Episode 62 – Rhodesian SAS and the Recces plan an assassination attempt on Robert Mugabe codenamed “Lark”

I’m spending some time focusing on seaborne operations and the Recces – most of their ops were top secret and some are mind-boggling. Like the attempt at assassinating ZANU leader Robert Mugabe in Maputo for example. For some time the Rhodesian Central Intelligence Organisation or CIO had kept Mugabe under close scrutiny in Maputo. The Rhodesian bush War had become a bitter struggle and civilians were the main targets by 1978. Joint operations involving the South Africans and the Rhodesians were taking place while the political arrangement between the two countries was cool, to put it mildly. Negotiations were taking place for a peaceful solution to the Bush war and at that stage Robert Mugabe was not part of any negotiated settlement. Things changed later although he was always a reluctant participator in any peace talks. As a Marxist, he preferred the bullet to the ballot box. Word filtered out that the Josiah Tongogara the commander of Mugabe’s Zimbabwe African National Union military wing, Zanla, was more moderate – and may be coaxed to peace talks if Mugabe could somehow be removed from the picture. Things did not go according to plan as you'll hear.