Recent developments in the Rhodesian security forces seem calculated to give the army and police a more acceptable "multi-racial" image while leaving the white command structure and mode of operations unchanged.
In terms of an amendment to the National Service Act published in the Rhodesian Government Gazette on 10 February 1978, African trade apprentices over the age of 16 have been made liable for national service from January 1979. They will be the second group of Africans to be conscripted by the regime - a number of African doctors have already been called up for service under regulations published in August 1977.
According to the regime's Minister of Manpower and Social Affairs, Rowan Cronje, the new regulations will affect all Africans who have entered into apprenticeship contracts since November 1977 - about 220 in all. They have been given 30 days in which to register, although their call-up for phase one nation-service will not take place until January 1979 at the earliest.
Apart from extending conscription, the regime has expended considerable effort in recent months on recruiting additional African volunteers into the regular army, primarily the Rhodesian African Rifles, and the British South Africa Police. A special recruiting drive was launched by the BSAP in Bulawayo, in October 1977, for example, while in the army, the training programme for African troops has been cut from six to three months to accommodate the large numbers of volunteers said to be coming forward.
The regime has always pointed to its African security forces as evidence of lack of popular support for the armed liberation struggle; in fact, there is evidence that a strong element of press-ganging may be involved. According to one commentator, "young African men with urban jobs need a detailed letter from their employers to avoid being coopted into the depleted labour force of the district commissioner (ie. the Ministry of Internal Affairs, whose African employees include armed district assistants and district security assistants) while on leave in the rural areas. There are few African males of fighting age left in the reserves and these need to be able to show, to either side, a very good reason for being there."
Shortages of white conscripts due to emigration are a further factor tending to increase the proportion of black: white members of the security forces. Undermanning is believed to be particularly serious in the territorial companies of the Rhodesia Regiment. Nevertheless, African troops remain a small minority of the security forces as a whole - probably between 10 and 15,000 men out of a total strength of up to 111,550 regulars, conscripts and volunteers.
There have been further moves to integrate the army and police on a racial basis through the introduction of joint training programmes, shared messes and accommodation etc.
