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The Sunday Mail, 3 August 1986
THE Minister of State (Security) Cde Emmerson Mnangagwa, has disclosed that 50 people saw the aircraft used by South African saboteurs to escape after attacking African National Congress targets in Harare, but they did not bother to report to the police.

Speaking to guests at a fund-raising luncheon organised by the Federation of African Media Women of Zimbabwe in Harare recently, the minister said all these people were being questioned.

He called on the people of Zimbabwe to increase their vigilance and security-consciousness as they approach the Non-Aligned Movement summit.

He told his audience that to be able to alert the police about the presence of enemies, they should individually commit themselves, in terms of their attitude towards helping in security.

“As an organisation which is involved in putting across messages, you are well placed to disseminate security awareness amongst a wide cross-section of women,” he said.

He appealed to all women to feel committed to the whole security effort of the State.

LESSONS FOR TODAY

National security is defined as “the security and defence of a nation state, including its citizens, economy and institutions, which is regarded as the duty of government”. Included in this are: socio-political stability, territorial integrity, economic solidarity and stability.

A country with a compromised national security system is open to all forms of attack from external and internal aggressors. But several government departments in Zimbabwe coordinate to maintain peace and security.

Apartheid ruled South Africa like its settler neighbour Rhodesia before it, carried out a number of raids in Zimbabwe, Zambia and Botswana. Its troops and warplanes attacked supposed ANC targets, killing and destroying.

The South African Defence Force said in May 1986: “Neighbouring countries cannot plead ignorance regarding the presence of ‘terrorists’ in their countries . . .The action taken by the ‘terrorists’ should be interpreted as indicative of the firm resolve of the RSA to use all means at its disposal against ‘terrorists’ wherever they may be.”

Such determination by the enemy to destroy liberation fighters, called for vigilance by locals and their neighbours, just like what happened when former SAS member Simon Mann and 64 others were arrested in 2004, en route to Equatorial Guinea.

Allowing the enemy to carry out acts of aggression is not only considered as aiding and abetting, but it should also result in the highest form of punishment.

Today, the whole Southern African region is independent from colonial rule, but there remains a worrying trend where some people are wilfully used to discredit the sovereignty of their countries.

Zimbabwe for example has been reeling under illegal economic sanctions imposed by the West with assistance from its citizens. They claim human rights abuses, when the truth is that the former colonisers want to reclaim the land that was repossessed by its rightful owners.