The Sunday Mail
Norman Muchemwa
Between August 1 and 7 1979, the political situation in Rhodesia featured as one of the agenda items at the Fifth Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Lusaka, Zambia.
With 39 countries in attendance, the British government issued invitations to leaders of the main warring political parties in Rhodesia to participate in a constitutional conference at Lancaster House in London. The conference opened the following month on the 10th to discuss and reach a consensus on the terms of an independent constitution in Rhodesia, conditions for fighting parties to settle their differences to pave way for elections that were to be supervised by the British.
With Britain’s Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Lord Carrington in chair, a total 47 plenary sessions were held.
The sessions were not smooth sailing as they were characterised by outbursts and at one time a walkout by nationalist fighters.
The conference concluded deliberations on 15 December 1979 with parties having agreed on a summary of an independent constitution, arrangements for pre-independence period, ceasefire agreement, conditions for holding an election among other issues.
On December 21, the parties to the conference officially appended their signatures to the Southern Rhodesia Report of the Constitutional Conference, also known as the Lancaster House Agreement.
The signatures triggered a euphoria of a new Zimbabwe as it signalled the end of a protracted independence struggle – First Chimurenga – that had started with a revolt by spiritual leaders in the late 1890s after Cecil John Rhodes had led Zimbabwe’s colonisation. The agreement also marked the end of black worker uprisings in the 1950 and later armed confrontations around 1965, which have collectively carved the Second Chimurenga title.
The arrangement of a new constitution that retained most of the elements of the proportional representation system and British-supervised elections was reached on December 17 1979.
The ceasefire timeframe between December 28, 1979 and January 4, 1980 saw more than 25 000 fighters from Zanla and Zipra trooping back to 16 assembly points that had been created throughout the country.
Due to suspicions during the time, Zanla forces maintained a strong contingent in Mozambique led by Cde Fox Sheba Gava (the late General Vitalis Zvinavashe) in case the Rhodesians had other plans.
The ceasefire was monitored by the Commonwealth monitoring forces composed of 1 500 peacekeepers. The arrival of Patriotic Front leaders like the late former president Cde Robert Mugabe from exile was greeted with hope for the dawn of a new era as thousands of local people hungry and thirsty for a new Zimbabwe converged at Gwanzura Stadium to welcome their leader.
Cde Mugabe, now hated by some and a darling of many, had come to announce a message of hope that was about to usher majority rule in Zimbabwe. This period was, however, greeted with its own fair share of challenges as preparing for an election after such a long struggle that killed thousands of people was not an easy task.
Issues of mistrust in the process took centre stage. Zanu-PF leader Cde Mugabe’s campaign period was shortlived as his life was under threat following an attempted assassination ahead of a rally in Masvingo that was foiled by his alert security team then led by now President Cde Emmerson Mnangagwa. The 1980 general elections occurred in two stages on February 14 and between February 28 and March 1.
As part of the Lancaster House Agreement, 20 of the 100 seats in Parliament were reserved for the white Rhodesians as they felt they should have an in-built mechanism to give them an advantage ahead of the elections.
The 1980 elections were conducted using a party-list system since the preceding war conditions could not provide for a realistic determination of constituencies. The February 14, 1980 elections were held for the 20 all white seats using the white voters’ roll and were all won by Ian Smith’s Rhodesian Front that later changed its name to Republican Front in 1981.
The Rhodesian Front’s campaign message was centred on protecting white interests denouncing the possibility of a Marxist government under the Patriotic Front banner.
The second stage of the election was held from February 28 to March 1, 1980 with the proportional representation features introduced with the previous constitution being retained.
The tension that characterised the elections was a result of the war that had lasted for more than a decade. Lord Christopher Soames, the British Governor who oversaw the elections, had a bias towards his kith and kin and on February 5, 1980 armed himself with powers to restrict meetings and suspended campaigning. He also disqualified parties from contesting.
In breach of the Lancaster House Agreement, Lord Soames authorised the deployment of Rhodesian security forces to maintain law and order yet they were supposed to be confined to their barracks.
Around 70 000 men including regular forces and 20 000 members of the auxiliary forces were deployed with the help of 600 British policemen posted at polling stations.
Veteran diplomat and lawyer Ambassador Simbi Mubako, who was Zanu-PF legal advisor at the Lancaster House talks and during the 1980 elections, reflected on the challenges they experienced at the time. He told The Sunday Mail that the playing field was not level adding that the problems started at the Lancaster House talks.
British Governor Lord Soames, Ambassador Mubako said, was not fair in the way he handled the whole process.
“First and foremost, we didn’t get a good deal at Lancaster House but we had to compromise. The time allocated for preparation of elections was very short,” Ambassador Mubako said.
“We wanted a transitional period of six months but we ended up getting under two months to prepare for the elections. The Rhodesian Front and those who were part of the Internal Settlement were on the ground to launch their campaign quickly as soon as the doors were opened. I remember talking to General Josiah Tongogara raising concerns over the election preparation timeframe, but he assured me not to worry about the time-frame as Zanla fighters had done enough mass mobilisation,” he said.
Lord Soames, added Ambassador Mubako, violated a number of Lancaster House agreements including deployment of security forces that were supposed to be confined to their barracks.
“As part of the ceasefire agreement, Zanla and Zipra combatants were confined to their assembly points whilst Rhodesian security forces were all over the place,” he said.
“Lord Soames gave in to the Rhodesian regime demands and allowed the deployment of their security forces against the dictates of the Lancaster House Agreement. Legally, we were at a disadvantage, the role of the Governor’s office was inclined to support the regime,” said Ambassador Mubako.
Zanu-PF, he said, was accused of all sorts of bad things as a way of trying to disqualify them from participating in the elections.
“It was left to us, the legal team, to defend such issues by approaching the office of the Governor.
“Some members like Cde Enos Nkala were banned from campaigning and the party was banned from completely taking part in the elections in Masvingo, but as the legal team we strongly contested against such a move and it was reversed.”
The composition of the electoral commission, he said, was biased as the two major parties in the election campaigns were not represented.
“The composition of the Electoral Commission itself was also biased. Zanu or Zapu had no representation as it was made up entirely by members of the Rhodesian Civil Service led by Mr Eric Pope-Simmonds, who was the Registrar-General.”
“We mobilised international opinion as much as we can within the Frontline States and Organisation of African Unity and that worked to our advantage.
“The Commonwealth played a great part in the whole process and they were fair and transparent in their handling of the elections, otherwise it was going to be something else.”
As preparations for the elections, Ambassador Mubako recalls, Zanu-PF set up a research team led by Cde Dzikamai Danha who later joined the civil service and Dr Stan Mudenge who went on to become a Cabinet minister in the new Zimbabwe.
The purpose of the team was to do a survey to establish the advantages of Zanu-PF leading into the elections and their prediction of a 56 percent Zanu-PF victory was over 95 percent accurate.
