Chiwenga lauds soldiers from foreign mission
ZIMBABWE Defence Forces Commander General Constantino Guveya Chiwenga has applauded soldiers, who recently returned from Russia and Tanzania for maintaining a high level of discipline while they were discharging their duties.
He said they would have disgraced and shamed not only the Zimbabwe Defence Forces, but the entire nation, if they had not maintained such discipline,
Gen Chiwenga was speaking at the Russia International Military Games and Sadc Special Forces Exercise welcome parade in Harare yesterday.
One of the contingents participated in the Russian Federation International Games, which was held between July 29 and August 12 in Russia while the other was in Tanzania for the Sadc Special Forces Exercise code-named “Exercise Matumbawe”, which was held between August 1 and 30.
“I am pleased to note that these two training engagements allowed you, as participants, not only to sharpen your skills at arms, but also to interact and share with those of your different specialties from other countries.
“It is a fact that the ZDF’s participation in training events of this nature provides an opportunity in widening our horizon in the employment of latest military technology, which forms part of the inventory of our erstwhile friends from the developed world.
The fact that some of the participants to the Russian Federation International Games were from developed countries is also illustrative of the high level of esteem and trust with which these countries hold us in terms of the protection of intellectual rights on military hardware and technology,” Gen Chiwenga said.
He said the Russian games were designed to strengthen international military technical cooperation and raising the prestige of specialised units.
He said they were also aimed at developing competition among sister armies besides demonstrating combat capabilities of modern armaments, military equipment and technical reconnaissance gadgets.
“The Zimbabwe Defence Forces contingent to these games, which was appearing for the second year running participated in those games, which were hosted by the Russian Federation, People’s Republic of China and the Kazakhstan in 2016, which marked our first year as participants to such games.
“Zimbabwe joined other selected African countries namely Angola and Egypt and the list has since increased to five African countries with the inclusion of South Africa and Uganda for the 2017 Edition.
This has broadened the scope of participation by African countries, thus making the competition more exciting,” Gen Chiwenga said.
He said the participants raised the country’s flag high and the skills gained would be very beneficial in their training development.
“Let me, therefore, applaud you for your efforts, which I hope will improve in future encounters. I, therefore, would like to urge you to reflect on your shortcomings as this inevitably would help build on your strengths,” he said.
Gen Chiwenga said on those, who participated in the Sadc Special Forces Exercise, their participation was another milestone achieved in the history of the Regional Special Forces Training Programme.
“I have been appraised that the Sadc Special Forces Exercise conducted from the 1st to the 30th of August 2017 in Tanga, the North Eastern part of the United Republic of Tanzania near the border with Kenya involving seven Sadc countries was a resounding success,” he said.