-Caveat Lector- "What I learnt from British politicians was that diplomacy is just a polite word for deceit" SUNDAY TIMES December 13 1998 Smith defies Mugabe's land-grabbers by R W Johnson Harare THOUGH 80 next year and a little gaunt, Ian Smith has aged well. He is instantly recognisable as the man who issued Rhodesia's unilateral declaration of independence (UDI) in 1965, a rebellion he finally surrendered in 1980 when one-man, one-vote elections brought President Robert Mugabe to power in what is now Zimbabwe. Today Smith's farm at Shurugwi is on the list of 841 properties that Mugabe has designated for state seizure in order, he says, to allow resettlement by landless Africans. "It's got nothing to do with land for the poor," said Smith. "The state's already taken over 2m acres of land, but it's not been distributed to the landless. The gangsters have got most of it." By the gangsters, he explains, he means the government and its cronies. "I can take you out and show you 20 farms within a 40-mile radius of Harare that were once productive, flourishing enterprises, homes where people brought up their children and provided employment for many hundreds. Mugabe pushed those people off their land and today it's just sterile," he said. What Smith says is true enough. The head of the army, General Rex Nhongo, who as a guerrilla led the first attack on a white farm, is a member of the Zanu politburo. Despite his claimed socialist views, he has Zimbabwe's biggest land holding, with 17 farms. Joshua Nkomo, the vice-president, has interests in 16 farms. Abandoned farmhouses around Harare have been looted and the termites are now at work - a sad scene of devastation. What will Smith do? "I got their letter. I told them I wasn't interested. The agreement was that they wouldn't take over family farms or highly developed ones and mine is both those things," he said. "Janet [my wife] and I have farmed there for 50 years and we've invested millions in it. We're not going to be pushed off. I'll go to the appeal court and with so many cases pending it'll take them 10 years to hear them all. I don't expect to be around by then anyway. Meanwhile, I'm not budging. My children are here and so are my grandchildren. I'm not going anywhere." Is he not afraid that the government will single him out for exemplary treatment? The telephone is tapped, of course, Smith says. "Janet and I have been arrested three times and they've confiscated my firearms and papers. But I just ignored them, and when they realised they were getting nowhere they stopped. I've always spoken my mind and I always will," he said. In Mugabe's first year in power, Smith helped him. "We got on like a house on fire. I was very impressed. But then he started all this nonsense about wanting a one-party state, and I told him I'd have to criticise him publicly for that. He hasn't spoken to me once in the 17 years since then." Does he not feel partly responsible for the mess now? Was it not the long guerrilla war following UDI that produced Mugabe? Rubbish, Smith says, the fault lay with the British politicians who sold the country down the river. "Rab Butler promised us independence but refused to write it down, saying it was unnecessary because 'we were all part of the family'," said Smith. " The most two-faced of the lot was that Lord Carrington fellow. The Tories would put their arm around you and say, 'You're one of us', and then betray you. What I learnt from British politicians was that diplomacy is just a polite word for deceit." Many Zimbabweans are horrified at the scale of their country's deterioration. Inflation is 45%, unemployment 50%, the currency has collapsed, no investment is coming in and as the economy spirals downwards, Mugabe simply tries to blame it all on the whites. Does Smith realise that many South Africans look at Zimbabwe, their northern neighbour, and worry that Thabo Mbeki, their next president, could follow the Mugabe model? Smith will have none of this. He has the greatest admiration for Nelson Mandela and Mbeki, he says. They are not gangsters and they know much better than to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs. "White South Africans have to face up to the bad things they did. It will take time to get apartheid out of that system. You've got to allow for that, but South Africa is the hope of Africa and I have confidence in it," he said. Smith is not without hope for Zimbabwe. "The most hopeful thing is that their own people are fed up with them now," he said, pointing to recent riots over food and fuel price rises. More and more black people are complaining to him about how their children go to bed hungry at night. The denouement of the Zanu party leadership is becoming clear. Mugabe has sent 6,000 troops to war in the Congo without even asking parliament. The country cannot afford the war and most believe that the troops are there to protect the financial interests of the president and his friends. The vice-president is senile and has disappeared from view. Canaan Banana, the country's first president, is on the run after being convicted of sodomy and sexual assault. Can Smith see change coming peacefully? "I'd like to believe it," he said, but shook his head. "These gangsters won't go quietly. They've stolen too much and they're too scared about what would come out about them once they lose power." His courage in standing up to Mugabe has won him a grudging admiration from some on the left. Others still regard him as a racist and a white supremacist - charges which he blithely denies. "You know," said one, "I would have given my life for Robert Mugabe in 1980 and I hated Smith with a passion. Today you can't find an African who doesn't say that things were better under Smith. "The worst thing you can say about Mugabe and his lot is that they've made even Smith look good." DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. 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