{"id":64098,"date":"2024-09-03T20:40:57","date_gmt":"2024-09-03T20:40:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/snapshot-in-history-the-assassination-of-herbert-chitepo-in-lusaka"},"modified":"2024-09-03T20:47:49","modified_gmt":"2024-09-03T20:47:49","slug":"snapshot-in-history-the-assassination-of-herbert-chitepo-in-lusaka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/snapshot-in-history-the-assassination-of-herbert-chitepo-in-lusaka","title":{"rendered":"SNAPSHOT IN HISTORY: THE ASSASSINATION OF HERBERT CHITEPO IN LUSAKA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Zambia. <\/strong><\/span>ON the morning of March 18,1975, a blue Volkswagen Bettle, registration EY 7077 with a driver and two passengers attempted to leave House No. 150, Muramba Road, in Lusaka\u2019s Chilenje South by reversing.<\/p>\n

Shortly after that there was an explosion that threw part of the car onto the roof of the house, uprooted a tree and fatally injured a boy who lived next door.<\/p>\n

In the car was Herbert Chitepo who was a key leader of the Rhodesian liberation movement ZANU, was blown to pieces after a car bomb, placed in his Volkswagen Beetle the night before, exploded. He and Silas Shamiso, one of his bodyguards, were killed instantly. Sadat Kufamadzuba, his other bodyguard, was injured. The explosion sent part of the car onto the roof of his house and uprooted a tree next door. Hours later one of his neighbours died of injuries he sustained in the explosion.<\/p>\n

The murder of Chitepo happened during one of the darkest period of Zimbabwe liberation politics.<\/p>\n

President Kenneth Kaunda set up a \u2018Special International Commission on the Assassination of Herbert Chitepo\u2019 chaired by Reuben Kamanga. And only 10 days after the tragedy, a number of ZANU members had been detained. The Zambia Army took over nationalist movements bases in Zambia. A total of 1 300 freedom fighters, including refugees, were detained.<\/p>\n

Fearing for their lives Robert Mugabe and Emmerson Mnangagwa (current President of Zimbabwe) run away from Zambia. After the Zambian Security Forces raided the Mnangagwa family farm in Mumbwa, where it was alleged that Robert Mugabe and Mnangagwa where hiding. Both would only reappear later in Mozambique, where they set up a new base with support from China.<\/p>\n

Peter Stiff\u2019s book See You In November details the Rhodesian Central Intelligence Organisation\u2019s (CIO) plan to kill Chitepo and how Alan Brice and his team of Hugh \u2018Chuck\u2019 Hind and Ian Sutherland carried out the assassination. The assassin, born Hugh Hind, later earned the nickname \u2018Chuck\u2019 and was recruited by the Rhodesian CIO.<\/p>\n

However, after the independence of Zimbabwe in 1980, Major Chuck Hind who was a member of the secretive British elite forces, the SAS, but was working for the Rhodesian regime wrote a book in which he claimed to have laid the landmine that killed Chitepo in Chilenje.<\/p>\n

The irony is that Hind (now late) trained the initial intake of the Zambia paramilitary police force that formed the spine of the security at KK\u2019s residence at State House. Possibly unknown to KK then, Hind was a paid-up member of the Rhodesia Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) while he was training the presidential guards.<\/p>\n

When KK learnt about this later, he kindly asked Hind\u2019s wife to pick a letter from him at State House and deliver it to the Zambian High Commission in London. She was quietly deported in that humanely manner.<\/p>\n

It is clear that at the time of Chitepo\u2019s death in Zambia, the political environment was riddled by high diplomacy, intrigue, mistrust ethnic rivalry within the ZANU, and racial tension in Southern Africa.<\/p>\n

The Chitepo Commission report released in March 1976 claimed that inter-ethnic rivalry within ZANU resulted in Chitepo\u2019s death. The report was rejected by ZANU. After Zimbabwe\u2019s independence, the Mugabe govt charged that KK was complicit in Chitepo\u2019s death. This was rejected by Kaunda\u2019s Zambia.<\/p>\n

(Adapted from a write up by Dr Sam Phiri)<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Zambia Follow Africa-Press<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Zambia. ON the morning of March 18,1975, a blue Volkswagen Bettle, registration EY 7077 with a driver and two passengers attempted to leave House No. 150, Muramba Road, in Lusaka\u2019s Chilenje South by reversing. Shortly after that there was an explosion that threw part of the car onto the roof of the house, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":64097,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[233],"class_list":["post-64098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","tag-zambia"],"yoast_head":"\nSNAPSHOT IN HISTORY: THE ASSASSINATION OF HERBERT CHITEPO IN LUSAKA - Zambia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"ON the morning of March 18,1975, a blue Volkswagen Bettle, registration EY 7077 with a driver and two passengers attempt ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/snapshot-in-history-the-assassination-of-herbert-chitepo-in-lusaka\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"SNAPSHOT IN HISTORY: THE ASSASSINATION OF HERBERT CHITEPO IN LUSAKA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"ON the morning of March 18,1975, a blue Volkswagen Bettle, registration EY 7077 with a driver and two passengers attempt ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/snapshot-in-history-the-assassination-of-herbert-chitepo-in-lusaka\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Zambia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-09-03T20:40:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-09-03T20:47:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zambia\/sites\/35\/2024\/09\/sm_1725383789.52816.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"690\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"465\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/snapshot-in-history-the-assassination-of-herbert-chitepo-in-lusaka#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/snapshot-in-history-the-assassination-of-herbert-chitepo-in-lusaka\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"SNAPSHOT IN HISTORY: THE ASSASSINATION OF HERBERT CHITEPO IN LUSAKA\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-09-03T20:40:57+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-09-03T20:47:49+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/snapshot-in-history-the-assassination-of-herbert-chitepo-in-lusaka\"},\"wordCount\":579,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/snapshot-in-history-the-assassination-of-herbert-chitepo-in-lusaka#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zambia\/sites\/35\/2024\/09\/sm_1725383789.52816.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Zambia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"community\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/snapshot-in-history-the-assassination-of-herbert-chitepo-in-lusaka#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/snapshot-in-history-the-assassination-of-herbert-chitepo-in-lusaka\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/snapshot-in-history-the-assassination-of-herbert-chitepo-in-lusaka\",\"name\":\"SNAPSHOT IN HISTORY: THE ASSASSINATION OF HERBERT CHITEPO IN LUSAKA - 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