If Britons Honored Dog; what about me-cries Prince Bryce Mfune
Prince Byce Mfune with Elijah Ngwale at Pan African Radio 105.1FM pix by Derrick Sinjela 2017 February (6)
By Ashton Kelly Bunda, Fulman James Mukobeko and Derrick Sinjela
FORMER Zambia State Security Intelligence Services (ZSSIS) Intelligence Officer Prince Bryce Mfune says an opportune exists for the Patriotic Front (PF) Government led by a ‘LISTENING’ Republican President Edgar Chagwa Lungu to compensate him for dying a little for ‘Mother Zambia.”
A 67-year-old straight-talking Prince Mfune is not amused that a citizen is honoured for merely singing ‘bubble-gum’ music while his peers who put life on the ‘imperialist’ chopping board remain unsung heroes and heroines.
Following his recruitment into the secret service, a tart Prince Mfune nostalgically reminisced sacrificing his life in an effort to save lives of Zambians freedom fighters from eminent economic sabotage from South African Apartheid Air Force bombers.
Raising his hands, a heartbroken Prince Mfune recollected that had he not tipped intelligence officers, Zambia would have been completely demolished by the draconian Apartheid regime.
As a Christian, Prince Mfune says through his self-taught spy knowhow, ‘Mother Zambia’ survived the terror and to date remains a blessed nation.
PRINCE Mfune lamented that despite the doing ‘a donkey risky work and sacrifice’ for superiors, tasks assigned by Lusaka Province Deputy Director of Intelligence, late Julius Nkoma and Director of Intelligence late Hanson Kamima, decades on not a single ngwee has reached his pocket.
Prine Mfune who was born 1948, hails from royal family of Chief Mphumba village in Lundazi Eastern Province of Zambia came to the rescue of the former First Republican President Dr. Kenneth David Buchizya Kaunda, fondly revered as ‘KK’ targeted by South African assailants on account of harbouring prominent freedom fighters with barely 48 hours remaining.
“I managed to frustrate the conspiracy on time, but KK did not recognize my patriotism and ‘alas’ remain a nonentity instead of being one of the Zambian heroes. My ‘spy-job’ employers became elusive and kept a distance after the assignment,” a distraught Prince Mfune recollected.
The emotional former intelligence officer narrated that in his mission he managed to detect a party of (8) eight Southern Africans, composed of one black man, a trained commando soldier, called Isaiah Moyo, later found guilty of espionage and subsequently jailed for 50 years in 1986.
Following the information Prince Mfune dug on a South African plot to sabotage the Zambian economy by bombing Arakan Barracks, Turgagan Barracks in Ndola, the Air Force Military Base in Mbala, Northern Province and Livingstone, Southern Province, Mfune claimed that Dr. Kaunda was frightened and let the white spies go scot free after detaining them for just a few days.
Prince Mfune bragged that he equally saved the lives of Southern African freedom fighters who were harbored by the then President Dr. Kenneth David Buchizya Kaunda, later politically nicknamed the “Father of Africa”, for courageously hosting the South African leaders namely Oliver Tambo, Thabo Mbeki, Jacob Zuma, then Commander of “Umukonto Wesizwe” based at Gonda Gorilla Camp in Chipata, Eastern Province.
Others on list of the heart-less South African assailants were John Makatini, former First President of Namibia, Sam Nujoma, then serving as leader of the South West African Peoples (SWAPO) party and a colleague Jai Toivo later destined to die in an ambush after a military raid.
“I did risky donkey-menial work in an effort to save Mother Zambia, but my superiors late Julius Nkoma and late Hanson Kamima as directors of Intelligence abandoned me after I successfully outwitted the spies and had them arrested. My bosses gave a risky assignment, started playing hard to find and kept a distance after they promised me a farm, house and a lot of money and here I am still a nonentity, without being honored,” Mfune grieved.
The expectant and forward looking Prince Mfune managing to fight tears of sorrow from his eyes recollected that upon making a follow-up on the rewards of money and house he had been promised by his employers to monitor the Apartheid assailants, dramatically resorted to kill him by poisoning his beer at night club in Lusaka.
“Fortunately paramedics responded by treating me quickly after being evacuated to the University Teaching Hospital (UTH) in Lusaka, where a doctor intervened and I survived. I am now barely surviving living in one-bed-roomed house with 11 children and 8 grandchildren,” petitioned Mfune.
Prince Mfune has a humble academic knowledge with only an average General Certificate Education (GCE), but was largely wiser than other superior Intelligence officers with degrees.
The concerned 67-year-old narrated that at one time in modern history British the Government honored a ‘Dog Hero’ for rescuing of country through sniffing hidden bombs under a tunnel built by German spies during the Second World War -1937 to 1945 and British forefathers declared the named dog a hero.
After the dog died, it was honored like human being, given a 21- gun-salute and eventually buried in a cemetery where human military heroes and heroines are buried.
Prince Byce Mfune, Fulman James Mukobeko with Elijah Ngwale at Pan African Radio 105.1FM pix by Derrick Sinjela 2017 February
