Lancaster House Agreement

Bishop Abel Muzorewa signs the Lancaster House Agreement seated next to British Foreign Secretary Lord Carrington.

The negotiations which led to the Lancaster House Agreement brought recognised independence to Rhodesia following Ian Smith's Unilateral Declaration of Independence in 1965. The Agreement (signed in December 1979) covered the Independence Constitution, pre-independence arrangements, and a ceasefire. The parties represented during the conference were: the British Government, the Patriotic Front led by Robert Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo, ZAPU (Zimbabwe African Peoples Union) and ZANU (Zimbabwe African National Union) and the Zimbabwe Rhodesia government, represented by Bishop Abel Muzorewa and Ian Smith. It was signed on 21 December 1979.[1]

Negotiations

Following the Meeting of Commonwealth Heads of Government held in Lusaka from 1–7 August 1979, the British government invited Muzorewa and the leaders of the Patriotic Front to participate in a Constitutional Conference at Lancaster House. The purpose of the Conference was to discuss and reach agreement on the terms of an Independence Constitution, to agree on the holding of elections under British authority, and to enable Zimbabwe Rhodesia to proceed to lawful and internationally recognised independence, with the parties settling their differences by political means.

Lord Carrington, Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary of the United Kingdom, chaired the Conference.[2] The conference took place from 10 September-15 December 1979 with 47 plenary sessions.

In the course of its proceedings the conference reached agreement on the following issues:

In concluding this agreement and signing its report, the parties undertook:

Under the Independence Constitution agreed, 20 per cent of the seats in the country's parliament were to be reserved for whites.

Land Reform

In addition to the terms cited above, Robert Mugabe and his supporters were pressured into agreeing to wait ten years before instituting land reform.

The three-month-long conference almost failed to reach an accord due to disagreements on land reform. Mugabe was pressured to sign and land was the key stumbling block. Both the British and American governments offered to buy land from willing white settlers who could not accept reconciliation (the "Willing buyer, Willing seller" principle) and a fund was established, to operate from 1980 to 1990.

Lord Carrington and Sir Ian Gilmour signed the report for the United Kingdom, Bishop Abel Muzorewa and Dr Silas Mundawarara signed for Zimbabwe Rhodesia, and Robert Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo for the Patriotic Front.

British delegation

Patriotic Front delegation

Zimbabwe Rhodesia delegation

Later developments

In 1980 the first phase of land reform, partly funded by the United Kingdom, resettled around 70,000 landless people on more than 20,000 km² of land in the new Zimbabwe.

In 1981 the British assisted in setting up a Zimbabwe conference on reconstruction and development, at which more than £630 million of international aid was pledged.

In 1997 War veterans began receiving individual personal payments of ZW$50,000 each for their service in the war, costing the nation's tax payers billions of dollars and depleting government coffers. Then some months later Robert Mugabe announced the forced acquisition of land under Section 8 would proceed, and within 24 hours the local currency had devalued more than 50% and thus began the hyper-inflation and demonetisation of Zimbabwean currency and the "Flights of Whites" from the country. Most never to return.

In the time since independence, the Lancaster House Agreement was modified and changed more than 27 times according to a Zimbabwe independent newspaper.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Preston, Matthew (2004). Ending Civil War: Rhodesia and Lebanon in Perspective. London: Tauris. p. 25. ISBN 1850435790.
  2. ↑ Chung, Fay; Kaarsholm, Preben (2006). Re-living the Second Chimurenga: memories from the liberation struggle in Zimbabwe. Harare: Weaver Press. p. 242. ISBN 9171065512.
  3. ↑ Martin, D.; Johnson, P. (1981). The struggle for Zimbabwe. Boston: Faber and Faber. p. 400. ISBN 978-0-85345-599-8.

External links