The infantry battalions were almost immediately wracked by inter-factional skirmishes in 1980 and again in 1981. Zimbabwean prime minister Robert Mugabe and his government responded by disbanding three battalions and reorganising the remainder into four separate brigades. Furthermore, all former guerrillas awaiting integration with their new units were to be disarmed "en masse". Upon learning of this policy, some former ZIPRA personnel began to desert the army, taking their weapons with them. They complained that the disarmament campaign targeted them unfairly and was being used to buttress the military influence of ex-ZANLA troops at their expense. Mutinies by ZIPRA elements in the ZNA became notoriously common. In 1982 there were several hundred disgruntled and otherwise unemployed ZIPRA fighters at large in the provinces of Matabeleland South and Matabeleland North, many of whom had resorted to armed banditry. The Zimbabwean government referred to the ex-ZIPRA deserters simply as "dissidents".