Someone Wishes to Speak to You (25 page)

A radio broadcast brought some welcome news at the end of April, announcing that Ian Smith was about to bring a number of black ministers into the government, and that this was to include Bishop Muzorewa. Mathew saw this as an encouraging first step toward realising a peaceful political settlement for Rhodesia. This small beacon of hope was completely overshadowed when, on the 16 June, the South African police were reported to have shot at and killed children in the Johannesburg township of Soweto. When an estimated 20,000 high school students in Soweto started a march in
support of better education, the police responded to the protest with tear gas and live bullets, which resulted in the killing of 176 of the rioters.

The slaughter immediately gave rise to an international outcry against the killing of children; the UN Security Council passed Resolution 392 which strongly condemned the incident and South Africa’s apartheid régime. In South Africa, many white citizens became outraged by their government’s actions. Over 300 white students from the University of the Witwatersrand marched through Johannesburg in protest against the killings; black workers went on strike and riots broke out in the black townships of other cities in South Africa. The African National Congress (ANC) exiles called for international action and more sanctions against South Africa, and issued posters calling for the release of Nelson Mandela from imprisonment on Robben Island.

In early July, Mathew received a message via Edgar that his father, Chief Chidzikwee, wished to have another meeting with him and that he would be grateful if he could go with Edgar to his Manyika Tribal Trust Lands at the earliest opportunity. As Edgar emphasised the urgency that his father put on having this one-to-one talk, Mathew agreed to visit the chief on the following Sunday.

Before the meeting, Mathew was aware that due to the increased security measures which had recently been put into operation in the region, he would have to inform both his friend the District Officer, Jim Prior, and the BSAP Superintendent that he had been directly involved with in Umtali since the establishment of his camp in the Vumba. Due to his well-known friendship with the chief and Edgar, Mathew was confident that he would get their written clearance to pass through the various security road blocks and permission to cross into the chief’s particular TTL, to which entry had now become restricted to serving members of Rhodesia’s security forces.

When Mathew and Edgar drove down from the Vumba early on Sunday morning, they passed through three separate road blocks manned by BSAP personnel, who looked at their pass documentation with considerable suspicion. On arriving at a fenced-in guard post by the entrance to the TTL, a young second-lieutenant from the Rhodesia Light Infantry (RLI), backed-up by three African askari’s brandishing FN MAG general-purpose machine guns, kept them waiting while he carefully examined their documentation. The young officer asked Mathew the reason for his visit to the chief, then went to his wireless operator to check with his regional commander in Umtali whether or not to allow Mathew’s Land Rover access to this military-protected safe zone. The response from the RLI HQ was that they could only spend two hours in the TTL, and therefore would have to return to the same gate of entry by 1300 hrs.

After having driven away from the guard post, Edgar said, ‘We’re meeting my father at the village of my cousin, Gabriel Nkulu. My father says he wishes to draw as little attention as possible to the fact that he is having a private meeting with a European.’

Mathew guessed that whatever he was about to be told by the chief, it would be important for him to deal with in the most diplomatic fashion, for he recognised only too well how apprehensive and sensitive matters had become between the African and European communities.

Chief Chidzikwee was already waiting in Gabriel’s spacious
rondavel
, and greeted Mathew warmly by grasping his hand in his vice-like grip before leading him to the far side of the dwelling, where their conversation would not be overheard. Soon after Mathew was handed a cup of black coffee, both Gabriel and Edgar left so that the chief could talk in complete confidence, which he knew Mathew would respect.

During the next hour and a half, the chief brought Mathew up-to-date with regards to his considerable concern about recent events that had taken place within his TTL.

‘Recently ZANU/PF political activists and ZANLA insurgents from across the border have started to exert an increasing amount of pressure, sometimes even intimidatory threats, against any of my tribesmen seen to be cooperating with the country’s security forces and Ian Smith’s government. I regret to say that some of the younger members of the tribe are so influenced by ZANU/PF’s propaganda that without any consultation with the elders, they have decided to cross the border into Mozambique and join the ranks of ZANLA.’

Chief Chidzikwee went on to say that due to the Selous Scouts recently implemented counter-insurgency policy of taking the war to the enemy, a strategy that had been promoted and very much supported by the government’s Minister of Defence, P.K. van der Byl, some of the young Manyika tribesmen who had been involved in the fighting had been killed. Also, due to the subsequent success of the Selous Scouts’ hot pursuit raids on terrorist forces across the border, the number of these deaths had increased, which had given rise to anti-white feelings among his Manyika tribe.

‘You see, Mathew, all the turmoil being caused by this Bush War has made it very difficult for me to be seen to be cooperating with the security forces, or even now to be seen having a private talk with a European. It puts my authority in question. That is why I wanted our meeting to be secret. What I have to say is of the utmost importance. These frequent insurgency attacks from across the border and the growing degree of anti-white sentiments among some of my tribespeople mean that with the utmost regret, I can no longer direct Edgar to keep a watchful eye on the security of your camp, or act as a guarantor of your personal safety in the Vumba. Please listen to me Mathew and take heed – you must close down your research camp and leave the Vumba at the earliest opportunity. Only return if, and when, a peaceful settlement is reached.’

‘Thank you for speaking so openly with me, Chief
Chidzikwee. Rest assured I will think carefully about what you’ve said.’

The two men said their farewells and shook hands for what they both knew could be the last time in the foreseeable future.

Although Mathew was grateful to the chief for expressing such a degree of concern about his safety, he was reluctant at this stage of the terrorist insurgency to heed his advice, for the Vaughan-Joneses were scheduled to visit his camp in early August. During his last stay with them, Anna told him how very keen she was to make some further recordings of the communicative vocalisations of his habituated family group of vervet monkeys, particularly when the monkeys were confronted by a potential predator. She said that should a live predator fail to put in an appearance, Simon had volunteered to bring with them two museum specimens, one of a caracal and the other of a python, in order to stimulate the monkeys’ warning responses to the respective marauders. He didn’t want to disappoint them unless it was absolutely necessary.

Before Simon and Anna’s visit, the press reported what they described as the most audacious and successful raid of the Bush War to date. This had been a raid carried out by the Selous Scouts against Nyadzonya, one of the insurgents’ main camps about 80 km east of Umtali.

After news of the raid was broadcast, Jim Prior visited Mathew to bring him the newspaper reports and tell him all he knew. ‘Apparently it was thanks to the Selous Scouts having captured and carried out a detailed interrogation of a ZANLA fighter, a “turned” terrorist, that they gained a great deal of invaluable information about the Nyadzonya camp. It was estimated to contain up to around five thousand people, who were all connected with the insurgents and potential terrorists. The ZANLA captive had only recently passed through the camp and was able to provide the Scouts with a detailed description of its layout, command protocols, and the fact that the camp contained military recruits who
had been indifferently trained and were largely unarmed. The Selous Scouts Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Colonel Ron Reid-Daly, found that the information the ZANLA captive gave fully endorsed that which he had previously received from his men, who had been monitoring the camp for some time. As Reid-Daly was now sure that the Nyadzonya camp was a major terrorist training and operational centre, he decided that it would have to be put out of action at the earliest opportunity.

‘Because of the political process that is currently underway between Ian Smith’s RF Government, the British Government and a number of African leaders toward all-party talks in October, the country’s Special Operations Committee were reluctant to give their permission for the raid to go ahead. It was only after Reid-Daly made use of his direct confidential line of communication with Lieutenant General Peter Walls, who had personally appointed him to head-up the Selous Scouts, that permission was granted.’

Jim Prior went on to explain that the independent nature of the Selous Scouts’ clandestine operations caused a number of major misunderstandings between them and the RLI, as well as between the Special Branch of the Scouts and that of the BSAP. Reid-Daly’s direct communication with General Walls was tempered by a degree of professional jealousy and also frequently aggravated by the top-secret nature of the Scouts’ operations, and their practice of not wishing to confide in others. Although reconnaissance work represented a prime ingredient of the Selous Scouts’ record of success, such achievements were also due to the men’s qualifications of physical discipline and single-mindedness of purpose. All these qualities, said Jim, had contributed to the
esprit de corps
of the regiment, and to the total dedication of their chief objective; to destroy the insurgency operations of ZANLA and ZIPRA.

As the raid had to be kept top secret for as long as possible, in order for the operation to come as a total surprise to
the ZANLA combatants, their cross-border operation had been put into effect almost immediately. The Scouts were concerned that from their previous reconnaissance recces into Mozambique, there was clear evidence of cooperation between FRELIMO and ZANLA. If ZANLA had full access to the local FRELIMO transport and logistic infrastructure, the secrecy of the raid was imperative.

The Rhodesian vehicles of the Scouts’ task force were given FRELIMO number plates and insignia and the manpower disguised in their uniforms, in order for them to be easily accepted as a detachment of the Mozambique security forces. The task force crossed the border along a little-known smuggler’s route under the cover of darkness, soon after midnight. At one point they had to pass by a FRELIMO sentry box; the sentry received an authoritative command and greeting from one of the African Manyika Portuguese-speaking Selous Scouts and merely waved a desultory greeting in response.

On approaching the gates of the camp, the convoy had gained access to it after a sharp command delivered in Portuguese by one of the Scouts’ Special Branch members, to two startled ZANLA guards, who were quick to lift the boom and salute the vehicles as they roared their way past them.

Once the camouflaged trucks had rolled into camp and come to a halt, the Portuguese-speaking operative, wearing the fatigues of a FRELIMO major, stood up and with the help of a megaphone, delivered a short speech, proclaiming the imminent fall of the illegal régime of the radical leader of the white settlers in Rhodesia. He invited his assembled comrades to gather around for more detailed news about some of ZANLA’s glorious successes.

After the major had announced a further day’s holiday to the one they had only just had, and the jubilant cheering and ululating crowd had started to move forward and assemble in front of the vehicles, one of the ZANLA operatives noticed a white soldier on one of the vehicles, manning a machine
gun. He took a wild shot at him. The task force burst into life, maintaining a steady and disciplined controlled fire which resulted in an estimated death of over 1,000 camp followers, including both women and children.

The official government report on the raid subsequently recorded that the Selous Scouts’ column had succeeded in reaching ZANLA’s Nyadzonya terrorist camp undetected, and the whole operation had gone like clockwork. The great success of it had done great credit to both the skill of its architects and the brave soldiers, both European and African, who managed to inflict such a significant wound on ZANLA’s terrorist forces. Also, the report stated that a small party of the Scouts had successfully destroyed the bridge over the Pungwe River, and had blown up a number of road bridges on their way back. The conclusion was that the whole operation had been a triumph, ‘Without a scratch to man or vehicle’.

After Jim had finished giving Mathew as much information he had on the raid, the two men sat in silence for several minutes, each deep in their own thoughts. Finally, Jim got up and bade Mathew goodbye, adding, ‘Remember, keep your eyes and ears open. You can always come and stay with me if it starts to feel uncomfortable out here. Take care.’

Although horrified by the raid, Mathew wanted to read as much as possible about it to try to exorcise the anguish that he felt. After Mathew had read all the newspaper reports Jim had brought, he reflected on how the mass killing of so many human beings had taken place just downstream from the tranquil surroundings of Inyanga’s Pungwe Falls. He and Addie had spent such a memorable time together relaxing by the Pungwe River close to where its waters plunged over the rapids and into the gorge below, watching the feeding antics of some of the remarkable bird life.

The very thought of such crystal-clear waters having been discoloured and swamped by the blood of the dead and wounded, and the river claiming the lives of so many of those
camp followers who had attempted to swim its fast-flowing waters only to drown, could not have been more repugnant to Mathew. It brought home to him that he was living in an environment that had become a focus of terrorist insurgency. The occasional cross-border sorties of the Bush War had turned into an outright conflict between the Rhodesian security forces and the liberation fighters of ZANLA.