It happened but not quite as told... the poet had a very good perspective on the situation and actually wrote a very interesting and reasonably factual article on the incident from a personal point of view... you may find it if you google the poets name or possibly "entumbane" or "uprising of entumbane". I took part in quelling the uprising and actually had the sight unit from the apc that was taken out by the armoured cars. Many of us were ex-territorial army and had been stood down from active service after Mugabe intimidated his way into power but we willingly volunteered. The fighting was happening about 3-5 kms away from where I was living at the time. I was remobilised for 5 days and did not even get paid although I did receive a letter from army HQ saying thank you. The intel was very confusing from the start and nobody really knew what we were up against - the airforce was searching for masses of troops and units were deployed to destroy suspected resupply and refuelling points. Basically, it was Nkomo's army against Mugabe's. Nkomo lost.