SALISBURY, ZIMBABWE

GV Mr. Munangagwa announces promotion, while General MacLean and other army members look on. 1.18
SIDE VIEW Mr. Munangagwa continues with announcement. 1.36

SPEECH ON CASSETTE (TRANSCRIPT) SEQ. 1: MUNANGAGWA: "I wish to announce that in terms of the constitution and with effect from the first of August 1981, the Prime Minister has appointed Lieutenant-General A.L.C. MacLean to be the Commander, Combined Operations. And that as a condition of this appointment, he will at all times hold the title and exercise the functions of Commander of the Defence Forces of Zimbabwe, in the rank of General. Which means Lieutenant General MacLean is now full General. Lieutenant General Rex Nhongo has been appointed to succeed General MacLean as Commander of the Zimbabwe National Army and Lieutenant-General L.K.Z. Musuku has been appointed Deputy Commander of the Zimbabwe National Army. These changes that have been made have brought about now that the integration operation is coming close to permit a clear cut chain of command to be defined."

Background: SALISBURY, ZIMBABWE

The former Commander of the Rhodesian Army has been appointed by Zimbabwe's Prime Minister, Robert Mugabe, to take command of a new military hierarchy. Lieutenant-General Sandy MacLean was promoted to Full General and will command the Combined Operations Defence Force, comprising the Army and the Air Force. The joint High Command, made up of the two former commanders of Zimbabwe's guerrilla armies, and the former Rhodesian Army Commander, has been dissolved. In the restructuring, Lieutenant-General Rex Nhongo of Mr. Mugabe's former Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army, succeeded General MacLean as Army Commander. Lieutenant-General Musuku, the former Commander of Joshua Nkomo's People's Revolutionary Army, became the new Deputy Commander. The changes were announced at a news conference in Salisbury on Friday (7 August), by the Minister of State in the Prime Minister's office, Emmerson Munangagwa.

Source: REUTERS - CHRIS EVERSON