Zimbabwean Army uniforms

Every time I see Comrade Bob on the TV he's surrounded by soldiers with sandy yellow berets. Does anyone know if this is a special unit, or do all Zim soldiers wear it? All the photo's I've found on Google are similar, except for here:

http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.zimdaily.com/images/Chiwenga%2520Look.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.zimdaily.com/news/plan27.6034.html&h=273&w=608&sz=54&hl=en&start=144&um=1&tbnid=aM3Bz5y9HaYpCM:&tbnh=61&tbnw=136&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dzimbabwe%2Barmy%26start%3D140%26ndsp%3D20%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN

The guy in the background is wearing the one I am thinking of; the general in the foreground has a different colour.

 

The yellow berets are worn only by members of the Presidential Guard.

 

The one in the middle looks like a real evil cnut, take a machete to the masses as soon as look at them.

 

the chap in the middle is Constantine Chiwenga, head of Zimbabwes army. Before the "elections" he threatened a military coup if Mugabe lost. A particularly nast chap with a new found love of chemicals, and has been implicated in numerous atrocities and war crimes. And everyone loves him...check the below link


http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=14110pen-letter-to-chiwenga&catid=31:top%20zimbabwe%20stories&Itemid=66

 

Do they still wear the old Rhodesian camo pattern, or is it different?

 

Ironic how they hate Britain so much but basically use british-style insignia and uniforms (sort of)

 

Bob apparently has his suits made on Saville row.

 

Also because the British army trained them in the 80's and have a great deal of weapons like ours, including SA-80's and SLR's.

a list I found of the equipment they use these days, if anyone cares:

Armour

Norinco Type 59 MBT - 35
Norinco Type 69 MBT - 10
Type 63 light tank - 20 received 1983/1984 from China
T-54 - 20 tanks received from USSR in September 1984.[4]
T-54/55 ARV
T-55 tanks - 12 from North Korea, 1981[citation needed]
EE-9 Cascavel Armoured Car - 90
EE-11 Urutu - 7
Panhard AML Armoured Car - 30
Eland Mk7 - 20
EQ2050 Armoured Car (Chinese version of the American M998 (HMMWV) - 100
YW 531 Armoured Personnel Carrier - 30 (8 from China and 22 Korean VTT-323 version)
Unknown type Armoured Personnel Carrier - 22 donated by China in January 2005
UR-416 Armoured Personnel Carrier - 36
Crocodile Armoured Personnel Carrier - 40
BRDM-1 Armoured Personnel Carrier, from North Korea in 1984 - 20
BRDM-2 Armoured Personnel Carrier, from Russia - 1980
BTR-152 Armoured Personnel Carrier, from North Korea - 1983
BTR-50 Armoured personnel carrier, from Syria - 1984 - 40
ACMAT TPK 4.20 VSC Armoured Personnel Carrier 260
Steyr-Daimler-Puch 4x4 Armoured Personnel Carrier (exact type not known)- at least 66
Field Artillery

2S1 122mm Self-propelled howitzer - 12
D-30/2A18M Towed Artillery (122mm) - 4
Type 60 howitzer - Towed Artillery (122 mm) - 18
PRC Type-54 - Towed Artillery (122 mm) - 12
OTO Melara Mod 56 105mm Pack Howitzer - 18
L118 Light Gun 105 mm towed howitzer - 12
PRC Type 63 Multiple Rocket Launcher - 18
RM-70 Multiple Rocket Launcher - 52
BM-21 Grad - 25
L16 81mm Mortar - 100
81 mm / 82 mm Mortar - 502
120 mm Mortar - 74 (60 of unidentified type delivered from Bulgaria in 2000, according to the 2001 edition of the U.N.’s Register of Conventional Arm)
Air Defense Artillery

ZPU-1/-2/-4; ZU-23; M1939 Air Defence Guns - 215
ZSU-23-4 Shilka
SA-7/SA-18 Igla Surface-to-air missile - 30
Seacat/Tigercat missiles
HQ-2 Surface-to-air missile - Reported. Quantity unknown.
ATGM missiles have been cited in military exercise reports.
Light Infantry Weapons

L85A1 Assault rifle
AK family of rifles is standard issue infantry weapon
FN FAL sometimes issued the special forces
FN MAG Machine gun
PK machine gun
Dragunov Sniper Rifle
Sako TRG

 

They wear to a large extent the same uniforms the Rhodesian Army wore, both service dress and combats. Cap-badges, shoulder titles (and a few other bits of insignia) and some beret colours have changed but other than that but other than that the uniforms are pretty much the same.

Rank structure and much terminology is similar to that of the British Army.

 

Constantine Chiwenga. Lovely chap. Loyal as they come. Takes talent to try and shoot yourself in the heart and miss.

http://www.swradioafrica.com/pages/chiwenga230608.htm

 

The senior generals have been pushing the 'We are not here to be apolitical but to help protect the revolution' (and by extension Comrade Bob) for a while now. Of course its got nothing to do with all the confiscated land that they somehow ended up owning after Mugabe bought them and the other security services commanders off or the spoils they were able to loot from the last round of fighting in the Congo. No of course not.

Well he does have form. If memory serves he was involved with the then Fifth Brigade that carried out numerous massacres throughout Matabeleland which could certainly be classed as crimes against humanity. But because it was done when the Cold War was winding down, in an out of the way place, Zimbabwe being a darling of the anti-Apartheid groups for standing up against South Africa and most importantly because it was just another bunch of Africans shooting a different bunch of Africans, and therefore considered fairly normal as things go down there, nothing got done about. Ah the joys of international relations.

He's also apparently meant to be a very big fan of the Queen.

Well first you have to find it, no mean feat when looking for something so small and shrivelled. That is of course assuming that he actually has one.

 

Sounds like Idi Amin Dada MkII

 

It appears that the head of their ''Air Force'' can't fly!!!