Lacoste Engineering LDP (Land Defense Pistol)

The LDP (Land Defense Pistol) was a submachine gun designed by Alex du Plessis in Salisbury Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) in mid-1970s. It was manufactured by Lacoste Engineering. The name LDP stands either for “Land Defense Pistol” or for “Lacoste – Du Plessis”. Because of its appearance and origin, LDP was sometimes called as “Rhuzi” (Rhodesian Uzi). Apartheid regime used it not only in the Republic of South Africa, but also in the then so-called Rhodesia, today Zimbabwe. Foreseeing the need for a domestic firearms industry, the Rhodesians set up machineries to manufacture locally this submachineguns for "Counter-Terror Forces", actually to provide their oppression forces with weapons to fight the rebels of the African National Congress. Latter manufacture of the LDP as semi-auto carbine was moved to South African republic, where it was made by Kommando Arms Manufacturing Corporation as “Kommando LDP”. Eventually a total of about 10,000 were made between the two countries, making this one of the most common guns of its type made in that time and place.