Zimbabwe Rhodesia

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Zimbabwe Rhodesia was the (largely unrecognised) name of the former Rhodesia and future Zimbabwe from June 1 to December 12, 1979, adopted soon after an Internal Settlement between the white minority Rhodesian Government led by Ian Smith and small, moderate African nationalist parties not involved in the war that had been raging in the country since 1977.

In Britain the new name was ridiculed, with the state being dismissed as 'Rhobabwe'.

Contents 1 Naming 2 Constitution 2.1 House of Assembly 2.2 Senate 2.3 President 2.4 Prime Minister 3 Demise 4 See also

[edit] Naming

Zimbabwe
This article is part of the series: History of Zimbabwe
Matabeleland ; Mashonaland
Southern Rhodesia
Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland
Rhodesia
Zimbabwe-Rhodesia
Zimbabwe	-
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As early as 1960, the African nationalist movement agreed that the country's name was "Zimbabwe" and had started using it as part of the names of their political parties. The internal settlement government was intended to be a partnership between the previous white-dominated government and the African population, and it therefore adopted a combined name.

The name Zimbabwe Rhodesia was rejected by the majority Zimbabweans because of the lingering name Rhodesia, signifying, tothem, Cecil Rhodes and colonialism. During Zimbabwe's first non-racial multi-party independence elections in 1980, one of Robert Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo's campaign strategies against Abel Muzorewa and the other small parties who participated in the Internal Settlement was, typically, to turn the nation's anger against them for having negotiated to "give the country a shameful surname".

[edit] Constitution

Adapting the constitution of the U.D.I. Rhodesia, the Republic of Zimbabwe-Rhodesia was governed by a Prime Minister and Cabinet chosen from the majority party in a 100 member House of Assembly. A 40 member Senate acted as the upper House, and both together chose a figurehead President in whose name the government was conducted.

[edit] House of Assembly

Of the 100 members of the House of Assembly, 72 were 'common roll' members for whom the electorate was every adult citizen. All of these members were Africans. 20 seats were elected by mostly white constituencies using the previous electoral roll of Rhodesia; although this did not actually exclude non-whites, it was very rare for black Africans to meet the qualification requirements. A delimitation commission sat in 1978 to determine how to reduce the previous fifty constituencies to 20. The remaining eight seats were for white non-constituency members, and were elected by the other 92 members of the House of Assembly once their election was complete. In the only election, the United African National Council won a majority in the common roll while the Rhodesian Front won all the white seats.

[edit] Senate

The Senate of Zimbabwe-Rhodesia had 40 members. Ten members each were returned by the white members of the House of Assembly and the common roll members, and five members each by the council of Chiefs of Mashonaland and Matabeleland. The remaining members were directly appointed by the President under the advice of the Prime Minister.

[edit] President

The President of Zimbabwe-Rhodesia was elected by the members of the House of Assembly and the Senate, sitting together. At the election on May 28, 1979, Josiah Zion Gumede of the UANC and Timothy Ngundu Bateson Ndhlovu of the United National Federal Party were nominated. Gumede won by 80 votes to 33.

[edit] Prime Minister

Starting with 51 seats out of 100, Abel Muzorewa of the United African National Council (UANC) was appointed as Prime Minister. He formed a joint government with Ian Smith, the former Prime Minister of Rhodesia, who was a Minister without Portfolio, and also attempted to include the other African parties who had lost the election. Rhodesian Front members served as Muzorewa's Ministers of Justice, Agriculture, and Finance. White control over the country's civil service, judiciary, police and armed forces continued.

However, once in office, Muzorewa sought to drop 'Rhodesia' from the country's name, and in fact adopted a new national flag that featured the Zimbabwe soapstone bird. The national airline, Air Rhodesia, was also renamed Air Zimbabwe. The name did manage to appear on some issues of Rhodesia stamps overprinted with "ZimbabweRhodesia" postage stamps; issues of 1978 still used "Rhodesia", and the next stamp issues were in 1980, after the change to just "Zimbabwe", and were inscribed accordingly.

[edit] Demise

The Lancaster House Agreement stipulated that control over the country be returned to the United Kingdom in preparation for elections to be held in the spring of 1980. On December 11, 1979 the Constitution of Zimbabwe-Rhodesia (Amendment) (No. 4) Act received Presidential Assent and Lord Soames arrived the next day to take control. The name of the country formally reverted to Southern Rhodesia at this time, although the name Zimbabwe Rhodesia remained in many of the country's institutions.

[edit] See also

• Government of Zimbabwe-Rhodesia
• History of Zimbabwe
• Rhodesia
• Southern Rhodesia
• Rhodesia (disambiguation)
• Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland
• Rhodesian Bush War