I will only deal with the issued uniforms to the Rhodesian Security Forces and not the multitude of fake uniforms that have been made since the end of the war. Uniforms are quite often made up or had items added to them like para wings, rank or even collar badges of regiments like the Selous Scouts and the SAS to try and get more money. I’m a purist in the sense that the uniform should stay the same as when it was owned by the recipient.
Steve Wende traded for six and a half years on eBay as goovernick before changing his username to stevemilitaria. Steve was selling most of his collection and had a Greens uniform. He also had some SAS items so he took those items and added them to the Greens uniform to make it more saleable and to get a higher price.
I have also shown how roughly some of the items were sown on, the incorrect gaps between the badges, wings and stripes, and then he’s added blue felt patches under the collar badges and voila, he has a Greens jacket to a corporal in the Rhodesian SAS. To make it even more saleable, he added a sash. This was done around 2013-14.
This is a case of a uniform being “made up” to get unsuspecting buyers to buy it.
Listed for sale on Mighty Blighty around November 2023. Whilst the shirt is genuine the patch is a fake and very rare that these patches were worn on camo.
The last photo shows a genuine patch for comparison.
Sold on eBay 13 May 2025 by angola76 (aka John Morgan).
In order: the stable belt is not Rhodesian.
The army paratrooper wings should not be Wings On Chest (WOC) but should be on the right arm below the Rhodesia patch. That is, if the recipient has received parachute training. The stitching of the wing to the uniform is atrocious.
The gap between the Rhodesia tab, and the army patch and the stripes is wrong.
The lanyard is for the Army Service Corps and so are the collar badges.
The badge above the stripes is the Artillery Senior NCO’s arm badge.
The shirt and the tie are not part of the uniform but have been added.
In short, the ‘Greens’ jacket is made up, and items of no relevance have been added.
My suggestion when looking at items from both hogspear (aka John Morgan) and angola76 (aka John Morgan) is Caveat Emptor!
Relisted on eBay by angola76 (aka John Morgan). Why is anyone’s guess. An almost completely made up uniform which means the uniform received by the original recipient, was nothing like this. Caveat Emptor!