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Geoffrey Nyarota Correspondent
THE timing of Cde Cephas Msipa’s recently published memoir, “In Pursuit of Freedom and Justice” could not have been more perfect, narrowly missing, as it did, Unity Day today, an occasion on which Zimbabwe commemorates the signing of the Unity Accord between PF-Zapu and Zanu.

This happened after years of bloody and divisive strife in the southern regions of the country.

Unknown to many, Cde Msipa played a significant role in negotiations that culminated in the signing of the Unity Accord on December 22, 1987, to bring Prime Minister Robert Mugabe and Dr Joshua Nkomo together in a landmark event that signalled the end of the much detested Gukurahundi.

Published by Weaver Press, “In Pursuit of Freedom and Justice”, is unique in several ways.

It is a history of Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle and the first 35 years of nationhood, as recorded by one of the leading protagonists in a period spanning more than 50 years.

The book is written at a time when the first generation of Zimbabwe’s nationalists are passing on one-by-one, most of them going without recording their important experiences.

While most existing books about the struggle for Zimbabwe’s independence were written by authors, many of them foreigners, who were merely distant observers or researchers, Cde Msipa’s account is the work of an author of indisputable liberation struggle credentials.

More uniquely, Cde Msipa is a man whose nationalist political allegiance straddles the divide between the two leading nationalist political parties that campaigned for the liberation of Zimbabwe.

Another rare quality of the book, one that enhances its credibility immensely, is that it is written by a politician with a demonstrably close personal relationship with both Dr Nkomo and President Mugabe.

So close was Cde Msipa to President Mugabe that within an hour of the latter’s release from Salisbury Prison in 1975 after 10 years of detention, he knocked on Cde Msipa’s door in the township of Mufakose from where he planned his re-entry into Zanu politics.

While Cde Msipa was Zapu and President Mugabe was Zanu, they nevertheless remained closely related.

Five years later in 1980, on Cde Nkomo’s return to Zimbabwe, after three years of exile in Zambia, the Zapu leader and his entourage literally took over Cde Msipa’s family’s small home in the suburb of Lochinvar.

Cde Msipa and family were effectively relegated to the domestic servants’ quarters on the property so that Cde Nkomo’s delegation would be comfortable in their first home back in Harare.

Yet Cde Msipa exudes, both in his personal life and in his story, an aura of abject unpretentiousness despite his influential personal role in shaping the direction of the early years of Zimbabwe’s independence.

On Boxing Day 1979, five days after the signing of the Lancaster Agreement in London, 41 Zanla commanders arrived at Salisbury Airport from Maputo under the command of Rex Nhongo.

A similar number of Zipra commanders arrived shortly after that from Zambia under the leadership of Dumiso Dabengwa, the movement’s head of military intelligence and Lookout Masuku, the overall commander.

Thousands of supporters descended on the airport to welcome them.

Cde Msipa says he welcomed back to Zimbabwe on that day both the returning Zipra soldiers on behalf of Zapu and, in the absence of any Zanu representative, the returning Zanla fighters as well.

He says the role fell on him to receive Zanla’s Nhongo, who as Solomon Tapfumaneyi Mujuru became the commander of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces, and his commanders and escort them to the University of Rhodesia where they were temporarily housed.

The Zanla soldiers had appeared somewhat confused and subdued and did not appear to share in the excitement of the crowds that thronged the airport.

Zanla commander Josiah Tongogara was not on the flight from Maputo.

It was only the following day that Cde Msipa discovered that Tongogara had died in a road accident in Mozambique on return from Lancaster House.

Cde Msipa makes a significant disclosure about Zanu-PF and PF Zapu going separate ways in the campaign for the 1980 general elections against the backdrop of a general perception that PF-Zapu had favoured a joint campaign while Zanu-PF had insisted on going separate ways after Lancaster.

Cde Msipa says PF-Zapu had learnt from the hot-tempered Enos Nkala that Zanu-PF was going to fight the elections separately and not as part of the Patriotic Front.

He says even though President Mugabe and Cde Nkomo had signed the Lancaster House Agreement as representatives of the Patriotic Front, there had never been any formal written agreement on the union.

“It was more of an expression of intent,” he says.

Cde Nkomo had instructed him, on Cde Msipa’s early departure from London, to campaign for the Patriotic Front and work together with Zanu-PF, but had warned, “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.”

After the election results were announced on March 4, 1980, the first PF-Zapu official that Cde Nkomo summoned to his Highfield house was Cde Msipa.

“How can you people leave me when the results are so bad?” Cde Nkomo had complained bitterly.

Zanu-PF had swept 57 of the 80 common roll seats, while PF-Zapu won 20 seats, mostly in Matabeleland and Bishop Abel Muzorewa’s UANC scrapped through with a mere three seats.

The PF-Zapu vice-president Josiah Chinamano and others of the party’s leadership had subsequently arrived, all fuming at the dismal performance of their party.

Cde Msipa reveals a poignant detail about the events of that night.

Somebody had made a telephone call to Cde Nkomo’s wife, Mama Mafuyana, in East Germany where she was hosted.

She had congratulated her husband on victory.

Cde Msipa says Cde Nkomo was flabbergasted.

“No, no wait,” Cde Nkomo had said. “You are mistaken, we lost.”

But Mama Mafuyana was adamant.

“I understand Smith lost and the Patriotic Front won,” she said.

“Were we not fighting for majority rule? I am congratulating you for majority rule.”

Cde Msipa says Cde Nkomo smiled and, suddenly he became a different man.

A few days later President Mugabe, then prime minister, had declared a policy of national reconciliation and proposed a government of national unity between Zanu-PF and PF-Zapu. Cde Msipa says the PF-Zapu leadership had met to discuss the offer of inclusion in a government of national unity.

He says Cde Nkomo was not keen on the idea, as he thought it would weaken PF-Zapu.

“He argued that for PF-Zapu to remain an effective opposition party it should stay out of the government,” Cde Msipa says.

“But most of us said no, this was the time for nation-building. We had negotiated together as the Patriotic Front. Our armies had fought against a common enemy. It was only fair that we should run the country together.

“Eventually those who were of this opinion prevailed. Nkomo eventually saw sense in it and accepted Mugabe’s offer.”

The first occasion when the strong bond of relationship between President Mugabe and Cde Msipa came to the aid of the fledgling government of Zimbabwe was in 1980 when Cde Msipa initially turned down President Mugabe’s offer to appoint him Deputy Minister of Youth Sport and Recreation, serving under the youthful Teurai Ropa Nhongo — now the deposed former Vice President Joice Mujuru.

“You know I have a problem with it,” Cde Msipa says he told President Mugabe.

“For all I know this girl could be a pupil in my class.”

Cde Msipa says President Mugabe had said to him, “Sekuru (Uncle) please don’t let me down.”

That had done the trick, Cde Msipa says.

“I didn’t want to feel that I was letting him down,” he says.

“He was my friend and I wasn’t going to disappoint him. So I accepted and did so wholeheartedly, and, believe me, we worked extremely well together.”

Turning to the events that culminated in Gukurahundi, Cde Msipa says the first year of independence had hardly passed when signs of serious friction between Zanu-PF and PF Zapu started to show.

He says against a backdrop of former Zipra guerillas feeling that they were being discriminated against in the restructuring of the military forces, there was a growing number of incidents of Zipra men deserting their assembly points to become bandits in the bush.

“At the same time, Enos Nkala was leading a campaign of vilification against PF-Zapu,” says Cde Msipa.

“The desertions accelerated and there were attacks — mounted by what the government described as dissidents — on Zanu-PF officials and white farmers in Matabeleland and the Midlands.”

At the same time PF-Zapu was unhappy over being issued only four out of 23 full ministerial seats in Cabinet.

In January 1982 President Mugabe removed Cde Nkomo, Josiah Chninamano, Joseph Msika and other ministers and deputies from Cabinet.

Cde Msipa and Clement Muchachi were retained.

President Mugabe appealed to Cde Msipa to remain in government and to appeal to Muchachi to do the same.

Muchachi, however, resigned before Cde Msipa could reach him.

“I asked him why he had resigned,” Cde Msipa says.

“I went on to tell him that in Africa you don’t resign, you wait to be dismissed. If you resign you will be seen as challenging the government and you will be considered an enemy. He said he was aware of that, but on principle he felt that his leader had been wrongfully dismissed and his conscience did not allow him to remain in government. I wished him well.”

In 1984 Cde Msipa and John Nkomo were the last PF-Zapu officials to be fired from Cabinet, on accusations that they were supporting dissidents.

“The fact that people were Ndebele speakers was regarded as sufficient evidence that they were PF-Zapu supporters and therefore dissident supporters,” Cde Msipa says. .

President Mugabe later described this as “a moment of madness”.

Cde Msipa says some meetings were held at which the matter of Gukurahundi was raised “and then Prime Minister Mugabe insisted that the matter be discussed so he could learn more about what had happened and was still happening in the Gukurahundi affected areas”.

He says in April 1983 Jacob Mudenda, then provincial administrator of Matabeleland North and now Speaker of Parliament, had approached Cde Msipa, then Minister of Water Resources, with a request from the chairmen of all the rural district councils in Matabeleland North who were desperate to appeal to then Prime Minister Mugabe “over the intolerable cruelty that the people were suffering”.

Cde Msipa says he had in turn approached Emmerson Mnangagwa, then Minister of State Security, with this request which had then been communicated to President Mugabe.

A meeting had been arranged to coincide with the Prime Minister’s visit to Bulawayo to attend Trade Fair.

“The six district chairmen were very brave to have exposed themselves like this,” says Cde Msipa.

“They must have feared that they were stirring up a viper’s nest by making an approach to the prime minister over a matter of such sensitivity.”

Originally scheduled for 30 minutes by Mnangagwa, the meeting went on for five hours up to 11 pm.

Cde Msipa says while he had not personally attended this meeting, he had been informed that the district chairmen had spoken in graphic detail about the atrocities committed by Five Brigade against innocent civilians who were regarded as dissident sympathisers.

They had implored President Mugabe to replace Five Brigade with the Support unit of the Zimbabwe Republic Police.

“I was given to understand that Mugabe had agreed to the chairmen’s request for the Support Unit to replace (Five) Brigade,” Cde Msipa says, “although its deployment was painfully slow.”

Cde Msipa says he was instrumental in organising a second meeting with the Prime Miniister, who said, “Yes I want to meet them but not just two people. Tell them to bring as many people as they can because I want to know what is happening in Matabeleland.”

“People filled State House,” Cde Msipa says.

“It was as if a rally had been called. It was for them a unique opportunity and I felt honoured to chair the meeting. For almost two hours speaker after speaker related events as they had been experienced.”

Cde Msipa says President Mugabe’s response had taken people by surprise.

“He assured the crowd that he would see to it that the brutality would be stopped,” says Cde Msipa.

“I could see peoples’ expressions changing. They were pleased and surprised. Mugabe said ‘I also want to appeal to you to desist from supporting dissidents.’

“I was also flattered. They called me, ‘Umlamula nkunzi’, meaning one who separates bulls that are fighting.”

Cde Msipa says in September 1987, in his third year out of government, he had been invited to State House in Harare by then President Canaan Banana, who had explained that Cde Nkomo was very keen to talk to President Mugabe about uniting Zanu-PF and PF-Zapu. Banana said he had tried in vain to set up a meeting.

“I have been told that Mugabe and Nkomo are both your friends,” Banana had said, “and that if you can’t bring them together, no one can.”

So began a process of mediation by Cde Msipa directly with Cde Nkomo, who was not well at the time, and President Mugabe through Banana.

The three major areas of the negotiation were President Mugabe’s preconditions that the name of the party should be Zanu-PF, that he would be president of the new party and that there would be two vice-presidents Joshua Nkomo and Simon Muzenda of Zanu-PF.

After days of wrangling with Nkomo in consultation with the PF-Zapu leadership, Cde Nkomo finally said to Cde Msipa: “Go and tell Banana that I have accepted to work with Mugabe.”

And the Unity Accord that brought Zanu-PF and PF ZAPU together under the banner of Zanu-PF was signed on December 22, 1987.

“I was content that I should not have been given any public recognition,” says Cde Msipa with humility in “In Pursuit of Freedom and Justice”.

For a first manuscript at the ripe old age of 81 Msipa’s effort is commendable. It is very readable and contains much information that is new on Zimbabwe’s first 35 years as a nation state.

Geoffrey Nyarota is former Editor of The Chronicle, The Financial Gazette, The Daily News and The Zimbabwe Times. He is author of Against the Grain, Memoirs of a Zimbabwean Newsman.