Reconciliation call

The Rhodesia Herald

5 February 1979

THERE would be no peace in Rhodesia unless there was reconciliation with the externally based black leaders, the leader of ZUPO and a member of the Executive Council, Senator Chief Chirau, said in a statement yesterday.

Calling for an all-party conference which he said was still possible, Senator Chief Chirau challenged leaders in Rhodesia “to stop fooling people but face the facts of life. “ZUPO is still convinced that it is possible to hold a round-table conference with the external black leaders before the April election, in order to ensure that the April election will not be a waste of time and expense like that in South West Africa was.

“ZUPO does not live on guesswork as to who will recognise us if a small percentage of our people took part in these elections.” He said people who had tried to guess in this way had been proved wrong.

“Who can honestly know or speak the minds of the British and the Americans save they themselves?” he asked and added: “Without seeking a reconciliation with the two externally-based black leader’s peace is not in sight.”

For this reason, he said, ZUPO believed that it could play the role of “an honest statesman political broker” through its president. Chief Chirau also said that while his party was pleased by the release of the four white men in Maputo, ZUPO believed the externally-based nationalists would greatly improve their image if they were to, say, release “a reputable black journalist like Justin Nyoka” so that he would “freely return to his family and his country.

“We believe Mr Nyoka’s presence in the forth-coming general election is of great value externally and internally because of the calibre of his reporting both in this country and abroad.

“If this request were granted, no-one would doubt there is still a great deal of goodwill in Maputo and this would help us convince those internally based black leaders who do not think there is still a chance for a negotiated settlement which includes externally-based black nationalists as we do.”