Sikombela Declaration

The Sikombela Declaration was a communique issued by the ZANU Central Committee in 1965. The Central Committee members were detained at Sikombela Detention Centre near Que Que (present day Kwekwe.) after they were arrested as a result of the banning of the ZANU by the Rhodesian government. The declaration gave exiled ZANU leadership in Zambia and elsewhere the power to organise and direct the armed struggle.^[1]

Using the powers given to them by the ‘Sikombela Declaration’ the exiled leadership constituted itself into a ‘Revolutionary Council’ under the Chairmanship of Herbert Chitepo. The Council was initially composed of seventeen people, five of whom had direct military responsibilities. A formal military organ emerged in 1966, the Military Planning Committee, headed by the Secretary of Public Affairs, Noel Mukono, and an assistant, Josiah Tongogara, who controlled a secretariat of three departments: Reconnaissance, Clayton Chigowe, Camps, William Ndangana, and Logistics and Supplies B. Mutuma.^[1]