1981. He was minister of Roads, Road traffic, Post and Telecommunications. He was a member of the ZAPU central committee at the time of his death.

 

He was expelled from Fort Hare in 1951 and deported to Rhodesia  because of his revolutionary activism. Back home he began leading and organising demonstrations in Highfield, Harare. He became an active member of the ANC, NDP, ZAPU. 

 

In 1963 he was sent to Lusaka to direct the first stages of the armed struggle.  He strengthened ZIPRA.  He also sought the unification of ZIPRA and ZANLA. 

 

After the Lancaster House Conference,  he came back home and was elected a ZAPU MP for Matabeleland South

 

Senator Tangwena died at the age of 74 after a short illness. He was Chief of the Tangwena people of Nyanga who resisted removal from their land in the Gaerezi area during the illegal Smith regime.

 

What most people remember with pride and joy is cde Tangwena’s series of battles with the Smith regime over control of the Gaerezi Ranch and its people. All attempts to terrorise and break the old man’s iron will were futile.

 

He argued that land was God given and sanctified by ancestral occupation and heritage. 

 

When tractors and bulldozers supported by troops were sent to evict him, he went into the bush to resist.

At this point he contacted chairman Chitepo. 

 

Chief Tangwena helped former President cde RG Mugabe and cde Edgar Tekere to cross over the border to Mozambique. 

The Tangwena clan helped thousands of young boys and girls to cross over. They clothed, fed and sheltered our freedom fighters. 

 

A fearless, clear visioned and outspoken critic of oppression, cde Tangwena became a senator in March 1980 and despite his age exhibited a remarkable presence of mind as well as a strong commitment to unity and National welfare. 

 

Cde Tangwena died on June 10 and was buried on June 16 of 1984

 

Commemorating the many Zimbabweans who died in the liberation war. The statue is bronze-sculptured and consists of 3 iconic figures of one woman and two men, a flag pole with the Zimbabwean national flag and a tomb for the Unknown Soldier. 

 

The tomb of the Unknown Soldier represents the many freedom fighters and freedom loving people who died during the armed struggle. It preserves the memory and qualities of these soldiers and people and acts as an inspiration to the youths so that they can emulate the strengths and courage of these heroes.

 

 

The main statue, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the graves are flanked by 2 high walls on which are engraved and painted various scenes of the armed struggle and these murals bear witness to the rich and diverse culture of of the country.  The two mural shrines , on either side of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier on the walls bear a perched Zimbabwe Bird. On the walls there are murals depicting the various stages of the freedom struggle from the 1960s to the end of the 1970s. The murals pictorially tell the history of Zimbabwe’s liberation war.