Episode 62 – Rhodesian SAS and the Recces plan an assassination attempt on Robert Mugabe codenamed “Lark”

I’m spending some time focusing on seaborne operations and the Recces – most of their ops were top secret and some are mind-boggling. Like the attempt at assassinating ZANU leader Robert Mugabe in Maputo for example. For some time the Rhodesian Central Intelligence Organisation or CIO had kept Mugabe under close scrutiny in Maputo. The Rhodesian bush War had become a bitter struggle and civilians were the main targets by 1978. Joint operations involving the South Africans and the Rhodesians were taking place while the political arrangement between the two countries was cool, to put it mildly. Negotiations were taking place for a peaceful solution to the Bush war and at that stage Robert Mugabe was not part of any negotiated settlement. Things changed later although he was always a reluctant participator in any peace talks. As a Marxist, he preferred the bullet to the ballot box. Word filtered out that the Josiah Tongogara the commander of Mugabe’s Zimbabwe African National Union military wing, Zanla, was more moderate – and may be coaxed to peace talks if Mugabe could somehow be removed from the picture. Things did not go according to plan as you'll hear.

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Much has been written about the South African Border war which is also known as the Namibian War of Independence. While the fighting was ostensibly about Namibia, most of the significant battles were fought inside Namibia’s northern neighbour, Angola. South Africa’s 23 year border war has been almost forgotten as the Cold War ebbed away and bygones were swept under the political carpet. South African politicians, particularly the ANC and the National Party, decided during negotiations to end years of conflict that the Truth and Reconciliation commission would focus on the internal struggle inside South Africa. For most conscripts in the South African Defence Force, the SADF, they completed matric and then were drafted into the military. For SWAPO or UNITA or the MPLA army FAPLA it was a similar experience but defined largely by a political awakening and usually linked to information spread through villages and in towns. This was a young person’s war which most wars are – after all the most disposable members of society are its young men. Nor was it simply a war between white and black. IT was more a conflict on the ground between red and green. Communism and Capitalism. The other reality was despite being a low-key war, it was high intensity and at times featured unconventional warfare as well as conventional. SADF soldiers would often fight on foot, walking patrols, contacts would take place between these troops and SWAPO. There were many conventional battles involving motorised heavy vehicles, tanks, artillery, air bombardments and mechanised units rolling into attack each other. The combatants included Russians, American former Vietnam vets, Cubans, East Germans and Portuguese.