PM bids to secure release of Borelace?

The Herald, July 2, 1980

THE Prime Minister, Mr Mugabe, has twice sought the release of a Briton facing spy charges in Zambia, intelligence sources said in Salisbury yesterday.

The sources said Mr Mugabe had appealed to Zambia’s President Kaunda for the release of Michael Borelace (32) who is on trial for allegedly spying for the former Rhodesian forces against guerillas of whom Mr Mugabe was co-leader.

The trial of Borelace, which is being held in camera, entered its second week yesterday, Iana-Reuter reports. Mr Borelace was arrested in April last year as he was about to leave Lusaka.

He is accused of passing information to Rhodesian security forces about the whereabouts of Mr Joshua Nkomo leading to an assassination bid in Lusaka.

The intelligence sources said Mugabe had twice appealed for Mr Borelace’s release. They said his alleged crimes came under the amnesty granted former political prisoners by Lord Soames.

Mr Mugabe wants the release to underline the mood of reconciliation between the previously warring sides since independence, the sources said. Borelace faces a maximum prison sentence of 15 years, if found guilty.

LESSONS FOR TODAY

The release of wartime spies like Borelace was in the spirit of national reconciliation announced earlier by Prime Minister Robert Mugabe.

Borelace was involved in a top-secret Selous Scouts mission in Zambia around 1978. The mission involved flying over Lusaka and dropping leaflets to explain their peaceful intentions towards Zambian civilians.

Borelace’s release shows Britain’s double standards. While the UK had imposed sanctions on the Smith regime, its citizens from the MI6 and SAS continued to be part of the Rhodesian military, some as mercenaries.

Borelace has since written his memoirs: “Spider Zero Seven: A life of Combat” where he says, “Tired of reading speculative and inaccurate stories, I was persuaded to break my silence and to give my account of those events in Rhodesia. The result? A wartime memoir which spans 3 years of intense combat operations from the point of a helicopter pilot.” (@MikeBorlace)

Borlace was rearrested in Zambia in 2019 due to a mining dispute.