ROBERT MUGABE CHALLENGED BY PATRICK KOMBAYI!

RESPONSE TO ROBERT MUGABE’S UTTERANCES AT CHIKEREMA’S HERO’S STATUS

Robert Mugabe’s baseless utterance and outright lies in denying an obvious hero the deserved National Hero status cannot go unchallenged. Mugabe had the audacity to call James Dambadza Chikerema a “run- away” politician undeserving of the honours befitting a hero when one of his closest bedfellows, Nathan Shamuyarira of the Frolizi notoriety, is there for all to see as the best example of a ‘run-way’ politician.
Does he really think Zimbabweans are blind, ignorant and stupid?
What does he really take us all for?
I, Patrick Kombayi was there in the struggle and saw with my own two eyes the people who deserted the struggle for such selfish power hunger as the formulation of FROLIZI and, if Chikerema cannot be buried at the National Shrine then Zimbabweans have the right to know how many people who today lie at the shrine should, according to Mugabe’s criteria of heroes’ selection status and exhumed. If Mugabe’s criterion of heroes’ selection disqualifies those who ran away from the struggle then he will definitely be embarrassed when Nathan Shamuyarira eventually dies. Shamuyarira ran away from the struggle together with Chikerema and a group of Zezurus to join FROLIZI in 1971 at KAFUE and I, Patrick Kombayi was there as Chairman and returning officer of the Biennial Conferences of Zanu to elect the Dare, the party’s Supreme Body.
Zimbabweans wonder, and they have all the reason to, how James Chikerema could be less deserving of his country’s honours than even such white liberals like Guy Clutton – Brock. Does Mugabe think Clutton – Brock could be a more deserving Heroes Acre candidate than Dambadza? It really boggles the mind how Mugabe and his clique in the Politburo have allowed their common sense to be so impaired. Mugabe can surely stand in front of the whole world to spell out dreamt conditions, which he and his cowardly bootlickers have dictated as necessary for hero status forgetting that a long list of people who he has buried there would be disqualified. A quick glimpse at the graves at our national shrine will bring out such names as Solomon Tawengwa, Border Gezi, Chris Ushewokunze, Mombeshora, Enos Chikowore and many more, particularly Zezurus who lie there simply of their regional – ethic belonging. But as I have always said over the years, Mugabe is a man who keeps grudges to the death. His greatest enemy is he who dares to speak the truth about him exposing his true colours. Chikerema, his own father’s sister’s son, dared to stand up for the truth and he paid for those ‘sins’ up to the grave. That Chikerema did not fight for Zimbabwe to the end is just a flimsy excuse and worthless bragging of a vengeful and cruel dictator. Look at what Mugabe does to justify the disqualification of the likes of Noel Mukono, Joe Taderera, Sheba Gava (one of the first Commissioned female officers and liberation war cadres), Bossopo Moyo, Lookout Masuku and many other cadres who really started the struggle whose fruits he enjoys today. But, according to Mugabe and his cronies, they were not all heroes! My foot!
Like I have already said in Mugabe’s warped thinking, once you stand for the truth, you become his enemy and therefore a traitor who should be persecuted up to the grave. I say this from a personal experience. My liberation struggle history is public knowledge, well chronicled with documentary and pictorial evidence. Even Fay Chung, a totally unbiased participant and keen observer of the political goings- on in the liberation struggle, commits considerable space in her recent book about the struggle:
“RE- LIVING THE SECOND CHIMURENGA” to my contribution which some of Mugabe’s closest mates in the ZANU PF gravy train cannot even fathom. Chung was observant enough to notice how Mugabe loathed any possible threat to his ambition – real or perceived.
She says on pages 161- 162 of her ‘Memories from Zimbabwe’s Liberation Struggle’…Many others flocked to Geneva. As already noted, one such person was Patrick Kombayi, a brilliant businessman who had helped fill the leadership vacuum caused by the arrest of all full time Zanu and Zanla members in Zambia between 1975 and 1976. A brilliant strategist, as well as an amazingly courageous man, he harboured ambitions to become one party’s top leaders. For his indubitable achievement, he demanded to be recognized as a top leader within Zanu, but Robert Mugabe would not allow this…. Mugabe had once been Kombayi’s teacher in primary school in Gwelo and probably this relationship had influenced his judgement against Kombayi. Although Mugabe was in some ways a populist, adopting the policies that would carry the most favour at a particular time and place, he was very adamant with regard to who should be in the leadership of Zanu PF. While he brought Shamuyarira back into the leadership, he was totally against allowing Kombayi in…”
Fay Chung also remembers in her book how I, Patrick Kombayi went out of my way and risked my own life to procure weapons of war and other supplies for guerrillas in Zimbabwe and how I personally handled the provision of food for wives and children of the imprisoned guerrillas and those who were injured in the war.
Page 99 of Chung’s book reads in part,”…….. A number of committees were formed with John Mawema, the only full time freedom fighter in the group, assisted by a rich businessman named Patrick Kombayi, put in charge of ensuring that weapons and supplies continue to flow into Zimbabwe…. The last committee, headed by Kombayi, was in charge of providing food to the wives and children for the imprisoned guerrillas and the injured combatants, who were generally kept in Lusaka for medical treatment….” And she goes on to say on Page 110 “…. Patrick Kombayi, the head of the food committee appointed by an ad hoc committee was a brilliant businessman who owned a nightclub in Kafue, a small town near Lusaka. We worked very closely with Kombayi, who showed both exceptional courage and brilliance in devising ways and means to solve the food problem…”
These are a few observations by one person who finds them important to mention in her book and for the purposes of our national history but my contributions are simply innumerable. Mugabe is one person who knows very well how much sacrifice some of us put towards the liberation struggle but being the man he is, he has rewarded me with gunfire, which has crippled me. All because, like Chikerema, I am a man of principle, who stands for the truth, come rain come hail thunder.
I have said before that I fear nothing and nobody when it comes to telling the truth and setting the record straight. I want Zimbabweans to know that there has always been a cloud of suspicion with regard to the circumstances surrounding Mugabe’s so called ‘run-way’ with Edgar Tekere to Mozambique. That, as most of us who were in the of the political goings- on in the party at that time, was a pre- planned move orchestrated by Guy Clutton – Brock and some white liberals who had arranged Mugabe’s move into Mozambique ostensibly to go and join the struggle when in fact they wanted Mugabe to lead the party and agree to negotiations as Chitepo, who had been killed, had constantly refused any negotiations with the white settlers.
As such, the death of Chitepo raised a lot of suspicion that Mugabe and the Zezuru clique with the collusion of the white liberals had wanted to get rid of Chitepo to pave way for negotiations led by Mugabe. They were determined to avoid a situation where the Karangas who were leading the real armed struggle on the front, would stage a shoot-in take over the country. This is how, soon after Mugabe took party leadership, as per their plans, there were several conferences held while the Kangaras were in jails and detentions. There was the Geneva Conference in 1976 where Mugabe’s leadership was further endorsed to make their dream come true. There was also the Falls Bridge Conference (I attended that meeting together with Enos Nkala as the only Zanu representatives and I have minutes of that meeting) and other conferences back home by Joshua Nkomo and Muzorewa.
It is in this light that I and many others strongly believe that Mugabe and his group of liberal Rhodesians, FROLIZI and the Zezuru clique cannot be exonerated from the death of Herbert Chitepo. The white liberals, the Zezuru clique and Mugabe himself are strongly suspected to have had a hand in the death of Chitepo in order to have Mugabe leading the party and country. And Mugabe has shown his gratitude, hasn’t he?
Where is Guy Clutton –Brock buried today while veteran nationalists like Chikerema have been forgotten? How was Guy Clutton – Brock really involved in the liberation struggle to warrant him out National Hero status? As Mugabe himself said at Chikerema’s funeral: “Zvinyorwa zvake zvinonzi kudii?”
Finally, it is important to remember that it was the Zezuru groups that led Zapu and Zanu to form FROLIZI together with the white liberals and, their stumbling blocks were J.Z Moyo and Chitepo, who were assisted by Josiah Tongogara and Nikita Mangena. The death of these four stumbling blocks can then be not such mystery to some of us! They were simply thorns in some letter and documents pertaining to that story- some of them Mugabe himself – for example the formation of ZIPA, the so- called 9-by-9. I remember meeting Mugabe when we were burying JZ Moyo in Lusaka. That was the time I was filling in the leadership vacuum created following the arrest of our leaders.

By Dr Patrick Kombayi
Patron; The Zimbabwe Military
Academy