Philip Valerio Sibanda

General Valerio was educated at Marist Brothers Dete in Dete.[3]

During the Rhodesian Bush War, Valerio trained and served as a ZIPRA military combatant. Valerio left the country in 1973. He received military training at Morogoro under the likes of Retired Brigadier Ambrose Mutinhiri. His alias was Ananias Gwenzi. In 1974 after completing his training in Tanzania him and four others: Elisha Gagisa (Stanely Nleya), Elias Ndou, Abel Mazinyane and Joel Dambudzo were sent to Lebanon where they spent 9 months of rigorous training under the Palestinian Liberation Organization at Jalub. He even saw combat against the Israelis.

Upon his return in 1975, he became an instructor at the newly opened Mbwembwesi training camp in Tanzania. He was then seconded to form part of the military commanders running Morogoro under the ZIPA. Among the Morogoro-based Zanla Commanders in ZIPA were Contsantine Chiwenga (commissar), Perence Shiri and Augustine Chihuri (Stephen Chocha). From ZIPRA there was Eddie Sigoge Mlotshwa and Sam Fakazi. He also became the commander of the GC-B region.

After the death of Nikita Mangena in 1978, he became camp commander for the CGT (Communist Guerrilla Training) camp, located about 60 miles east of Lusaka. He was initially appointed to the ZIPRA High Command as chief of training however he swapped that position with Eddie “Sigoge” Mlotshwa for Chief Of Reconnaissance leading the Military Intelligence department.

Valerio was attested into the Zimbabwe National Army at independence. He quickly rose through the ranks , by 1994 he was the only ex-ZIPRA cadre to have risen to the rank of major general.

Between October 1995 and April 1998 he became the head of United Nations Angola Verification Mission (UNAVEM III) and subsequently MONUA (Mission d’Observation des Nations Unies à l’Angola) as the Force Commander charged with peace and national reconciliation. [4]