Chief of Defence (Zimbabwe)
The Commander of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces is Chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces and the national defence organisations.During May 1977, a Combined Operations headquarters was formed to direct the activities of all Rhodesian Security Forces. Prior to this, each service had its own command structure and active operations were co-ordinated, at a local level, through Joint Operation Commands. The first Commander Comops was Lieut.-General G. Peter Walls, former head of the Rhodesian Army. Air Marshal 'Mick' J. McLaren was Deputy Commander.Following the electoral victory of Robert Mugabe's ZANU party on 4 March 1980 a Joint High Command was established to oversee the integration of the former warring armies. Lieut.-General Peter Walls was appointed as Chairman of the Joint High Command. Other members included: Lieut.-General A. C. L. ‘Sandy’ Maclean ; Air Vice-Marshal Frank Mussell ; ‘Lieut.-General’ Lookout Masuku ; ‘Lieut.-General’ Solomon T. Mujuru, alias Rex Nhongo ; and Mr Alan Page.Commander of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces
In July 1980 Lieut-General Walls resigned and was exiled from Zimbabwe. Lieut-General ‘Sandy’ Maclean was appointed by then Prime Minister Mugabe as the Commander of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces on 8 August 1980, and promoted to General.