By Political Corespondent- Zanu PF stalwart and the last surviving Dare Rechimurenga member, Rugare Gumbo, has shed light on the identities of those responsible for the assassination of Herbert Chitepo.

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

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

In a video shared by political activist Lloyd Msipa, Gumbo said it was said that individuals from the Karanga community were responsible for killing Chitepo who hailed from the Manyika tribe.

Below is what Gumbo Said:

Ndabaningi Sithole was supported by Kaunda, who was saying that he thinks that Chitepo was killed by us, the Karangas, and Chitepo was Manyika, and yet when Chitepo was killed, what actually happened was that on the 17th of March 1975, Muzorewa came to Zambia, we went to the airport to welcome him. 

We went to sit in our own place just to watch while they were celebrating, the Chikeremas and the Nyandoros. And he arrived, and then we went to meet him, and then we went to State House to decide on the following day’s meeting on the 18th, and when we got there, there were more or less altercations between Nyandoro and Chitepo and so on. Anyway, that is not the issue, but after we agreed to meet tomorrow, we said that Justin Nyoka who was reporting… Isn’t it, you know Justin Nyoka? He said that he wanted to see me and Tongogara so so we then left and went towards Chitepo’s in order to out our line for the following day tomorrow for about 30 minutes or so to decide who was going to be representing the party externally, the Muzorewa’s were saying this [and that]. 

So we said Chitepo and Jaison Moyo are those who will represent the party outside the country, and so we followed each other, and then we had BBC, with the Muzorewa’s and so forth. 

Chitepo saw us on the veranda and waved bye-bye. We will meet tomorrow. And that was it. 

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

As soon as we arrived there, we received a phone call from Mudzi at the liberation centre, he said a bomb has hit at Chitepo’s home. So we said oh. 

So right there, Tongogara said to me, Aah, Gumbo, our liberation struggle has been terminated. Without Chitepo I  don’t think our revolution will come out well. 

We said let us go to liberation house, and as we got to the gate at liberation, the commander of SWAPO came and said I am so sorry he is no more political bomb. There has been a bomb at Chitepo’s at Chilenje South. We then went there to see and we saw his body ripped apart. His bodyguard had also been hit, and a child and another bodyguard were also affected. 

So that is how the problems started in ZANU. Even though there had been other problems before, for the future, that is how everything started.