66-year-old Rangadza Machiha narrates the “worst” years of his life. It is a period that he rarely wants to talk about. For him it was a time of trouble. A time spent burying dismembered bodies, cleaning and taking fingerprints of slain comrades, digging and dumping their bodies in shallow graves.
“Nhau dzerufu hadzinakidzeka idzi mfana. I was tortured, electrocuted and was put in leg irons and handcuffs for nearly three months. I want to appeal to people to remain united so that this is not repeated. It was a painful experience. Let this be history and never to be repeated. That is my appeal to the people of Zimbabwe,” Mudhara Machiha pleaded.
One thing that is true about the old man is that he still can relate his ordeal at the hands of the Rhodesian security forces 34 years ago like something that happened a fortnight ago. Indeed, that has left a deep scar in his life that he cannot wish away.
It was the war of liberation. The enemy had declared that blacks would never rule the country and was prepared to go to any length to prevent an independent Zimbabwe. The Smith regime was brutal. It left a trail of sorrow in the African family fabric. Many despicable things happened. Let’s continue to tell the tales of our liberation struggle.
Arrested at the height of the liberation struggle after the battle of Rombwe in Rusape on December 28, 1977, Machiha with others were taken to the notorious Rusape Selous Scout Camp.
“On arrival he was covered in a black sack and taken to a room for interrogation. In the room there were pictures of nationalists like Cde (Josiah) Tongogara, President Mugabe and others. These had a wanted dead or alive tag above their heads. A huge reward was placed on their heads,” he said
“I still remember that among those arrested was a freedom fighter, Cde Gafa Tichatonga, who denied knowledge of me. If he had said he knew me I could have been history by now. I was put in leg irons and tortured.
They connected electricity to my male organ and one toe. I cried and thought I would never sire a child again. This was to become a daily occurrence for the next three months,” he added.
Mudhara Machiha was only freed from the leg irons when a relative who was in CID saw him.
Pained by his condition, the policeman oiled the locks that were now rusting and unlocked the shackles. From then on he was to join those who were burying bodies at Castle Farm.
“At the burial site we had to quickly dig the shallow mass graves and cover the bodies as the soldiers who accompanied us feared attacks from the freedom fighters. The numbers differed but ranged between five and eight.
One day we buried 26 bodies in a shallow grave and they came from many areas. They were of all ages and sexes. Some had lost their limbs, heads and others torn to pieces.
“I remember freedom fighters were placed in room at the camp. We would be tasked to wash their hands and take fingerprints. Some of the policemen would puff smoke to neutralise the odour from decaying bodies.
It was a bad experience but there was nothing we could do. We had to perform the duties at gunpoint,” he said.
“Dead bodies would be brought from as far as Wedza and Ruwangwe and Nyanga to be buried in mass graves there. They would be carried in four to five trucks for burial a day and we buried them in the vlei just after that little stream in the east of Mabvazuva suburb.”
Among the names of black soldiers who tortured him most at the camp where Sergegant-Major Chisese while other had nicknames like Mbudziyadhura, Komboniyatsva, Tsvotsvotsvo and Chigadziramemba.
“I remember one known as Mari. That man was cruel, he was my tormentor-in- chief,” Mudhara Machiha says fighting back his tears. He was released on August 18 1978.
“They just told me to leave the camp. I moved to Tsanzaguru Township. I still carry the effects of the torture,” he added.
His experiences at the Rusape Selous Torture Camp tally with that of Mbuya Mazano arrested in Rukweza after fleeing the Battle of Tsanzaguru.
“We were tired after running the whole way from Rusape that I and others decided to climb a huge mango tree for cover. The homestead had a lot of such trees and it was easy to find cover in them.
It was unfortunate that a group of soldiers passed below the mango tree and two of decided to sit under the tree to rest. Because of fear, one of us fell from the tree alerting the soldiers.
“She had blown our cover. The soldiers forced us to climb down the trees before force marching us to St Baduwa where there were people who had been shot dead. We were told to climb into the trucks with the bodies and to sleep alongside the dead bodies.
At road curves blood would spill out of the trucks but we had to remain quiet fearing we would be shot,” she said.
On arrival the bodies were first dumped next to their tent at the camp before being reloaded again for burial at the “butchery”.
“We were forced again to get on the trucks for a makeshift court at the butchery. In the makeshift court there was an electric stool where prisoners of war were forced to sit while being interrogated. The soldiers would drop burning plastics on your naked bodies.
“I did not have to sit on the hot stool as one black soldier shouted; “Ibhebhi rakanaka ndiri kurida usaripise”. That was how I was spared the torture and imminent death at the butchery. Unfortunately, some of my friends who were on the truck with me were tortured and later executed.
They were put in black plastic and buried here,” she said.
Unfortunately for Gogo Mazano that was the start of worse things to come. She was to stay at the camp with soldiers taking turns to rape her. They would move around with her as their sex object.
“Imagine being raped by more than 10 people a day. If you failed to please them they would severely assault you. At one point I fell pregnant but I was beaten till I lost that pregnancy. I was admitted at hospital for nearly three months.
On discharge they came and took me back to the camp. I was only released during the ceasefire in 1979.
“It still haunts me today. It is disheartening that these people have gone scot free and are still unrepentant,” she said.
She recalls some of her tormentors were still alive but most had left the area after independence. Another victim of Rusape Selous Scout Camp Gogo Regina Doto said she was picked in Vhengere Township by a group of auxiliary troops on their way to Chiwetu Rest.
“On arrival at the rest camp, a black cloth was tied on the faces of all the ‘prisoners’ so we would not see what was going on in the camp. Before they had started interrogating us there was the sound of gunfire and so we were again bundled into the trucks and driven to Rusape Selous Scout Camp. On arrival red cloths were tied around our eyes so that we could not see our tormentors. It was also a sign that we had to be executed,” she said.
“Whilst the Rhodesian soldiers were still contemplating what to do with us, the spirits smiled on us and they the camp was attacked by the guerrillas. The Rhodesian troops scurried for cover in the holes at the camp leaving us to face the fire.
“We took advantage of the commotion and ran for dear life back to Vhengere. That is how we survived the camp. It was only towards end of the war that the Selous Scout came to take part of the suburb to Castle Camp. It was painful to see skeletons with shoes on, functioning watches in hand but with no flesh.
“They boasted that they had killed so many. I remember one of them saying there are thousands of your brothers here. They took us to a pit near that hill where we were shown hundreds of decomposing bodies that were to be burnt.
“You see that pit, it used to be deep and that is where most of your brothers and sisters’ bodies were burnt. As they drove away, blood would spill from the trucks along the way and it was a sad sight,” she said.
“At that time, blood of the people who had been killed at the execution site flowed down the slope. There were pits everywhere in this area with bodies of people who were forced to dig their own graves, before being shot and buried there,” she said.
Thursday 23 May 2013
http://www.herald.co.zw/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=79421:horror-tales-from-the-war&catid=42:features-news&Itemid=134#.UZ1kDYdzA34
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