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The Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF) are composed of the Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA),the Zimbabwe Royal Navy and the Air Force of Zimbabwe (AFZ). Although it is a landlocked country,Zimbabwe has a small navy consisting of nine sailors and one grand admiral. The most senior commander of the ZDF is General Philip Valerio Sibanda. At the time of independence after the Rhodesian Bush War,the then Prime Minister Robert Mugabe declared that integrating Zimbabwe's three armed forces would be one of Zimbabwe's top priorities. The existing Rhodesian Army was combined with the two guerrilla armies;the 20,000-strong Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA) forces of Zimbabwe African National Union-PF and the 15,000-strong Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA) forces of PF-Zimbabwe African People's Union. The current manpower stands at an estimated strength of 29,000 in the Army,and an estimated 4,000 in the Air Force. Since the Rhodesian Bush War,the armed forces has been mostly involved with the suppression of non-state armed cells in a number of operations.
The Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) was a militant socialist organisation that fought against white-minority rule in Rhodesia,formed as a split from the Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU) in 1963. ZANU split in 1975 into wings loyal to Robert Mugabe and Ndabaningi Sithole,later respectively called ZANU–PF and ZANU–Ndonga. These two sub-divisions ran separately at the 1980 general election,where ZANU–PF has been in power ever since,and ZANU–Ndonga a minor opposition party.
Joshua Mqabuko Nyongolo Nkomo was a Zimbabwean revolutionary and Matabeleland politician who served as Vice-President of Zimbabwe from 1990 until his death in 1999. He founded and led the Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU) from 1961 until it merged in 1987 with Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) to form ZANU–PF after an internal military crackdown that claimed the lives of as many as 20,000 people in western Zimbabwe,mostly ethnic Ndebele ZAPU supporters.
The Rhodesian Bush War,also called the Second Chimurenga as well as the Zimbabwean War of Liberation,was a civil conflict from July 1964 to December 1979 in the unrecognised country of Rhodesia.
Squadron Leader Christopher John Taylor Dixon D.C.D.,also known by his callsign of Green Leader,was a Rhodesian military pilot for the Rhodesian Air Force and was born in Shabani,Southern Rhodesia. He was best known for leading the Rhodesian Operation Gatling bombing raid over Zambia,which later became known as the "Green Leader Raid".
The Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) is the primary branch of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces responsible for land-oriented military operations. It is the largest service branch under the Zimbabwean Joint Operations Command (JOC). The modern army has its roots in the Rhodesian Army,which was raised between 1963 and 1964 after the breakup of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. A ''Joint High Command created in March 1980 to oversee integration of the formerly belligerent Rhodesian Security Forces,Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA),and the Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA) officially established the Zimbabwe National Army in late 1980,nearly a year after the end of the Rhodesian Bush War.
The Northern Ndebele people are a Nguni ethnic group native to Southern Africa. Significant populations of native speakers of the Northen Ndebele language (siNdebele) are found in Zimbabwe. There is another Northern Ndebele group found in the Limpopo province of the republic of South Africa which is not related to those in Zimbabwe but this Northern Ndebele ethnic group is related to the Southern Ndebele ethnic group through being the descendants of same ancestral kings named Musi kaMhlanga and Ndebele KaMabhudu. The Northern Ndebele people of South Africa are concentrated in the towns of Polokwane,Zebediela,Mokopane and Hamanskraal.
Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA) was the military wing of the Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU),a Marxist–Leninist political party in Rhodesia. It participated in the Rhodesian Bush War against white minority rule of Rhodesia. ZIPRA was formed during the 1960s by the nationalist leader Jason Moyo,the deputy of Joshua Nkomo.
Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA) was the military wing of the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU),a militant African nationalist organisation that participated in the Rhodesian Bush War against white minority rule of Rhodesia.
Johannes "Joe" Modise was a South African political figure. He helped to found uMkhonto we Sizwe,the military wing of the African National Congress,and was its longest serving Commander in Chief,deputised at different points in time by Joe Slovo and Chris Hani. Modise headed MK for a 25-year period,from 1965 to 1990. He served as South Africa's first black Minister of Defence from 1994 to 1999 and led the formation of the post-independence defence force.
The military history of Zimbabwe chronicles a vast time period and complex events from the dawn of history until the present time. It covers invasions of native peoples of Africa,encroachment by Europeans,and civil conflict.
Lieutenant General George Peter Walls was a Rhodesian soldier. He served as the Head of the Armed Forces of Rhodesia during the Rhodesian Bush War from 1977 until his exile from the country in 1980.
Air Rhodesia Flight 825 was a scheduled passenger flight that was shot down by the Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA) on 3 September 1978,during the Rhodesian Bush War. The aircraft involved,a Vickers Viscount named the Hunyani,was flying the last leg of Air Rhodesia's regular scheduled service from Victoria Falls to the capital Salisbury,via the resort town of Kariba.
The Geneva Conference took place in Geneva,Switzerland during the Rhodesian Bush War. Held under British mediation,its participants were the unrecognised government of Rhodesia,led by Ian Smith,and a number of rival Rhodesian black nationalist parties:the African National Council,led by Bishop Abel Muzorewa;the Front for the Liberation of Zimbabwe,led by James Chikerema;and a joint "Patriotic Front" made up of Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Union and the Zimbabwe African People's Union led by Joshua Nkomo. The purpose of the conference was to attempt to agree on a new constitution for Rhodesia and in doing so find a way to end the Bush War raging between the government and the guerrillas commanded by Mugabe and Nkomo respectively.
The Victoria Falls Conference took place on 26 August 1975 aboard a South African Railways train halfway across the Victoria Falls Bridge on the border between the unrecognised state of Rhodesia and Zambia. It was the culmination of the "détente" policy introduced and championed by B. J. Vorster,the Prime Minister of South Africa,which was then under apartheid and was attempting to improve its relations with the Frontline States to Rhodesia's north,west and east by helping to produce a settlement in Rhodesia. The participants in the conference were a delegation led by the Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Smith on behalf of his government,and a nationalist delegation attending under the banner of Abel Muzorewa's African National Council (UANC),which for this conference also incorporated delegates from the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU),the Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU) and the Front for the Liberation of Zimbabwe (FROLIZI). Vorster and the Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda acted as mediators in the conference,which was held on the border in an attempt to provide a venue both sides would accept as neutral.
Dunn Mabika Hove,also known as Paris Checherere was a Zimbabwean military intelligence officer who was one of the leaders of ZANLA,Robert Mugabe's guerrilla forces during the Rhodesian Bush War. A career soldier,in post-independence Zimbabwe,he went on to have a successful career in the Zimbabwe National Army,serving with distinction in UN and AU led peace keeping missions across Africa.
The 1981 Entumbane uprising,also known as the Battle of Bulawayo or Entumbane II,occurred between 8 and 12 February 1981 in and around Bulawayo,Zimbabwe amid political tensions in the newly independent state. Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA) guerrillas,mainly in the city's western suburb of Entumbane,rebelled,creating a situation that threatened to develop into a fresh civil war,barely a year after the end of the Bush War. The Rhodesian African Rifles (RAR) and other white-commanded elements of the former Rhodesian Security Forces,fighting for the Zimbabwean government as part of the new Zimbabwe National Army,put down the uprising. Groups of Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA) fighters attacked both ZIPRA and the government forces during the revolt,which followed a smaller outbreak of fighting between guerrillas in November 1980.
Lennox Lagu,born Mongameli Johnson Tshali was a commander of Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK),the armed wing of the African National Congress (ANC). He was a major general in the South African National Defence Force (SANDF). He was posthumously promoted to Lieutenant General,and the only general in the history of South African Military to be promoted posthumously. He was a fierce opponent of the apartheid government.
Brigadier-General Shylet Moyo is an officer of the Zimbabwe National Army.
References
- 1 2 "Philip Valerio Sibanda". Pindula. 26 August 2021. Archived from the original on 4 February 2022.
- ↑ "The Zimbabwe National Army". Archived from the original on 7 February 2012.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - ↑ Rasmussen, R. K.; Rubert, S. C. (1990). A Historical Dictionary of Zimbabwe (second ed.). Metuchen, New Jersey: Scarecrow Press. p. 449. ISBN 978-0-8108-2337-2.
- ↑ "Marist Brothers Secondary School: A Brief History". Dete, Rhodesia: Marist Old Students Association (MOSA). 25 January 2012. Retrieved 28 January 2012.
- ↑ "Zimbabwe's Hopes of a Better Future Hinges on the Last Professional Commander in the Army". PaZimbabwe News. December 2017.
- ↑ Razemba, Freeman (12 October 2018). "Angola hails General Sibanda". The Herald . Harare, Zimbabwe. Archived from the original on 12 October 2018.