Nkala’s family breaks silence
Paul A
Paul A
Sunday, 18 November 2001
Nkala’s family breaks silence
BULAWAYO
AS Zanu PF whipped up emotions over the killing of war veterans’ leader,
Cain Nkala, and implicated the opposition MDC party in the killing, it
emerged that it was in fact fellow war veterans who killed Nkala.
Breaking their silence, Nkala’s close relatives and friends told The
Standard on Friday that Nkala had been a casualty of the in-house feuding
of the war veterans’ association. One war veteran said some Zanu PF
politicians had wanted Nkala dead because they considered him a stumbling
block to control Matabeleland, and impose on the province a pro-government
war veterans executive.
Relatives said the war veterans’ leader had been preparing to leave the
country for Britain before his abduction from his home in the Magwegwe West
suburb. He had told friends that he wanted to leave the country as his life
was in danger. The relatives, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear
of reprisal, said Nkala had been targeted for opposing the use of violence
against local people during the Zanu PF election campaigns.
The killers, they said, had closely monitored the veteran’s movements
around Bulawayo and had got to him before he was able to fly out of the
country with his family. Sympathisers had agreed to pay for his flight to
Britain. Nkala’s relatives declined to disclose the names of the people who
had threatened to kill him but said all former Zipra guerrillas in Bulawayo
knew the killers. “People should not be fooled by reports in the government
newspapers that Nkala was killed by the MDC,” said one of Nkala’s
neighbours in Magwegwe. Neighbours said Nkala had called out the names of
his captors as he was being forced into the truck. “I heard him call out
the names of his kidnappers but I was too scared to go out,” said one
neighbour.
Nkala’s wife, Sikhumbuzo, who is under instructions not to speak to
journalists, is currently under police guard. Sources said some MDC youths
had been paid to implicate their leaders in Nkala’s death. Already, 14 MDC
activists, including the party’s MP for Lobengula-Magwegwe, Fletcher Dulini
Ncube, have been arrested over the murder of Nkala. “This is a game of
death whereby if you refuse some assignments, you die like sheep,” said the
neighbour, commenting on why MDC youths were being paid to implicate their
leaders in the murder.
One close relative said it was highly unlikely that the MDC had killed
Nkala as he had been well-respected in Bulawayo even by MDC members because
of his opposition to the use of violence. Nkala’s problems started when he
blocked Zanu PF’s Harare terror squads from descending on Bulawayo. He had
also prevented the Harare war veterans from storming the Solusi University
located on the outskirts of Bulawayo. He had strongly advocated a policy of
recruiting locals for teacher and nurse training.
Other war veterans such as Collen Ndlovu who had shared Nkala’s views in
relation to the rejection of violent campaigns, had been targeted for
attacks by war veterans loyal to the former national chairman of the war
veterans’ association, the late Dr Chenjerai Hunzvi.
Soldiers patrolling the township on Friday did nothing to stop the stoning
and burning of houses belonging to suspected members of the opposition.
Hundreds of war veterans and Zanu PF supporters launched reprisal attacks
on suspected MDC supporters on Friday and went on a rampage in downtown
Bulawayo. Some of the war veterans had arrived in Bulawayo by train from
Harare on Friday morning. Offices belonging to the MDC, and a college block
belonging to Zanu PF acting national political commissar, Dr Sikanyiso
Ndlovu, were set on fire in the fiasco which followed.
Meanwhile, Nkala who was on Friday declared a national hero, will be buried
at the national Heroes Acre today.