This post discusses the political History of Zimbabwe from the pre colonial history, British rule, politics and the coup in Zimbabwe.
The name Zimbabwe is derived from the Shona, dzimba dzemabwe, meaning houses of stone or stone buildings, today symbolized by the Great Zimbabwe Ruins near the present day town of Masvingo. Zimbawe has a rich history, not only of achievement, innovation, co-operation and economic prosperity, but also of conflict, trials and tribulations that reflects the dynamism of its peoples. Many scholars, past and present, have enhanced our knowledge of the Zimbabwean past through their works. Particularly important in our understanding of the pre-colonial past have been the works of archaeologists, linguists, historians, oral traditions and records of 16th century Portuguese traders that interacted with central and southern Africa during that time.
Read: POLITICAL HISTORY OF ZAMBIA
PRE-COLONIAL HISTORY
Pre-colonial Zimbabwe was a multi-ethnic society inhabited by the Shangni/Tsonga in the south-eastern parts of the Zimbabwe plateau, the Venda in the south, the Tonga in the north, the Kalanga and Ndebele in the south-west, the Karanga in the southern parts of the plateau, the Zezuru and Korekore in the northern and central parts, and finally, the Manyika and Ndau in the east. Scholars have tended to lump these various groups into two huge ethnic blocs, namely ‘Ndebele’ and ‘Shona’ largely because of their broadly similar languages, beliefs and institutions. (The term Shona itself is however, an anachronism, it did not exist until the 19th century when it was coined by enemies as an insult; it conflates linguistic, cultural and political attributes of ethnically related people). The political, social, and economic, relations of these groups were complex, dynamic, fluid and always changing. They were characterized by both conflict and co-operation.
POLITICAL HISTORY OF ZIMBABWE
The modern political history of Zimbabwe starts with the arrival of white people to what was dubbed Southern Rhodesia in the 1890s. The country was initially run by an administrator appointed by the British South Africa Company. The prime ministerial role was first created in October 1923, when the country achieved responsible government, with Sir Charles Coghlan as its first Premier. The third Premier, George Mitchell, renamed the post Prime Minister in 1933.
The Rhodesian Prime Minister acted as Head of His or Her Majesty’s Rhodesian Government, under the largely symbolic supervision of a British Colonial Governor, until Rhodesia issued its unrecognized Unilateral Declaration of Independence on 11 November 1965. British-appointed figures such as the Governor were thereafter ignored by Salisbury. The unrecognized state’s system of government, however, remained otherwise unchanged, right down to its declared loyalty to Elizabeth II, which Britain did not acknowledge. This situation remained until March 1970, when Rhodesia adopted a republican system of government. In republican Rhodesia, the Prime Minister instead nominally reported to the President.
The Prime Minister was responsible for nominating the other members of the government, chairing meetings of the Rhodesian Cabinet, and deciding when to call a new general election for the House of Assembly.
1890–1923: BRITISH SOUTH AFRICA COMPANY RULE
Having secured the Rudd Concession on mining rights from King Lobengula of Matabeleland on 30 October 1888, Cecil Rhodes and his British South Africa Company were granted a Royal Charter by Queen Victoria in October 1889. Under this charter, the company was empowered to trade with indigenous rulers, form banks, own and manage land, and raise and run a police force. In return for these rights, the British South Africa Company would administer and develop any territory it acquired, while respecting laws enacted by extant African rulers, and upholding free trade within its borders.
COMPANY ADMINISTRATORS
The head of the southern territories’ government during this time was in effect the company’s regional administrator. The first of these was appointed in 1890, soon after the Pioneer Column’s establishment of Fort Salisbury, the capital, on 12 September that year. From 1899, the administrator governed as part of a ten-man Legislative Council, originally made up of himself, five other members nominated by the company, and four elected by registered voters.
FRONTIER POLITICS: TOWARDS RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT
Southern Rhodesians of all races fought for Britain in the First World War, during which the Responsible Government Association (RGA) was formed in 1917. By 1919, Sir Charles Coghlan, a South African-born Bulawayo lawyer, had become the RGA’s leader. The RGA sought self-government for Southern Rhodesia within the British Empire—the same “responsible government” previously granted to Britain’s colonies in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa as a precursor to full dominion status—and opposed Southern Rhodesia’s proposed integration into the recently formed Union of South Africa. The accession of territories governed by the British South Africa Company was explicitly provisioned for by Section 150 of the South Africa Act 1909, the British Act of Parliament which created the union in 1910 by consolidating the Empire’s Cape, Natal, Orange River and Transvaal Colonies into a unitary dominion. The Company originally stood against Southern Rhodesia’s addition, fearing the territory’s potential domination by Afrikaners, but changed its tune dramatically when, in 1918, the Privy Council in London ruled that unalienated land in the Rhodesias was owned not by the company but by the Crown.
1923–1965: COLONIAL PRIME MINISTERS
The RGA reorganized itself to become the governing Rhodesia Party, with Coghlan as Southern Rhodesia’s first Premier. The title was changed to Prime Minister in 1933 by George Mitchell, the third man to hold the office. In 1932, the Southern Rhodesian leader was first invited to an Imperial Conference. Although Southern Rhodesia was not a dominion, it was seen elsewhere in the Empire as a sui generis case among Britain’s colonies, and worthy of inclusion, particularly as it was the only one which governed itself. Southern Rhodesian Prime Ministers thereafter became a regular fixture at such meetings and, from 1944, at Commonwealth Prime Ministers’ Conferences.
AS A TERRITORY IN THE FEDERATION OF RHODESIA AND NYASALAND (1953–63)
A month after Southern Rhodesia, Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland formed the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland in August 1953, Huggins became the amalgamated body’s first Prime Minister. Salisbury was designated the Federal capital, and the United Party renamed itself the United Rhodesia Party. Garfield Todd took over as Southern Rhodesia’s Prime Minister. Huggins headed the Federal government for three years, then retired in November 1956 after a combined 23 years as a national leader.
FROM FEDERATION TO UDI (1964–65)
After the Federation broke up on 31 December 1963, Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland became independent during 1964, respectively renamed Zambia and Malawi, and under black majority governments. Southern Rhodesia was denied the same under the ideal of “no independence before majority rule” that was newly ascendant in Britain and elsewhere. The RF was enraged by what it saw as British duplicity; according to Field and Smith, Britain’s Deputy Prime Minister and First Secretary of State R. A. Butler had verbally promised “independence no later than, if not before, the other two territories” at a meeting in 1963, in return for Salisbury’s help in winding up the Federation. Butler denied having said this.
1965–80: UDI ERA
Unrecognized state (1965–79)
The Rhodesians modelled their independence document on that of the American Thirteen Colonies in 1776, which remains the only other such proclamation in the history of the British Empire. According to UDI—which went unrecognized by Britain, the Commonwealth and the United Nations, all of which declared it illegal and imposed economic sanctions—the Rhodesian government still professed loyalty to Elizabeth II, whom it called the “Queen of Rhodesia”. The British-appointed Governor, Sir Humphrey Gibbs, remained at his post in Government House, Salisbury, but was now ignored by the local government, which appointed its own “Officer Administrating the Government” to fill his ceremonial role. Smith represented Rhodesia in two abortive rounds of talks with Wilson, first aboard HMS Tiger in 1966, then on HMS Fearless two years later. Under Rhodesia’s 1965 constitution, the Prime Minister remained at the head of Her Majesty’s Rhodesian Government until 2 March 1970, when a republican constitution was adopted in line with the results of a referendum held the previous June. In the Republic of Rhodesia, the Prime Minister formally reported to the President.
SINCE 1980: ZIMBABWE
Prime Minister and ceremonial President (1980–Present)
Seven years into Mugabe’s premiership, Zimbabwe scrapped the white seats amid sweeping constitutional reforms in September 1987. The office of Prime Minister was abolished in October; Mugabe became the country’s first executive President two months later. Mugabe and the ZAPU leader Joshua Nkomo signed a unity accord at the same time merging ZAPU into ZANU–PF with the stated goal of a Marxist–Leninist one-party state.
The office of the president of Zimbabwe was established in 1980, when the country gained independence from the United Kingdom. Per the Lancaster House Agreement, Zimbabwe was originally a parliamentary republic, with the president serving in mostly a ceremonial role. Real power was vested in the prime minister, Robert Mugabe.
A Methodist minister, Canaan Banana, became the first president, serving until 1987. He resigned in 1987 shortly after the Constitution was amended to make the presidency an executive post, and the office of Prime Minister was abolished. Mugabe was appointed to succeed him, and was elected in his own right in 1990 and four more times thereafter.
The office of Prime Minister was restored as a result of the 2008–09 political negotiations, but abolished again following the 2013 constitutional referendum. Under the rules adopted by the same referendum, the president serves a maximum of two five-year terms. This did not have a retroactive effect on past terms of office already served or currently being served as of 2013. As of 2021, there is a two-term limit for the president in the Constitution of Zimbabwe. The term limit has not been met by any president yet.
2017 COUP D’ÉTAT AND MUGABE’S RESIGNATION
On 14 November 2017, armed military personnel from the Zimbabwe Defense Forces invaded the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation studios in Harare before Major General Sibusiso Moyo came out on a live television broadcast declaring that the army had activated an operation that would later be known as “Operation Restore Legacy.” Moyo stated that President Mugabe and his family would be safe and their security would be guaranteed, as the operation was only targeting criminals around him. What followed thereafter was a well-planned and carefully executed crackdown on members of a faction within the ruling ZANU-PF party known as G40. The Zimbabwe Republic Police and the Central Intelligence Organization, both deemed loyal to the president, were neutralized by the army, which arrested some of their top leaders.
On 21 November 2017, facing all-but certain impeachment from a combined session of the House of Assembly and Senate, Mugabe resigned as president. Former vice president Emmerson Mnangagwa was sworn in as his replacement on 24 November 2017.