The colourful military life of Mphoko

Methembe Hadebe 

THE death of former Vice-President, Cde Phelekezela Report Mphoko, is being widely mourned for his long-standing 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 one being declared a national hero/heroine can take at least two to three days but Cde Mphoko was unanimously declared a national hero in recognition of his service to his country, proving that he was a man of honour with unquestionable credentials and loyalty.

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

I say this, as I was among those who 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. Going forward, you will understand my historical litany.”

It is against this background that I detail 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 11 June 1940 at Gwizane Village in Bubi District, Matabeleland North Province, in the face of the steeps of colonial repression, Cde Mphoko received his education at David Livingstone Memorial School in Ntabazinduna and Mzilikazi High School in Bulawayo. 

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

At Dunlop Rhodesia Limited he became a prominent and combative figure to agitate against harsh conditions targeted at the black worker. On several occasions, it is said Cde Mphoko and others often complained of harassment by the supervisors who would make them work long hours, and even use hate speech. 

The colonial archive records the great difficulties he caused to the employer as the worker representative at the tyre manufacturing company’s moulding section. That was done through organising passive resistance campaigns and refusal to work long hours. With the rise of nationalism, Cde Mphoko together with other youths, intensified the calls to resist the colonial regime. 

Prominent youths at the time from Bulawayo Urban included now national heroes, who were also to become freedom fighters. These are 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 JB Chatagwe. 

William Musarurwa, Phelekezela Report Mphoko and T G Silundika as ZAPU delegates at a non-alignment movement meeting in Maputo, Mozambique, 1978
Just like Cde Mphoko, these youths often registered displeasure with the colonial regime in various spaces where they worked. 

During that time, Cde Mphoko had made his name during the colonial turbulent regime.

For his troubles against colonial injustices 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 other fellow youths, after having a gathering at Makokoba Township. 

Such incidents were a common phenomenon as youths, trade unions and nationalist leaders would meet to strategise against the regime. Following a lash out with the police officer, Cde Mphoko was sentenced to three years at Khami Maximum Prison. He appealed against the sentence and was granted bail awaiting trial. 

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

While narrating to this writer his time before joining the armed struggle, Cde Mphoko noted, “I had no reason to wait for the trial. I had to fight the system by formally joining the struggle. Enough was enough!”

Of importance to note, Cde Mphoko was sent for military training with other liberation luminaries that included Cdes Dabengwa, Ackim Ndlovu, Ambrose Mutinhiri, Robson Manyika, Edward Bhebhe, Joseph Nyandoro, and later joined by 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. Others included 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) and Abraham Nkiwane and Ambrose Mutinhiri (Chiefs of Personnel and Training respectively). 

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

Cde Mphoko was once again deployed as the Head of Logistics and Supply for the ANC/ZAPU Alliance. He is credited with providing support and command for the Wankie Battles and  Sipolilo Battles together with other commanders that included Chris Nkosana Hani (ANC), TG Nkobi (ANC), Joe Modise (ANC), Oliver Tambo (ANC), Dabengwa (ZAPU), Ackim Ndlovu (ZAPU), John Dube (ZAPU), Jason Ziyaphapha Moyo (ZAPU), and Abraham Nkiwane (ZAPU).

In 1971, ZAPU intensified its quest of the armed struggle thereby transforming its military wing and 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 JZ Moyo’s  philosophy that, “Everything for the front and the soldier comes first.” Other prominent figures that he served with in the command structure included 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 which was supplied by him. 

The late former Vice-President Phelekezela Mphoko
It is said that 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 at Mbeya in 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 being deployed and heading Logistics and Supply. His deputy from ZANLA was Cde William Ndangana. Other prominent figures in the command included 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) among others. 

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 being appointed to head the logistics and supply department. He took the position with great zeal and discharged his duties with honesty and diligence, using previous experiences ascribed 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: “Leadership in the liberation struggle believed in consistency. We were very consistent as we knew who was and who had what expertise. I could have been deployed in the 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. Those days, one would not be called with that tag as they would be representing the party, not the entire country. 

Cde Mphoko had assumed diplomatic responsibility of representing the party/army policies, reaching consensus with other sister liberation movements and mobilising resources for the refugees, and army among other duties. 

It is then 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. At his wedding, the former President of South Africa, Cde Jacob Zuma was the best man. Cde Zuma was the head of the ANC intelligence unit during the struggle against apartheid.

In 1978, following the death of ZPRA Commander Alfred Nikita Mangena, Cde Mphoko revealed to this writer that he was in the interim appointed by late Vice-President Dr Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo to replace Cde Mangena. Arguably, it is said that Dr Nkomo at the time went to Maputo to inform President Machel about the intended plan of appointment and succession. 

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

Cde Mphoko’s argument is further corroborated by a story under the “Lest we Forget Column” published by Sunday News on 10 July, 2022 when the paper’s Assistant Editor Mkhululi Sibanda spoke to Cde Irvine Sibhona pseudonym Cde Barberton Muzwambila — the former  ZPRA Southern Front commander. 

In that revealing interview, Cde Sibhona argued that Cdes Mphoko and Mutinhiri were the only two senior commanders who 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, at the end of the day, now late General Lookout Masuku prevailed over the two as a result of the tricks played by the party’s intelligence operatives, as posited by 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 (ZDF), General Philip Valerio Sibanda as well as Ackim Ndlovu, who was the Secretary of Defence.  General Sibanda was the ZPRA Chief of Reconnaissance at that time.

As the three were ZAPU delegates representing the military, Cde Dabengwa was there as well by virtue of being 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 as a 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 a 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 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 Zimbabwe’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 President 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 ZPRA echelons. 

He will be remembered for fostering peace and unity and further promoting national development. He was a keen storyteller himself, but also a firm believer in principles. It is unfortunate that 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 a couple of works on Zimbabwe’s armed struggle literature.