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Smith, Ian

CANDIDATE DETAILS

Affiliation


<-	2000-01-01

Name

Ian Smith

Address

Cape Town, Western Cape , South Africa

None

Website

None

Born

April 08, 1919

Died

November 20, 2007 (88 years)

Contributor

411 Name Removed

Last Modifed

Juan Croniqueur
Oct 20, 2024 09:27pm

Tags

Caucasian -

Info

Ian Douglas Smith was the Premier of the British Crown Colony of Southern Rhodesia from April 13, 1964 - November 11, 1965 and the Prime Minister of Rhodesia from November 11, 1965 - June 1, 1979, when Rhodesia (now called Zimbabwe) was ruled by the white minority.

He was born in Selukwe (now Shurugwi) and educated in Gwelo (now Gweru) and at the Rhodes University in South Africa. He served with the Royal Air Force (RAN) during World War II. He returned home to finish his degree and then bought a farm in Selukwe. He became active in politics from 1948, first with the Liberal Party, then the United Federal Party. In 1962 he was one of the founders of the Rhodesian Front (RF).

The RF won a slim majority in the 1962 elections and formed a government. In April 1964 Smith was appointed leader of the Rhodesian Front, replacing Winston Field, as Premier of Southern Rhodesia.

Smith was staunchly opposed to Britain's insistance that he prepare to transfer political control of the colony to the black majority, at one point stating that there would be no black majority rule in his lifetime. Smith always maintained, however, that there was no constitutional inhibitor to blacks entering the political process; some racially-based constitutional barriers did in fact exist, however, but were justified by the Rhodesian government as preventative measures against terrorism.

Smith issued a Unilateral Declaration of Independence on November 11, 1965. The British colony of Southern Rhodesia became a sovereign state, a move Smith believed would finally free the nation from Britain's constant meddling. This brought widespread international condemnation, and even the apartheid government in South Africa, although sympathetic and privately supportive, was anxious to avoid sharing in the international condemnation of Rhodesia and did not oficially recognise the new state. In 1974, B.J. Vorster, the Prime Minister of South Africa, forced Smith to accept in principle that white minority rule could not continue indefinitely.

The numerous international sanctions that were imposed eventually proved too difficult for the new country to withstand, though Smith earned praise from his supporters for lasting as long as he did. In 1979 Smith agreed to hold multi-racial elections. Following the elections, Rhodesia was re-named Zimbabwe Rhodesia and Bishop Abel Muzorewa was elected as the country's first black Prime Minister. Smith became minister without portfolio in the new government.

Elections were held in again in 1980, and despite being held under international supervision were widely condemned by many as having been fraudulent. Robert Mugabe defeated Muzorewa, and Smith became Leader of the Opposition, as leader of the newly re-named Republican Front. In the years that followed, Smith's support among the white minority increasingly eroded, as many white parliamentarians who had previously belonged to his party changed their allegiances to support Prime Minister Mugabe. In the 1985 election, however, Smith managed to recapture 15 of the 20 parliamentary seats that were reserved for whites. Mugabe, angered and threatened by Smith's strong showing, moved to abolish the reserved seats two years later. Smith retired to his farm in Shurugwi, his political career of 39 years over.

Since his retirement, Smith has remained an outspoken critic of the Mugabe regime. Now in his eighties, Ian Smith has recently reentered the political fray by joining the Movement for Democratic Change, an opposition party seeking to end Mugabe's 24-year rule. He has written an autobiography, The Great Betrayal, which is as much an attack on the Mugabe regime as a memoir of his own that preceded it.

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