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(ZIMBABWE GUARDIAN) Former Bishop Abel Muzorewa dies

Former Bishop Abel Muzorewa dies
By: Donette Read Kruger
Posted: Thursday, April 8, 2010 11:59 pm

RETIRED Bishop Abel Tendekayi Muzorewa who was once prime minister of Zimbabwe-Rhodesia, a shortlived administration composed of his UANC party and the Republican Front party of Ian Smith, has died.

He would have been 86 on the 14th of April 2010. He passed away at his Borrowdale home Thursday afternoon. The retired bishop of the United Methodist Church died after receiving news that his younger brother, Farai David, had died in America, according to sources from Harare.

A relative said Rtd Bishop Muzorewa, who had not been feeling well lately, was in America three weeks ago to see Farai and was shocked to find him hospitalised.

When Farai’s widow Angeline and his brothers — Henry and Earnest — flew in to announce the death on Wednesday, the elder Muzorewa went into decline and subsequently died.


His body is at a city morgue.
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Mourners were last night gathered at 140 The Chase, Mount Pleasant where a funeral wake for the late Farai was taking place.

It is the end of an historical era that occurred within our lives up until Independence was declared in 1980.

A devout Christian, he was consecrated as Bishop of Rhodesia in the United Methodist Church at Masera, Botswana in 1968.

In his role as Prime Minister of Zimbabwe-Rhodesia from the Internal Settlement to the Lancaster House Agreement in 1979, this devout man was the eldest of eight children, whose father was a lay preacher.

Educated at the United Methodist School, near Mutare, he later taught in Mrewa between 1943-1949. From then on, until 1952 he studied theology at Old Umtali Biblical College.

In 1953 he was ordained as a Minister and became pastor of Chiduku, Rusape from 1955-1958. Later, “The Bishop”, as he was affectionately referred to by many, obtained an MA from Nashville, Tennessee and an MA in Philosophy and Religion from Missouri in the USA.

Appointed National Director of the Christian Youth Movement in 1964, he was seconded to the Christian Council Movement after which he was seconded to the Christian Council.

“The Bishop” joined up with the Reverend Canaan Banana and formed the United African National Council (UANC), when Ian Smith struck a deal with the British Government in 1971, providing for a transition to majority rule in exchange for an end to sanctions against the Rhodesian Front.

No Independence before Majority Rule (NIBMAR) was adopted by the British Empire, which required majority rule in the colony of Rhodesia, a condition on which it would grant the colony its independence.

It was then that Minister Harold Wilson was pressured into adopting the approach in London although he was not initially inclined to do so, but the Prime Minister of Canada, Lester Pearson, formulated a draft resolution which committed Britain to NIBMAR, a policy which was attacked by the Conservatives as disastrous. To their relief, Ian Smith rejected any offers put to the Rhodesian Front.

When the referendum was withdrawn Muzorewa found himself to be a national leader and an international personality.

In the short history of Zimbabwe his name today is aligned with Reverend Ndabaningi Sithole, the leader of Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) and Joshua Nkomo, leader of the Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU), who both placed themselves under the UANC umbrella despite their doubts when Muzorewa founded the national party.

After ZANU which was then led by Robert Mugabe after disagreements with the Rev. Sithole, and after ZAPU undertook guerrilla warfare, the UANC was the only legal black party since it rejected violence.

Although “The Bishop” was a great favourite amongst his followers of all races, his political career was limited. Despite this even today his name is as familiar to many as it was during his lifetime.

On March 3, 1978 he, the late Rev Ndabaningi Sithole and other non-exiled black leaders signed an agreement at Governors Lodge in the then Salisbury paving the way for an "interim government".

The structure would be headed by an Executive Council made up of Bishop Muzorewa, Rev Sithole, Chief Jeremiah Chirau and Smith.

A new constitution was drafted reserving 10 Senate seats and 28 Lower House seats for whites, as well as a quarter of Cabinet posts.

About 85 percent of the voters in the nearly whites-only referendum in January 1979 accepted the constitution.

Bishop Muzorewa won the subsequent elections that were not recognised by the main nationalist leaders.

Josiah Gumede was pronounced President with Muzorewa Prime Minister of what they called Zimbabwe-Rhodesia.

However, the armed struggle continued and Bishop Muzorewa did not get international recognition. United Nations Security Council Resolution 423 of 1978 refused to recognise the "internal settlement" and declared it illegal.

Forced to the negotiating table at Lancaster House, Smith and the British in 1979 finally agreed to have fresh elections with universal suffrage.

In the February 1980 elections, Robert Mugabe’s Zanu won a resounding victory in which Bishop Muzorewa’s UANC only managed to secure three out of 80 seats reserved for blacks in the House of Assembly.

Zimbabwe-Rhodesia became Zimbabwe.

Soon after Independence, he was arrested on allegations of involvement in clandestine plots against the State.

In 1985, Bishop Muzorewa lost dismally when he stood for MP in Glen View, with that pattern repeating itself in 1996 when he tried to pull out of the ballot 15 hours before polling.

In 2001, he retired from active politics — after having left leadership of the Church nearly a decade earlier — but briefly re-emerged in June 2007 when he claimed people had approached him to run for President in the 2008 harmonised elections.

In March 2008, he released a statement hailing the land reform programme and made a scathing attack on Britain for reneging on its Lancaster House promise to compensate white farmers.

Labels: ABEL MUZOREWA, OBITUARIES

posted by MrK @ 1:49 AM