CLAIM: Besides being the most powerful military in Africa (Ground Force),did you know that ZNA has the most and highly trained officers in the Continent?
SOURCE: An Account on X (Twitter)
VERDICT: False
A post on an X (formerly Twitter) account using the name and picture of former Buhera Member of Parliament, Joseph Chinotimba (it remains unclear if it really is his) claimed that Zimbabwe has the most powerful army in Africa as well as the most and highly trained officers.
“Besides being the most powerful military in Africa (Ground Force), did you know that ZNA (Zimbabwe National Army) has the most highly trained officers in the Continent?” reads the post.
While this is not a very prominent account, with 2100 followers, this claim is not new.
Zimbabweans pride themselves in having ‘the strongest army’ in either the region or the continent.
One post once claimed that, ‘South Africa might have the equipment but doesn’t have battle hardened soldiers and the discipline of Zimbabwean Soldiers. Zimbabwe and an over run South Africa in a day. Actually Zimbabwe has the strongest Army in Southern Africa’.
Another responded to the United States Embassy in Zimbabwe with, ‘The US can never outsmart the Zimbabwe Defense Forces in military equipment and intelligence. Never. Zimbabwe has the strongest army in the region and beyond’.
Yet another was also convinced of Zimbabwe’s prowess, ‘When it comes to war- Zimbabwe has the strongest army in the region. We helped DRC, Mozambique and Somalia. Rand is not military muscle, learn to separate between politics and economy. A strong economy is not equal to strong army. Zimbabwe is your giant- like it or not’.
However, is this fact, or as another user put it; up there with the rest of Zimbabwean ‘myths’ such as being the most educated on the continent and once being the breadbasket of Africa?
According to the Oxford Dictionary, an army can be defined as ‘an organized military force equipped for fighting on land’, while a military is ‘the armed forces of a country’.
A widely used index on military strength is the Military Strength Rankings by an organisation called Global Firepower. In its 2024 rankings, it evaluates 145 countries, considering over 60 individual factors like troop numbers, military equipment, financial stability, geographic location, and available resources. These elements contribute to a PowerIndex score, with lower scores indicating stronger military capabilities.
The ranking is based on each nation’s potential war-making capability across land, sea, and air fought by conventional means. The results incorporate values related to manpower, equipment, natural resources, finances, and geography.
In 2024 rankings, Zimbabwe stands at number 101 globally and 17 on the continent.
GFP tracks specific categories related to land warfare capabilities of a given power to account for availability of individual battlefield assets due to general maintenance, modernization, refurbishment and the like.
The land ranking for Zimbabwe is no better, with a stock of 20 tanks ranking it at 93 out of 145. Of these, 11 were deemed to be in a state of readiness. 1 327 of its 2 412 vehicles were deemed ready, ranking at 94.
The country ranked 145 out of 145 with zero self propelled artillery, zero towed artillery and zero rocket artillery.
Africa’s top 10 strongest armies of this year are Egypt, Algeria, South Africa, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Angola, Morocco, Democratic Republic of Congo, Tunisia and Sudan rounding up the top 10.
In the region, Zimbabwe lags behind South Africa at 33, Angola at 55, the DRC at 73, Mozambique at 92, Zambia at 97, but is ranked higher than Namibia at 124 and Botswana at 126, with the rest of the countries unranked.
According to Military Africa, a magazine focusing on defence news, aerospace, military, technology and security news in the continent, there are a lot of factors to consider when it comes to measuring the strength of a military, some of these include budget, training, equipment and manpower.
According to statista.com, a global data and business intelligence platform with an extensive collection of statistics, as of 2023, Egypt was considered the most powerful African country by its conventional fighting capacity, achieving a score of 0.22. The North African country also placed 15th in the global military power ranking. Following this were Algeria and South Africa, each with an index of 0.39 and 0.49, respectively.
A military strength with an index score of 0.0000 is seen as the most powerful.
Military strength can also be measured through defense spending budget. According to Statista.com Zimbabwe ranked 30th in terms of defense budget spending in Africa below it’s Southern African counterparts including Angola, Botswana, DRC, Namibia, South Africa and Zambia. In 2023 according to Statista.com Zimbabwe’s defense budget was $117.39 million while the largest defense spending budget in the Southern African region was South Africa at $2.814 billion which was 20 times bigger than the Zimbabwean defense spending budget.
While these figures are largely based on estimates, local reports also suggest that Zimbabwe’s military equipment is now unserviceable.
According to an article from The Zimbabwean, at a 2024 pre-budget expectations indaba, Beitbridge East legislator Albert Nguluvhe, speaking in his capacity as Defence, Home Affairs, Security Services and War Veterans committee chair, said Zimbabwe’s ‘military equipment such as motor vehicles, helicopters, aircrafts and other ground equipment was now old and overused’.
However, despite all this, Zimbabwe still contributes towards the world’s peace keeping efforts. In a press release in November 2022, the United Nations thanked Zimbabwe for its contribution towards this global goal, mentioning that it was the 68th largest contributor at the time with 72 military and police personnel, including 41 women.
Conclusion
The claim that Zimbabwe has the most powerful military in Africa (Ground Force), has been ranked as false. Zimbabwe’s military strength on the continent is outshined by 16 other countries and 5 of its regional neighbours, and that includes on land.
