Operation Barnacle: The Alleged Plot to Seize Zimbabwe

It is alleged that two days before Zimbabwe was supposed to celebrate its independence from brutal colonial rule, a group of terrorists were arrested in the Mount Pleasant suburb of present-day Zimbabwe. The group was believed to be executing the plan of apartheid South Africa to stop the liberation of Africans under Operation Barnacle.

Operation Barnacle was established in the early 1980’s and involved members of the South African Defence Force and former Rhodesian security forces. The primary goal of Operation Barnacle was to eliminate anyone who was deemed a threat to the Apartheid Government. These threats included members of the ANC and the leadership of countries that supported the ANC at the time.

It was no surprise that the apartheid regime was suspected to have assassinated Mozambique’s President Samora Machel in 1986. The secret forces of the apartheid regime are also suspected to have initiated attacks on Zambia, Zimbabwe and other states that provided aid to South African liberation war heroes.

Details of Operation Barnacle:

1. Plan was to destroy Zimbabwe before independence
2. Assassinate Robert Mugabe the elected Prime Minister
3. South African forces entered Zimbabwe illegally
4. Plan was to detonate explosives on the road to Rufaro Stadium a route that was to be used by Robert Mugabe and other liberation war heroes
5. Plan was to use Strela ground to air missiles to murder innocent African lives
6. Disrupt peaceful transfer of power from colonialism to liberty at Rufaro Stadium
7. Deprive Africans of the dignity of living in a free society
8. Start racial war between Africans and colonialist settlers
9. South African invasion of Zimbabwe
10. Annexation of Zimbabwe to become a South African territory
11. Replace democracy and institute apartheid
12. Operation Barnacle continued with the use of biological warfare in African independent states including Zimbabwe

It is not clear how the Rhodesian forces discovered the plot but it was thwarted and Independence celebrations were able to take place.