The overt collaboration between the Smith-Muzorewa regime and the South African authorities reported in FOCUS 22 (p.9) has continued since the installation of the "Zimbabwe-Rhodesian" government in the form of meetings, visits and other contacts. Bishop Muzorewa, one of whose first acts as Prime Minister was to fly to South Africa for discussions with his counterpart P.W. Botha, has admitted that his regime would probably be unable to survive without South African military assistance.
A senior Rhodesian official, unnamed but described as one of Mr. Ian Smith's closest advisers, has been reported to have confirmed "offers of substantial economic and military assistance" from the SA government to sustain the internal settlement regime. According to the official, "an incoming black prime minister will know that he has only to ask and he will be backed by South Africa to the hilt".
The SA military are undoubtedly heavily committed in Rhodesia although, for the time being at least, the full facts of their involvement are being closely guarded by both regimes. Speaking in Maputo on 14 June, the President of ZANU (Patriotic Front), Mr. Robert Mugabe, said that there was positive evidence that South Africa was helping the Rhodesian regime with men, arms and other equipment. He alleged that about 5,000 SA troops, hundreds of military trucks and substantial quantities of arms and other SA equipment were now inside the country.
According to the Zimbabwe People's Voice, the official organ of ZAPU (Patriotic Front), over 7,500 South African soldiers are now permanently based inside Rhodesia and actively involved in counter-insurgency operations. Many SA experts, according to the Voice, play an integral part in the Rhodesian regime's war planning and strategy units. Other South African forces are deployed in Rhodesia on a short-term basis, meaning that at any one time more than 10,000 South African troops are inside the country.
A letter written towards the end of May and received from inside Zimbabwe reads:
"I am sorry not to have written early on election results, it was imperative to wait until the dust had settled down and comment with less emotion. However with all patience nothing appears to have settled down. The number of people reported dead daily is frightening, without counting many in the remote places whom we hear nothing about.
The whole election exercise was a sad affair. Only Lord Chitnis came out with the truth. The overseas press... had to be led to places. They could not go to places of their own choice while the country is at war. What a false story they have given to the world that elections were fair and free. The damage was done four weeks before the dates of elections.
The amount of mobilization was extraordinary. The numbers of South Africans involved and their new army vehicles mainly placed in the TTLs so that no outsider could notice was also interesting. The Rhodesian army had to work close to the polling stations".
