Zimbabwe Defence Industries (Pty) Ltd (ZDI) is a state-owned Zimbabwean arms manufacturing and procurement company headquartered in Harare, with a primary focus on sporting and military ammunition.
As part of a general import substitution programme initiated during the Rhodesian Bush War, commercial vehicles were converted for military uses and several types of light ammunition manufactured.
[3] Small arms such as the Kommando LDP and the Rhogun submachine guns were also produced, although primarily for civilians; most Rhodesian weaponry was designed with those unaccustomed to handling firearms in mind.
He thus contracted with the separate firms that had once manufactured armoured vehicles, munitions, and small arms during that conflict and offered them an inroad into the export market under the auspices of a united Zimbabwe Defence Industries.
[7] Rhodesian technicians had once suggested that the local production of ammunition for heavy weapons could be possible, although the absence of funds and the embargo had precluded their acquisition of the associated machinery and tooling equipment.
[7] ZDI's small arms ammunition output, once mostly exported to professional hunters in the United States, decreased considerably following Executive Order 13391 issued by President George W. Bush on 25 November 2005.
[1] This added ZDI to an American sanctions list that included Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe and other key figures of the ruling ZANU-PF party, who were accused of violating human rights.
[9] ZDI arranged to have the cargo rerouted, possibly through Angola, a fact insinuated to a United Nations arms consultant when he visited its Harare facilities later that June.
[9] Military officials in the Democratic Republic of the Congo's procurement office have been accused of using real end-user certificates in a fraudulent manner to acquire weaponry for Congo-Duka or ZDI.
[9] During the ill-fated 2004 Equatorial Guinea coup d'état attempt, ZDI sparked controversy when it emerged that Managing Director Tshinga Dube had committed to sell a massive consignment of AK-47s, RPG-7s, PKM machine guns, and over 45,000 rounds of ammunition to British and South African mercenaries under Simon Mann.
Nevertheless, the initial ease with which Mann had been able to negotiate the purchase without a licensed dealer or an end-user certificate aroused suspicion among South African investigators carrying out their own inquiry, condemning ZDI for its apparent carelessness.