It's like this: Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Smith
answers a reporter's question.
Picture: William Higham
Acceptance: Seated beneath a picture of Cecil Rhodes,
at Government House, Bulawayo, Ian Smith reads his
controversial speech acknowledging
"universal suffrage".
Picture: William Higham
Not a 'two-fingered' salute by Ian Smith to
his critics but the Rhodesian leader making the
second of a three-point argument
at a political meeting.
Picture: William Higham
Ian Smith, a portrait
Picture: William Higham
BITTER-SWEET NOVEMBER 11, 1978: After ringing Rhodesia's Independence Bell (above) 13 times (one for each year since UDI) Prime Minister Ian Smith joins wife Janet (below) for a final toast to the 'faithful' at Salisbury East Lions Club. Five months on Zimbabwe-Rhodesia will be led by interim prime minister Bishop Abel Muzorewa.
P.K. van der Byl, or more correctly 'Bijl', above, was a popular Minister of
Defence who, despite his British upper crust accent - undoubtedly honed
during his swashbuckling career as an officer in the hussars - hailed from a
noble Cape family.
A keen hunter in the '60s, respected by wildlife officers (including this
writer's father) for his sportsmanship and ability to walk vast distances
through the tangled Zambesi Valley bush, he was held in equal esteem a
decade later by battle-hardened soldiers of both the Rhodesian Light
Infantry and the Selous Scouts.
But he was not without his critics. Pieter van der Byl held various
portfolios in the Smith Government, including Minister of Information,
Immigration and Tourism and Minister of Foreign Affairs.
The last brought criticism from South Africa, where it was reported Prime
Minister John Vorster 'hated' van der Byl and Foreign Minister Hilgard
Muller, a professor of law during van der Byl's student days at
Witwatersrand University, considered the sartorially elegant Rhodesian a
'dilettante'. Picture and words:William Higham
TOUGHING IT OUT: P.K. van der Byl allows
a grin during the 1978 internal
settlement talks in Salisbury.
Rhodesian President John Wrathall and his wife Doreen chat after a ceremony
to award Douglas and Margaret Plumsteel meritorious medals for valour.
The young South African couple saved the life of Vondo Hope
Davies during a terrorist attack on their convoy
near Nuanetsi in April 1976.
Picture: William Higham
This photograph was taken at an RF Rally for the faithful in October 1970. Picture: Mike Rushworth
Road to power: Bishop Abel Muzorewa leans
from his car at a political rally.
Picture: William Higham
Bishop Abel Muzorewa: Zimbabwe-Rhodesia's first
black prime minister. He lacked the 'firepower'
and support to win the 1980 election.
Former ZANU leader the Rev. Ndabaningi Sithole (centre) meets
British 'mediator' Field-Marshal Lord Carver, left, and Indian
Major-General Prem Chand during ill-fated internal settlement
talks in Salisbury, November, 1977.
Carver's arrival at Salisbury airport in full dress uniform prompted Ian
Smith to dub the British/UN duo a 'travelling circus' and he questioned
Sithole's role with a cutting: "He's been out of the country so long he's
almost a foreigner". Former schoolteacher Sithole failed to win
a single seat in the March 1980 election that swept to power
his estranged nationalist ally Robert Mugabe's
ZANU-PF.
1977: Rhodesia Herald defence correspondent Chris Reynolds (right) and journalist James McManus at Milton Buildings, Salisbury, during Lord Carver's meeting with Rhodesian politicians.
Studious: Chief Jeremiah Chirau.
Picture: William Higham.
(Sunday drive only drunks would take)
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