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Rhodesia: The Time-Scale for Majority Rule*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 May 2019

Claire Palley
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Extract

The Rhodesian settlement proposals of 1971 have been described by the British Foreign Secretary, Sir Alec Douglas-Home, as a just and honorable settlement, conferring advantages on Rhodesian Africans, measuring them not against an ideal solution, but against an indefinite continuation of the status quo in Rhodesia, and leading by a steady addition of Africans to the Rhodesian Parliament to majority rule.

Type
Research Article
Information
African Issues , Volume 2 , Issue 2 , Summer 1972 , pp. 52 - 64
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 1972 

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Footnotes

*

This is a revised version of an article which appeared in The Sunday Times on November 28. 1971.

References

1 H.C Deb Vol 838 c 1758 9, 15 June 1972.

2 See my article “Analysis of the 1971 British Proposals for a Settlement with Rhodesia” in Ztmhtibwe Now, ed S.W. Wilmer (London, Rex Collings, 1972).

3 Anglo Rhodesian Relations Proposals for a Settlement. Cmd. R.R. 46 - 1971 p. 8.

4 These figures are in Rhodesian dollars On 31 May 1972 the exchange rate for Rhodesian dollars was U.S. dollars $1.536.

5 Electoral Act 1969 No. 56 Section 17(1)(d).

6 Ibid, Sections 27 & 40.

7 Rhodesia. Monthly Digest of Statistics. October 1971, C.S.O., Salisbury, 1971, p.13.

8 Ibid., p. 13.

9 Even these opportunities are proportionately smaller than they were. In 1961 of an African population of 3,730,000, 628,000 Africans were employed In 1971 of an African population of 5,220,000, 776,000 Africans were employed. There have been over 100,000 African school leavers per annum over the decade, leaving approximately 1,000,000 Africans unemployed. See Monthly Digest of Statistics, October 1971, pp 1, 9, 11.

10 Southern Rhodesia Legislative Assembly Debates, Vol. 49 c. 579, 7 March 1962.

11 Rhodesia Herald, 15 December 1971.

12 Rhodesta Herald, 27 December 1971, where such a post carrying an annual salary of RS 720 with annual increments of RS 36 is advertised. Cp an advertisement for the position of Sister in Charge for African Clinics who must be a European State Registered Nurse and who is paid RS 2.016 × $120 to $2,736.

13 Report of the Commissioner of Taxes for the year ended 30th June 1968, Salisbury, Government Printer, 1969, pp. 13, 17, and Ministry of Information Press Statement 18/70/RHJB, 13 January 1970.

14 Cmnd. 4964, Rhodesia. Report of the Commission on Rhodesia under the chairmanship of The Rt. Hon. the Lord Pearce. p.126.

15 Report of the Rural Land Board 1967. Government Printer, Salisbury, 1968.

16 By 1971 of 3,116 Primaiy Schools operating only 640 were still under church auspices: G. C. Grant, The Africans Predicament in Rhodesia. Minority Rights Group, 1972, p 10.

17 XRay. May 1972, Vol 2, No 9, p 4.

18 Mr. Smith stated: “It was not Rhodesia's policy to educate her people for the purpose of assisting them to acquire the vote”: Relations Between the Rhodesian Government and the United Kingdom Government (November 1965-December 1966), C.S.R. 49-1966, p. 38.

19 Southern Rhodesia Legislative Assembly Debates, Vol. 61 c, 1262-3, 21 July, 1965.

20 For comparison with reality it should be noted that in 1971 there were a total of 1,212 new places planned in all forms of academic-type secondary schools: XRay, June 1972, Vol 2, No 10, p. 4.

21 Reference to the purposes for which British aid, with the agreement of the Rhodesian Government, is to be spent makes this clear. The British £5 million per annum and the matching Rhodesian contributions are likely to be spent on improving the country's infrastructure and on technical and vocational as opposed to academic training.

22 Rhodesia Herald, 15 December 1971.

23 Southern Rhodesia Hansard Vol 61 c. 1498, 28 July 1965, and Vol 67 c. 1144, 19 May 1967.

24 Monthly Digest of Statistics. October 1971, p. 2.

25 Ibid, pp. 9-10.

26 Ibid. p. 2. The African death rate is 16 per 1000 and the European rate 7 per 1000.

27 Cp. Southern Rhodesia Hansard Vol. 61 c 1498, and Vol 67 c 1144.

28 Anglo Rhodesian Relations. Proposals for a Settlement. Cmd. R.R. 46-1971, p. 4.

29 Ibid.

30 African Affairs (General Amendment) Regulations 1970 (No. 9) RG.N.No. 400 of 1970 regulation 2.

31 The Daily Telegraph, 24 June 1972.

32 The Pearce Report Cmnd 4964, pp. 48-51 shows the Council of Chiefs in favor of settlement, but that individual chiefs were divided, a majority being against with some in favor and many silent. They were subject to intense popular pressures which could not be built up so quickly against a Constitution Amendment Bill which would be rushed through Parliament in a matter of days.