Wankie Campaign – Dube Team Enters Botswana
On 29 August 1967, Chris Hani, Jackson Mandla, Alfred Mfamana and their Main Group Commander, John Dube (aka “Sotsha Ngwenya”), underwent an interrogation process undertaken by the Botswana Police and they declined to give any information except their names.
It all began on 28 August 1967, when the four arrived at a large store in Nkange, Botswana, wearing military uniforms but bearing no armaments. They then purchased civilian clothes from the store and immediately changed into them. Noticing their uniforms, the storekeeper notified a local councillor, who arrived and promised the four a lift to Francistown. Instead of taking them to Francistown as promised, the Famine Relief vehicle that collected the four took them to the police camp at Totome, which the councillor had arranged with the police.
As they were being interrogated, it emerged that John Dube spoke fluent Kalanga, which indicated that he had Rhodesian origins. When the police asked him whether he was involved in the fighting that took place in Rhodesia in the previous days, he eventually admitted and agreed to lead the police to a place in the Maitengwe lands, on the border between Rhodesia and Botswana. When they arrived at the place, he pointed out a cache including three AK-47 submachine rifles, one Russian PPSH submachine gun, one Russian RGD-5 hand grenade, and another hand grenade of Russian design that was manufactured in North Vietnam. He then adm
