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George Maponga in Masvingo

The Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF) will this Friday complete a nearly month-long routine Field Training Exercise covering Mwenezi and Chiredzi districts in the Lowveld.

The training exercise covered areas under Chiefs Chilonga, Neromwe, Chitanga, Sengwe, Mpapa and Gezani and also saw scores of villagers being vaccinated against Covid-19 as part of the ZDF Community assistance programme.

Besides the Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA), the President’s Department and the Zimbabwe Republic Police are also part of the training exercise in line with the security services’ constitutional mandate.

Deputy Director ZNA Public Relations Directorate Lieutenant Colonel Alex Zuva disclosed that the training exercise started on September 27 and is billed to end on October 23.

Lt Colonel Zuva said communities in Boli, Chingwizi, Malipati and Chilonga also got an opportunity to be vaccinated against Covid-19 by the security forces.

The move eased the plight of villagers in these areas who were walking for long distances to be inoculated.

The ZDF has a history of close collaboration with communities in the Limpopo Valley covering Malipati, Sengwe and other areas where security forces have been involved in demining operations along the Zimbabwe-Mozambique border.

The mines were planted by the Rhodesian colonial regime to stop infiltration by guerillas into the country in the mid to late 1970s.