The 5th Brigade was an infantry brigade of the Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA). The 5th Brigade was created in 1981 from three former battalions of the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA). It later incorporated over 3,000 ex-ZANLA guerrillas from various units. The brigade was based in Gweru and participated in the Mozambican Civil War as well as a controversial domestic operation known as Gukurahundi which targeted Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA) dissidents.
The 5th Brigade was reactivated in 2006 following a prolonged period of inactivity.
Organization
The 5th Brigade was subordinate only to the Chief of the Zimbabwe National Army. In 1983, it consisted of five infantry battalions as well as an armoured company equipped with T-54 tanks. The brigade was at least partly mechanised and possessed a number of BTR-152 armoured personnel carriers.
History
The Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) was created in 1980 through the amalgamation of the former Rhodesian Army with the militant wings of two rival guerrilla organisations: the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA) and the Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA). To ease the integration process, large numbers of former Rhodesian servicemen and guerrillas were demobilised and the remaining troops interspersed throughout new units. By 1981, the bulk of the ZNA's manpower was concentrated in thirty-seven new light infantry battalions composed of about 37,000 personnel, almost all of whom were former ZANLA and ZIPRA guerrillas. The battalions were to be trained by a combination of British and former Rhodesian military instructors. Guerrillas from both sides resisted integration by establishing separate camps.
The infantry battalions were almost immediately wracked by inter-factional skirmishes in 1980 and again in 1981. Zimbabwean prime minister Robert Mugabe and his government responded by disbanding three battalions and reorganising the remainder into four brigades. All former guerrillas awaiting integration with their new units were to be disarmed en masse. Upon learning of this policy, some former ZIPRA personnel began to desert the army, taking their weapons with them. They complained that the disarmament campaign targeted them unfairly and was being used to buttress the military influence of ex-ZANLA troops at their expense. Mutinies by ZIPRA elements in the ZNA became notorious. In 1982 there were several hundred disgruntled and otherwise unemployed ZIPRA fighters at large in the provinces of Matabeleland South and Matabeleland North, many of whom had resorted to armed banditry. The Zimbabwean government referred to the ex-ZIPRA deserters simply as "dissidents".
In the wake of escalating dissident activity, Mugabe announced his intention to form a fifth infantry brigade composed solely of ex-ZANLA troops. In August 1981, two existing ZANLA battalions and an additional 3,000 ZANLA guerrillas from various units were selected for training in the new 5th Brigade. The officers were largely drawn from ex-ZANLA officer candidates whose poor educational qualifications had resulted in their failing standardised officer school. A smaller number of ex-ZIPRA officers from 4th Brigade were also transferred to the 5th Brigade to serve in various technical and specialist roles.
Unlike the ZNA's other four brigades, this unit was to be armed and trained by a special North Korean military mission, which was chosen to train the newly-formed brigade because of Mugabe's admiration for North Korea's dictatorial regime. The 5th Brigade was not structured for conventional military operations but rather as a specialized counter-insurgency unit. Ex-ZIPRA and Rhodesian troops resented the brigade for its apparent exclusiveness and the fact that it was permitted to operate independently from the ZNA's normal command structure, being subordinate only to the Chief of the Army. The 5th Brigade was trained from August 1981, when the first North Korean military advisers arrived in Zimbabwe, to June 1982 at Inyanga, an isolated mountain base near the Zimbabwean-Mozambican border. It was then moved to its permanent base in Gweru.
At the time of its formation, the 5th Brigade was the ZNA's only mechanised infantry brigade, and most of its arsenal—including T-54 tanks, BTR-152 armoured personnel carriers, BRDM-2 scout cars, towed anti-tank artillery, and multiple rocket launchers, far exceeded the capabilities of ground weapons in the other four brigades' inventories. However, serious practical difficulties also resulted in the brigade's use of unique codes and radio equipment which were otherwise incompatible with those of other army units.