Colourful military life of Cde Mphoko

Methembe Hadebe

FORMER Vice President Cde Phelekezela Report Mphoko is being widely mourned for his longstanding contribution to the liberation struggle of Zimbabwe and his commitment to fostering unity.

Hours after his death, President Mnangagwa issued a moving eulogy and described Cde Mphoko as a veteran of the liberation struggle, who selflessly contributed to national development.

The process that precedes being declared a national hero/heroine can take at least two to three days, but Cde Mphoko was unanimously declared in a short space of time in recognition of his service to his country.

This proved that he was a man of honour, with unquestionable credentials and loyalty.

In 2014, following his appointment as one of the two Vice Presidents, alongside Cde Mnangagwa, many wondered who Cde Mphoko was.

During one of my visits to his house sometime in 2021, when he and I started working on his memoirs, he jokingly said: “Look, young man, born frees like you didn’t know me until my appointment (as Vice President), but State memory knows me.”

It is against this background that I have written this obituary on Cde Mphoko for the nation to gain a fuller appreciation of his contribution to the liberation struggle of Zimbabwe and post-independence national development. Born on June 11, 1940 in Gwizane village, Bubi district, Matabeleland North province, amid colonial repression, Cde Mphoko received his education at David Livingstone Memorial School in Ntabazinduna and Mzilikazi High School in Bulawayo.

Between 1959 and 1960, Cde Mphoko enrolled at the Tsholotsho Agricultural Breeding and Experimental School, where he pursued cropping and animal husbandry. Thereafter, between 1962 and 1963, he had a trailblazing career at Dunlop Rhodesia Limited.

At Dunlop, he became a prominent and combative figure in agitating against harsh conditions faced by black workers.

The colonial archive records the great difficulties he caused to the employer as the worker representative in the tyre manufacturing company’s moulding section. Cde Mphoko organised passive resistance campaigns and mobilised other employees to refuse to work long hours. With the rise of nationalism, Cde Mphoko and other youths intensified the calls to resist the colonial regime.

His peers included Cde Dumiso Dabengwa, Albert Nxele, Joseph Maphosa, Misheck Velaphi Ncube, Ethan Dube, Artwell Bokwe, Swazini Ndlovu, Roma Nyathi (still alive), Abednico Tshongo, Steven Vuma, Ackim Ndlovu, Luke Mhlanga and J.B. Chatagwe.

Just like Cde Mphoko, these youths often registered displeasure with the colonial regime at the workplace.

In 1963, Cde Mphoko was arrested on charges relating to political violence after he lashed out at a Rhodesian police officer, who had set his dog on him and others after a gathering in Makokoba township.

Cde Mphoko was sentenced to serve three years at Khami Maximum Prison. He appealed against the sentence and was granted bail awaiting trial.

While awaiting trial, Cde Mphoko joined the armed struggle and was immediately sent to the Soviet Union by ZAPU in 1964 for military training.

Narrating to this writer some years ago, Cde Mphoko said: “I had no reason to wait for the trial. I had to fight the system by formally joining the struggle. Enough was enough!”

Notably, Cde Mphoko was sent for military training with other liberation luminaries like Cdes Dabengwa, Ackim Ndlovu, Ambrose Mutinhiri, Robson Manyika, Edward Bhebhe, Joseph Nyandoro and later Tshinga Dube.

When they returned from the Soviet Union, they formed a ZAPU military command structure known as the Coordinating Committee, which operated under the office of the Special Affairs Department.

In that structure, Cde Mphoko was deployed as the Chief of Logistics.

Other members of the committee were Cdes Ackim Ndlovu (Commander), Dabengwa (Head of Military Intelligence), Manyika (Chief of Staff), Roma Nyathi (Chief Political Commissar), Gordon Butshe (Chief of Reconnaissance), Tshinga Dube (Chief of Communications), John Dube (Chief of Operations), Abraham Nkiwane (Chief of Training) and Ambrose Mutinhiri (Chief of Training).

Between 1967 and 1968, Cde Mphoko became a member of the Joint Military Structure of ANC/ZAPU. This joint operation was meant to give added military impetus to the ANC’s and ZAPU’s broad strategies for liberation.

Cde Mphoko was once again appointed the Head of Logistics and Supply for the ANC/ZAPU Alliance.

He is credited with providing support and command for the Wankie and Sipolilo battles, together with other commanders, including Cdes Chris Nkosana Hani (ANC), T.G. Nkobi (ANC), Joe Modise (ANC), Oliver Tambo (ANC), Dabengwa (ZAPU), Ackim Ndlovu (ZAPU), John Dube (ZAPU), Jason Ziyaphapha Moyo (ZAPU) and Nkiwane (ZAPU).

In 1971, ZAPU stepped up its quest for armed combat and transformed its military wing, calling it the Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army (ZPRA).

ZPRA was commanded by Alfred Nikita Mangena, and Cde Mphoko was once again deployed for the third time as the Chief of Logistics in the new command structure.

Cde Mphoko was the only member of the previous command to continue in the new command structure.

He was responsible for supplying logistics to the front, guided by J.Z. Moyo’s philosophy: “Everything for the front and the soldier comes first”.

Other prominent figures that he served with in the command structure included Cdes John Dube (Chief of Operations), Gordon Munyanyi (Chief of Military Intelligence, Communication and Reconnaissance), Cephas Cele (Chief of Personnel and Training) and Lookout “Lameck Mafela” Masuku (Political Commissar).

Cde Mphoko became forceful in supplying the logistics and solving problems ascribed to that. Camps had the much-needed ammunition that was supplied by him. It is said he had to source and distribute the arms equitably. ZPRA logistics were stocked to enable operations to succeed.

In that very year, 1971, because of his resourcefulness and prowess, Cde Mphoko was also appointed Chief of Logistics of the Joint Military Command formed by the ZPRA and ZANLA High Command in Mbeya, Tanzania.

He discharged his duties with aplomb in the joint command structure. That was the fourth time in a row that Cde Mphoko still carried the badge of heading logistics and supply.

His deputy from ZANLA was Cde William Ndangana. Other prominent figures in the command included Cdes Alfred Mangena (Chief of Staff), Robson Manyika (Political Commissar), Josiah Tongogara (Chief of Operations), Gordon Munyanyi (Chief of Military Intelligence) and John Mataure (Chief of Personnel and Training).

In 1975, in Mozambique, when the Zimbabwe People’s Army (ZIPA) was established, which was an amalgamation of ZPRA and ZANLA, Cde Mphoko was appointed Chief of Logistics once more. That was now the fifth time he held the influential post.

He took the position with great zeal and discharged his duties with honesty and diligence, using previous experiences relating to logistics and supply.

When I asked him why he had been a prominent feature in the deployment as the Head of Logistics and Supply, Cde Mphoko said:

“The leadership during the liberation struggle believed in consistency. We were very consistent as we knew who had what expertise. I could have been deployed to operations and intelligence because, as a well-rounded soldier, I knew all that. But consistency and experience mattered. This is why I carried the badge in all appointments.”

In mid-1976, following the demise of ZIPA due to factors outside this scope of discussion, Cde Mphoko was appointed by ZAPU as the representative of the party and army in Maputo, Mozambique. Representativeness during the liberation struggle is what is known in the contemporary world as ambassador role. Those days, one would not be called by that tag as they would be representing the party, not the entire country.

Cde Mphoko had assumed the diplomatic responsibility of representing the party/army policies, reaching consensus with other sister liberation movements and mobilising resources for refugees and freedom fighters, among other duties. It was during this period that he constantly met other liberation movements and the late President of Mozambique, Samora Machel.

In 1977, while in Mozambique, Cde Mphoko got married to Laurinda, a Mozambican national.

At his wedding, the former President of South Africa, Cde Jacob Zuma, was the best man. Cde Zuma was the head of the ANC’s intelligence unit.

In 1978, following the death of ZPRA Commander Alfred Nikita Mangena, Cde Mphoko revealed, he was in the interim appointed by late Vice President and ZAPU leader Dr Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo to replace Cde Mangena.

It is said Dr Nkomo at the time went to Maputo to inform President Machel about the intended plan of appointment and succession.

Nevertheless, the appointment was not executed, as argued by Cde Mphoko, because there were internal considerations and contests within ZPRA and ZAPU.

Cde Mphoko’s argument is further corroborated by a story in the “Lest we Forget” column published by The Sunday News on July 10, 2022, when the paper’s assistant editor Mkhululi Sibanda spoke to Cde Irvine Sibhona (Barberton Muzwambila), the former ZPRA Southern Front Commander.

In that interview, Cde Sibhona argued that Cdes Mphoko and Mutinhiri were the only two senior commanders qualified to take over from Cde Mangena.

In Cde Sibhona’s analysis, either of them was more suitable to take over the commandership of ZPRA.

However, the late General Lookout Masuku prevailed over the two “as a result of the tricks played by the party’s intelligence operatives”, according to Cde Sibhona. However, Cde Mphoko was part of the ZAPU delegation to the Lancaster House talks in London in 1979, representing the military, alongside a then-young but sharp cadre, the current Commander of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces, General Philip Valerio Sibanda, as well as Cde Ackim Ndlovu, who was the Secretary of Defence.

General Sibanda was the ZPRA Chief of Reconnaissance at that time.

Cde Dabengwa was there as well, as he was the Head of the ZAPU Intelligence, the National Security and Order (NSO), which Cde Sibhona accuses of “torpedoing Cde Mphoko’s rise to succeed Cde Mangena in 1978”.

In 1980, Cde Mphoko was appointed Special Envoy for Dr Nkomo and served in a sub-committee that designed the National Flag of the new Republic of Zimbabwe. At the end of that year, Cde Mphoko worked as Deputy Director for Demobilisation in the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare.

In 1987, he was transferred to the diplomatic service as Liaison Officer in Mozambique, and Liaison Officer to Austria in 1996 where he covered the United Nations International Drug Control Programme and the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty.

At the turn of the millennium, in 2002, Cde Mphoko was appointed Zimbabwe’s Ambassador to Botswana, before becoming the country’s Ambassador to the Russian Federation.

In 2010, he was appointed Zimbabwe’s Ambassador to South Africa.

In 2014, Cde Mphoko was appointed Vice President, alongside Cde Mnangagwa. Cde Mphoko became the fourth Vice President appointed from the ZAPU ranks after Dr Nkomo, Cdes Joseph Msika and John Landa Nkomo, yet the first to emerge from the ZPRA echelons.

He will be remembered for fostering peace, unity and national development.

He was a keen storyteller himself, but also a firm believer in principles. Unfortunately, he has departed from this world while I was still assisting him in crafting his memoirs.

 Methembe Hadebe is a Bulawayo-based independent history researcher. He has published works on Zimbabwe’s armed struggle.