ZIMBABWE National Army (ZNA) commander Lieutenant-General Edzai Chimonyo last week convened an emergency staff meeting where he read the riot act over rampant indiscipline, theft of rations and criminal activities involving soldiers as disquiet within the rank and file of the military sparks concern.
The meeting, attended by about 500 soldiers from the rank of corporal upwards, was held at the ZNA Staff College house at the Josiah Magama Tongogara Barracks (formerly KGVI) on Friday last week.
Chimonyo — the only speaker at the meeting — was accompanied by two of his top subordinates: ZNA Chief of Staff (Quartermaster Staff), Major-General Hlanganani Dube and Chief of Staff (General Staff), Major-General David Sigauke.
High-ranking ZNA members said Chimonyo began his two-hour long address to the soldiers by stating that he had called the meeting after receiving incessant reports of rampant indiscipline among the soldiers and sought to put his foot down.
According to sources, the move was also occasioned by the high rate of soldiers, who are being hauled before military tribunals, also known as courts martial.
Sources said there was general concern among ZNA commanders that the level of indiscipline may spiral out of control.
Chimonyo also told the soldiers that being the man in charge, he was not going to tolerate indiscipline in the army and indicated that so rampant has indiscipline become among soldiers that the army’s internal prisons, known as detention barracks, are being overwhelmed.
The developments come at a time the Zimbabwe Independent has documented widespread unease among middle and low-ranking soldiers over the rising cost of living, poor salaries and difficult working conditions since the start of the year.
The generals are worried that during this period of a deteriorating economic situation in the country, underpinned by skyrocketing prices, high cost of living and hyperinflation, which has rendered salaries worthless, the soldiers are in a desperate condition: ill-disciplined, disorganised, poorly fed and poverty stricken, according to insiders.
-Zimbabwe Independent