Muzorewa named in Herbert Chitepo murder – ZimEye

By Political Correspondent: The late Prime Minister of the short-lived Zimbabwe-Rhodesia (1979), Bishop Abel Muzorewa, has been named responsible for the murder of Herbert Chitepo.

Chitepo, the esteemed leader of Zanu’s external wing, was living in exile in Lusaka, Zambia. On the fateful morning of March 18, 1975, a bomb placed under his pale blue Volkswagen Beetle exploded outside his residence in Lusaka, claiming his life.

Zanu PF stalwart and last surviving member of Dare Rechimurenga, Rugare Gumbo, mentioned Muzorewa while shedding light on the identities of those responsible for the Chitepo murder.

Gumbo, who had met Chitepo just a day before the tragic event, expressed equal shock upon learning of his death.

In a video shared by political activist Lloyd Msipa, Gumbo said individuals from the Karanga community were said to have been responsible for the murder of Chitepo, who came from the Manyika tribe.

Below is what Gumbo said:

Ndabaningi Sithole was supported by Kaunda, who was saying that he believes that we, the Karangas, killed Chitepo, and that Chitepo was Manyika, but when Chitepo was killed, what really happened? It was that on March 17, 1974, Muzorewa arrived in Zambia, we went to the airport to welcome him.

We sat in our own place just to watch as they celebrated, the Chikeremas and the Nyandoros. And he arrived and then we went to meet him and then we went to the Government House to decide the next day’s meeting on the 18th and when we would get there; there were more or less altercations between Nyandoro and Chitepo, etc. Anyway, that’s not the problem, but after we agreed to meet tomorrow, we said that Justin Nyoka, who was reporting… Don’t you, do you know Justin Nyoka? He said he wanted to see me and Tongogara so we left and headed towards Chitepo’s to determine what our line up would be for the next day tomorrow for about 30 minutes or so to decide who will represent the party externally, the Muzorewas said this (and that) .

So we said that Chitepo and Jaison Moyo are the ones who will represent the party outside the country and that’s how we went about it and then we had the BBC, with the Muzorewa and so on.

Chitepo saw us on the terrace and waved goodbye, we’ll see each other tomorrow. And that was it.

The first time we were in different houses for fear of being arrested or something, but after that we went to a house in a nice way so we could wake up tomorrow in the publicity office to meet Justin Nyoka from the BBC. Tongogara arrived.

As soon as we got there, we received a phone call from Mudzi at the liberation center, he said that a bomb had exploded in Chitepo’s house. So we said ah.

Then, right there, Tongogara told me aah, Gumbo, our fight for liberation is over. Without Chitepo I don’t think our revolution will turn out well.

We said let’s go to the liberation and when we arrived at the liberation gate the SWAPO commander came and said: I’m very sorry, it’s no longer a political bomb. There has been a bomb at Chitepo’s in Chilenje Sur. Then we went there to see and saw his mangled body. His bodyguard had also been hit and a child and another bodyguard had also been affected.

This is how the problems in ZANU began. Although there had been other problems before, for the future this is how it all started.

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