A report claims that morale within the Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF) is at its lowest since independence in 1980 over the rising cost of living, poor salaries and working conditions, among several other grievances.
According to The Independent, military sources revealed that military bosses were anxious amid fears that if the grievances raised by the restive soldiers were not urgently addressed, the situation could have grave consequences. The report claims that a Zimbabwe National Army source had this to say:
Signals that gauge the morale of the army sent by the Directorate of Signals to each army unit have been very worrying over the past three months.
Basically, sitreps serve the purpose of gauging and determining the morale levels within the army. Over the past three months, morale has been recorded at its lowest ever. In fact, morale is at the lowest now, since Independence (in 1980).
But almost two years after the coup, the real beneficiaries of the coup have not yet fulfilled any of those promises hence the growing dissatisfaction within the military.
The conditions of service have dropped. You cannot expect soldiers to be happy when they are given a diet of sadza and beans every day. It is a terrible situation. In some cases, soldiers have to take tea without sugar.
The country’s civil servants have threatened to go on strike over poor working conditions while the government said that it is not in a position to pay salaries in US dollars.