Thumbs up to our defence forces

OUR defence forces structure turns 37 today. They are our pride, courageous men and women whose job is to make each one of us safe. Their job is to defend the country’s territorial integrity - the airspace and the land. Their job is to defend the country’s sovereignty and national interest. They are a key component whose existence defines what Zimbabwe is.

Without them the nation state of Zimbabwe and the people who make it up would be vulnerable, non-existent in fact.

We expect hundreds of thousands of our people to throng various venues countrywide to commemorate Defence Forces Day today. President Mugabe, the Head of State and Government and Commander-in-Chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF) will lead proceedings today in Harare to mark this important day for our country.

We recognise the fundamental role that the ZDF plays and join the rest of the country in expressing our profound happiness at the occasion of the force’s 37th birthday.

Looking back since the formation of the ZDF in 1980, we see immense achievements that have preserved the country’s territorial integrity, sovereignty and protection of the national interest. On that firm foundation, we are confident of the future.

We know that the nucleus of our armed forces are veterans of our liberation struggle. The first armed forces Zimbabwe had was a combination of liberators Zanla and Zipra forces as well as elements of the Rhodesian army and police forces. The latter were used as instruments to suppress blacks while the former were the people’s army who fought a victorious war against the settler regime.

Although they were bitter enemies only a few days before Independence arrived on April 18 1980, they became one force of friendly men, women and officers working together in defending the new country and its peoples. It must have been difficult for freedom fighters to share barracks with their former oppressors but we look back with utmost pride seeing how they put the interest of their country first over personal anger. Indeed there was a new political dispensation to defend and promote and the comrades had to tolerate them.

That is the foundation of the ZDF whose 37th birthday we mark today. Over the years, many have died or left the forces while others have joined.

To us, that ability by the formerly opposing forces to unite and work together was the first achievement the ZDF has scored since Independence. That was the basis for future achievements that they have had at home and abroad.

The Mozambican campaign was one of them. During the liberation struggle, Zanla forces were based in Mozambique but as they were still fighting, their host country was thrown into a civil war, Renamo bandits rising against a democratically elected Frelimo government of Cde Samora Machel. Soon after Zimbabwe gained Independence, it sent forces to support Cde Machel’s government against Renamo. While this was an effort by Zimbabwe to support a comrade against a quisling enemy, the Mozambican campaign was also motivated by the desire for Harare to defend its shortest route to the sea and other economic interests.

The ZDF prosecuted that war with distinction and Renamo was defeated in 1992.

In addition to that war, the ZDF was deployed to fight rebels and invading forces that sought to overthrow the government of Cde Laurent-Desire Kabila in the Democratic Republic of Congo. This was a difficult war that the ZDF had to fight in extremely treacherous territory – the impenetrable equatorial jungles of the DRC against a rebel movement that was backed by established armies of Rwanda and Uganda.

The ZDF acquitted themselves extremely well and managed to help Cde Kabila’s army repel the rebels and their backers. That was to be the basis of the relative order we have in that country now.

Before the Congo deployment, the ZDF also helped the Angolan government of Cde Jose Eduardo Dos Santos in defeating a rebel movement led by Jonas Savimbi.

Over the years local soldiers and police officers have been deployed in several countries such as Liberia, Somalia, Côte d’Ivoire, East Timor, Eritrea, Kosovo, Liberia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Sudan and South Sudan for peace-keeping missions. Still, they performed very well. But another important achievement that some might not see as such is the ZDF’s ability to preserve national peace and unity. Some countries lacking a competent and professional defence structure as ours have descended into civil wars. Many countries have had coups staged by unprofessional armies, but ours has existed to defend our hardwon independence and democracy. They have defended the national constitution, sometimes under very difficult operating circumstances.

There, obviously, should be more achievements that the ZDF has scored over the years beyond the ones we have discussed in this space. We have every reason to happily join them in marking this important day today. We urge them to continue on that path.