HARARE – Zimbabwe will send 60 police officers to take part in the regional Southern African Development Community Standby Force peacekeeping exercise, police chief Augustine Chihuri said at the weekend.

The peacekeeping exercise, code named Golfinho, will take place in South Africa.

"It is the region's thrust to ensure everlasting peace and stability, which is conducive for sustainable economic development," police commissioner general Chihuri told the officers who will participate in the exercise.

“You are pioneers that will be involved in setting up precedence of peacekeeping within the region," he said, adding the SADCPOL code of conduct would be their terms of reference in the performance of their duties.

The Zimbabwean police team will be led by senior assistant commissioner Faustino Mazango who would also be the commander of the SADC Standby Force Brigade.

In 2004, SADC heads of state and government mooted the idea of establishing a reservoir of peacekeepers after noticing that there was need to synchronise peacekeeping operations in the region.

The setting up of the body was also a result of diplomatic tiff between Harare and Pretoria when President Robert Mugabe, who was then chairman of SADC defence and security, unilaterally sent the Zimbabwean army to participate in the 1998-2002 war in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

The then SADC chairperson and President of South Africa Nelson Mandela was not keen for the region to take part in the war which later sucked in armies from eight African nations including Angola, Rwanda, Uganda and Zimbabwe to protect the late DRC leader Laurent Kabila.

The war ripped the DRC into rival fiefdoms, with rebels backed by Uganda and Rwanda controlling vast swaths of territory rich in coffee, gold and tin. Angola and Zimbabwe fought for Congo in exchange for access to copper and diamond concessions. – ZimOnline