Historical Background

The culture of defending Zimbabwe dates back to the pre-Colonial era where king’s soldiers and warriors would be mobilised to deal with threats to societal existence. This culture has its genesis during the Changamire wars of resistance to initial European encroachment, the Anglo Ndebele War of Dispossession (1893) and the First Chimurenga (1896-97). Despite the initial setbacks, this culture was re-ignited in the 1960’s during the war of liberation that gave birth to Zimbabwe. ZAPU and ZANU military wings exploits (ZIPRA and ZANLA) during this war proved heroic. These could not be ignored when negotiations for independence at Lancaster were called for and when the resolutions for the conference were crafted.  

The Lancaster House Agreement negotiated in the United Kingdom in 1979 on the conflict in Rhodesia ushered in the independence of Zimbabwe. In the same agreement was a provision for the formation of a new post-independence Army, the Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA). The ZNA drew its membership from 3 former belligerent Armies, namely; the Rhodesian Army, the Zimbabwe National Liberation Army (ZANLA) and the Zimbabwe Peoples’ Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA).

Lieutenant General (Lt Gen) George Peter Walls was assigned by then Prime Minister of Zimbabwe Cde RG Mugabe to supervise the forces integration process. Later on, a much more representative organization, the Joint High Command (JHC), was established by in March 1980 to spearhead the integration of forces into the ZNA. This superior command structure was composed of commanders drawn from the three former belligerent Armies. These were Rhodesian Army Commander Lieutenant General LC Maclean, ZANLA and ZIPRA represented by their respective Commanders, Generals TRS Mujuru and L Masuku respectively. Complementing the integration process were parallel standardization training programmes ran by the British Military Advisory and Training Team (BMATT) at different command levels as part of forming the ZNA.