Posted on 11/24/2007 3:30:12 PM PST by blam
Zimbabweans praise 'generous' Ian Smith
By Stephen Bevan and a special correspondent in Shurugwi
Last Updated: 8:27pm GMT 24/11/2007
For many black Zimbabweans, the death on Tuesday of Ian Smith, the last prime minister of white-ruled Rhodesia, was either to be welcomed or at best ignored.
To them the 88-year-old, who turned his country into an international pariah with his unilateral declaration of independence from Britain in 1965, was a racist and a tyrant who led his band of white supremacists into a bloody, and ultimately pointless, war against the black liberation movement.
Ian Smith left Zimbabwe in 2005
But in interviews last week, workers on the cattle farm in Zimbabwe which he owned up to his death painted a very different image of the man who famously declared he could not countenance black majority rule, “not in a thousand years”.
They spoke of a generous, if paternalistic, employer who built a school where the children of farm workers received free education, and provided houses for the teachers and free medical treatment for all his staff.
“The old man (Smith) was good to us,” said foreman, Pedzisai Chizhika, 39, who was born on the farm and still lives there. “He built a school where I went and my children are still learning there for free.
"Apart from what happened before independence he was a good man, who had the interests of all people at heart irrespective of race.”
Tadeous Maroyi Muchata, 60, has been working on the farm since Smith bought it in 1948 on his return from the Second World War. He said Smith always treated his workers with respect.
“Whenever an employee passed away he bought a coffin and provided food and transport for the families. Do you call those the actions of a racist or an evil man?” asked Mr Muchata, who added that the former prime minister bought his own ambulance to ferry sick workers to hospital.
Blessing's father said Smith saved his son's life
Mr Chizhika owes more than most to Smith.
He explained how his employer saved the life of his 15-year-old son, Blessing.
“A detonator exploded in my son’s face in August, seriously injuring him. He was taken to hospital and the bill was huge, and the farm paid for that because Smith always paid for our hospital bills.
“If it was not for his kindness my son would have died of bleeding, because I did not have the money to pay the hospital bill of Zim $60 million.”
However, he also revealed a streak of paternalism in his former employer that some might view as a form of racism.
“The old man never discussed politics with any of the workers - he was a jovial man who treated all of us as his children and cared for our welfare.”
Generous to his workers he may have been, but Smith was also an astute and pragmatic man who managed to hold onto at least part of his property in Shurugwi, about 186 miles south east of Harare, when other white farmers lost everything in President Robert Mugabe’s chaotic and violent land reform programme in 2000.
advertisement The key to his continued survival, said employees of the newly resettled black farmers who now occupy most of his property and include two retired army leaders and a leader of the war veterans, was his willingness to help them by getting his workers to plough their fields and provide irrigation at no cost.
After being expelled from parliament in 1986, Smith spent much of his time on the farm, where he often entertained high ranking visitors.
Indeed, say his workers, despite hostile statements from President Mugabe’s officials about Smith several of his cabinet ministers used to come and have tea with him.
“Former vice president Joshua Nkomo used to visit, and some other government ministers used to come here to buy cattle and have tea with Smith,” said Mr Chizhika.
With his health failing, Smith moved to Cape Town in 2005 but still visited the farm up to a year ago.
Mr Chizhika said Smith had been devastated by the death of his son Alec, who died of a heart attack at Heathrow Airport in January 2006.
“He was very sad. His son’s death greatly affected him,” he said.
For some, at least, Smith will be remembered as a positive force in Zimbabwe’s history.
They draw favourable comparisons between how Smith kept the economy running smoothly in the face of international sanctions during the 13 years of UDI, and the fact that President Mugabe has run the economy into the ground despite facing much more limited sanctions against a small number of ruling party elite.
Former Gweru mayor, hotelier and opposition politician, Patrick Kombayi, said Zimbabweans had much to thank Smith for.
“The roads that we are using today were all built by Smith. All the infrastructure is Smith’s. We never suffered the way we are suffering now because Smith took care of the economy that supported all people and they had enough to eat.
"When he left power the pound was on a par with the Zimbabwean dollar, but President Mugabe has killed all that.”
Zim Ping.
What load of bs
Ask any resident of Zimbabwe: “Are you better off now than before Mugabe took over?” True, 27 years is a long time, but those who remember...
I bet the average Zimbabwean would rather live under economic conditions of Smith administration than a Mugabe one.
“What load of bs”
Which part did you not agree with?
"When he left power the pound was on a par with the Zimbabwean dollar, but President Mugabe has killed all that.”
Well said.
Former Gweru mayor, hotelier and opposition politician, Patrick Kombayi, said Zimbabweans had much to thank Smith for.
“The roads that we are using today were all built by Smith. All the infrastructure is Smith’s. We never suffered the way we are suffering now because Smith took care of the economy that supported all people and they had enough to eat.
"When he left power the pound was on a par with the Zimbabwean dollar, but President Mugabe has killed all that.”
Yeah - but Smith didn't have the correct skin pigment and they all had to go. Only the people with the correct skin pigment are worthy of governing any african country...
All I can say is that the idea that Smith was Satan and everything would be better for Rhodesians once Mugabe took control is a fairy tale on the order of Green M&M’s.
At this point in time, Rhodesia is a mess, there is no hope and it is better to leave now then to have one’s horse shot out from under them....
Ian Smith, like so many of the white colonial leaders, was a civilizing force. After Mugabe took over, crime, looting and corruption rule....and inflation averages 2000%. Rhodesia used to export food....now under Mugabe, it can't feed its own.
I have a friend who is now Canadian but owned a ranch in Rhodesia when the blacks took over. Castro's Cuban army backed the insurgents - my friend left his farm after a battle with Cuban led black troops, high on hash, attempted to overrun his compound. He and his ranchers killed 341 of them....and he decided that was enough.
And you call the only good leadership they had BS! You don't know squat.
The part about Smith being a bad leader.
My wife is from Rhodisea and was a member of RAR during the bush war with the commies that now run the country.
The bs I was talking about is the part where they call him a rasist and bad leader.
I was in there for a few years and my wife is a Rhodie,she was with the RAR during the bush war.
Maybe I should have been more clear about the part I didn’t agree with.
Back in the 1960's, commentators such as Russell Kirk noted that even then, liberal politicians, left-leaning academics, and what is now called the MSM picked on Rhodesia while ignoring the misdeeds of real African tyrants such as Sekou Touré of Guinea, Houare Boumédienne of Algeria, Modibo Keita of Mali, or Julius Nyerere of Tanzania--self-proclaimed "African socialists" whose leftist rhetoric they apparently found appealing.
bump
Life under Smith may not have been a bed of roses for black citizens but at least they ate regularly.
LOL. I think so. Thanks.
Given how the country has fared under black rule, a paternalistic white ruler was clearly a WHOLE lot better for this country. Maybe someday there will be black political leaders who could run the country well, but that day would have come a lot sooner if Smith & Co. had remained in control.
OK. With your close ties to the situation I imagine that you got to the second paragraph and got so pissed you skipped the rest? (I would have!)
But, the main thing is that the blacks got to vote so that makes everything okey-dokey! /s
“...Smith will be remembered as a positive force in Zimbabwe’s history.”
Sure he’ll be remembered as a positive force! He was spot-on about black rule in that country. It takes time for a tribal-organized people to make the change to being a nation. Cultural norms and traditions don’t fade away in a matter of a few years. It usually takes centuries. It seems the most disappointing aspect has been the transition from being the breadbasket of Africa and exporting food, to becoming a net importer of food. What a travesty!
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