The modern political history of Zimbabwe starts with the arrival of white people to what was dubbed Southern Rhodesia in the 1890s. The country was initially run by an administrator appointed by the British South Africa Company. The prime ministerial role was first created in October 1923, when the country achieved responsible government, with Sir Charles Coghlan as its first premier. The third premier, George Mitchell, renamed the post prime minister in 1933.
The Rhodesian prime minister acted as Head of His or Her Majesty's Rhodesian Government, under the largely symbolic supervision of a British colonial Governor, until Rhodesia issued its unrecognised Unilateral Declaration of Independence on 11 November 1965. British-appointed figures such as the governor were thereafter ignored by Salisbury. The unrecognised state's system of government, however, remained otherwise unchanged, right down to its declared loyalty to Elizabeth II, which Britain did not acknowledge. This situation remained until March 1970, when Rhodesia adopted a republican system of government. In republican Rhodesia, the prime minister instead nominally reported to the president.
The prime minister was responsible for nominating the other members of the government, chairing meetings of the Rhodesian Cabinet, and deciding when to call a new general election for the House of Assembly. He retained this role following the reconstitution of Rhodesia under black majority rule, first into Zimbabwe Rhodesia in 1979, then into Zimbabwe the following year. The Zimbabwean government was headed by a prime minister from 1980 to 1987, when that post was superseded by an executive presidency. The former prime minister, Robert Mugabe, became president; he was succeeded by Emmerson Mnangagwa during the 2017 coup d'état.
1890–1923: British South Africa Company rule
Context
Having secured the Rudd Concession on mining rights from King Lobengula of Matabeleland on 30 October 1888, Cecil Rhodes and his British South Africa Company were granted a Royal Charter by Queen Victoria in October 1889. Under this charter, the company was empowered to trade with indigenous rulers, form banks, own and manage land, and raise and run a police force. In return for these rights, the British South Africa Company would administer and develop any territory it acquired, while respecting laws enacted by extant African rulers, and upholding free trade within its borders. Though the company made good on most of these pledges, the assent of Lobengula and other native leaders, particularly regarding mining rights, was often evaded, misrepresented or simply ignored. Lobengula reacted by making war on the new arrivals, their Tswana allies and the local Mashona people in 1893. The resulting conflict ended with Lobengula's torching of his own capital at Bulawayo, his death from smallpox in early 1894, and the subsequent submission of his izinDuna (advisors) to the company. Violent rebellion to the north-east, in neighbouring Mashonaland, was forcibly put down by the company during 1897.
Following these victories, the British South Africa Company controlled a country equivalent to modern Zambia and Zimbabwe. This domain was initially referred to as "Zambesia" (or Zambezia) after the Zambezi, which bisected it; however, the first immigrants almost immediately began instead calling their new home "Rhodesia" in honour of their Company benefactor, and this name was officially adopted in 1895. Matabeleland and Mashonaland, both of which lay south of the Zambezi, were first formally referred to by Britain as "Southern Rhodesia" in 1898, and were united under that name in 1901. The areas to the river's north, Barotziland-North-Western Rhodesia and North-Eastern Rhodesia, were governed separately, and amalgamated in 1911 to form Northern Rhodesia.
Company administrators
The head of the southern territories' government during this time was in effect the company's regional administrator. The first of these was appointed in 1890, soon after the Pioneer Column's establishment of Fort Salisbury, the capital, on 12 September that year. From 1899, the administrator governed as part of a ten-man Legislative Council, originally made up of himself, five other members nominated by the company, and four elected by registered voters. The number of elected members rose gradually under Company rule until they numbered 13 in 1920, sitting alongside the administrator and six other Company officials in the 20-member Legislative Council. The company's Royal Charter, which originally ran out in October 1914, was renewed for a further ten years in 1915.
The post of national administrator was held by three people, with three others holding the post while it only covered Mashonaland; between 1898 and 1901, a separate office existed in Matabeleland.
+ Company administrators from 1890 to 1923NameTerm of officePost(s)Sir Archibald Ross Colquhoun(1848–1914) 1 October1890 10 September1894 Administrator of MashonalandDr Leander Starr Jameson(1853–1917) 10 September1894 2 April1896 Administrator of MashonalandAlbert Grey4th Earl Grey(1851–1917) 2 April1896 5 December1898 Administrator of MashonalandSir William Henry Milton(1854–1930)5 December1898 20 December1901 Senior Administrator of Southern RhodesiaAdministrator of MashonalandArthur Lawley6th Baron Wenlock(1860–1932)Administrator of MatabelelandSir William Henry Milton(1854–1930) 20 December1901 1 November1914 Administrator of Southern RhodesiaSir Francis Drummond Chaplin(1866–1933) 1 November1914 1 September1923 Administrator of Southern Rhodesia
Frontier politics: towards responsible government
Southern Rhodesians of all races fought for Britain in the First World War, during which the Responsible Government Association (RGA) was formed in 1917. By 1919, Sir Charles Coghlan, a South African-born Bulawayo lawyer, had become the RGA's leader. The RGA sought self-government for Southern Rhodesia within the British Empire—the same "responsible government" previously granted to Britain's colonies in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa as a precursor to full dominion status—and opposed Southern Rhodesia's proposed integration into the recently formed Union of South Africa. The accession of territories governed by the British South Africa Company was explicitly provisioned for by Section 150 of the South Africa Act 1909, the British Act of Parliament which created the union in 1910 by consolidating the Empire's Cape, Natal, Orange River and Transvaal Colonies into a unitary dominion. The Company originally stood against Southern Rhodesia's addition, fearing the territory's potential domination by Afrikaners, but changed its tune dramatically when, in 1918, the Privy Council in London ruled that unalienated land in the Rhodesias was owned not by the company but by the Crown.
The loss of the ability to raise funds through the sale of land hampered the company's ability to pay dividends to its shareholders, and caused its development of Southern Rhodesia to slow. Believing that membership in the union could help solve both problems, the company now backed Southern Rhodesia's incorporation as South Africa's fifth province. However, this prospect proved largely unpopular among Southern Rhodesian settlers, most of whom wanted self-government, and came to vote for the RGA in large numbers. In the 1920 Legislative Council election, the RGA won ten of the 13 seats contested. A referendum on the colony's future was held on 27 October 1922—at the suggestion of Winston Churchill, then Britain's Colonial Secretary, continuing the initiative of his preprocessor Viscount Milner—and responsible government won the day by 59%. Southern Rhodesia was duly annexed by the Empire on 12 September 1923, and granted full self-government on 1 October the same year. The new Southern Rhodesian government immediately purchased the land from the British Treasury for £2 million, and ten years later paid the same sum to the British South Africa Company for the country's mineral rights.
1923–1965: colonial Prime Ministers
Responsible government; early years (1923–53)
The RGA reorganised itself to become the governing Rhodesia Party, with Coghlan as Southern Rhodesia's first premier. The title was changed to Prime Minister in 1933 by George Mitchell, the third man to hold the office. In 1932, the Southern Rhodesian leader was first invited to an Imperial Conference. Although Southern Rhodesia was not a dominion, it was seen elsewhere in the Empire as a sui generis case among Britain's colonies, and worthy of inclusion, particularly as it was the only one which governed itself. Southern Rhodesian prime ministers thereafter became a regular fixture at such meetings and, from 1944, at Commonwealth Prime Ministers' Conferences.
The Rhodesia Party remained in power until September 1933, when, despite narrowly topping the popular vote, it lost the month's election, winning only nine of the 30 seats compared to the Reform Party's 16. Although the Reform Party was left-wing in name, many of its leading members, including the new prime minister Dr Godfrey Huggins, were politically conservative; the more rightist members of the party merged with the Rhodesia Party in 1934 to form the United Party, and, with Huggins at the helm, roundly defeated the rump left wing of the Reform Party to begin 28 years of uninterrupted stewardship.
Though uninvolved in foreign affairs, and therefore obliged to follow Britain's lead, the colony enthusiastically supported the mother country during the Second World War, symbolically affirming the British declaration of war before any other part of the Empire. During the ensuing conflict over 26,100 Southern Rhodesians of all races served in the armed forces, pro rata to white population a higher contribution of manpower than any other British colony or dominion, and more than the UK itself. George VI knighted Huggins in 1941, and, with the war still ongoing, Britain made overtures towards dominion status. Huggins dismissed this, saying it was imperative to win the war first. The idea of dominionship was raised again in 1952, but Salisbury once more did not pursue it, instead following the results of a referendum held early the next April to enter an initially semi-independent Federation with the directly administered British colonies of Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland.
+ Colour key (for political parties)
+ Premiers of Southern Rhodesia from 1923 to 1933, and prime ministers from 1933 to 1953PortraitName(Birth–Death)Constituency/TitleTerm of office—Electoral mandatesOther ministerial officesheld while Premier / Prime MinisterPolitical partyof PMRefs Sir Charles Coghlan(1863–1927)MP for Bulawayo North 1 October1923 28 August1927 (died in office) Minister for Native Affairs Rhodesia Party; ; 1924 Howard Moffat(1869–1951)MP for Gwanda 2 September1927 5 July1933 Minister for Native Affairs Rhodesia Party 1928 George Mitchell(1867–1937)MP for Gwanda 5 July1933 12 September1933 – Rhodesia Party – Sir Godfrey Huggins(1883–1971)MP for Salisbury North 12 September1933 7 September1953 Reform Party (1933–34) 1933, 1934, 1939, 1946, 1948 United Party (1934–53)
As a territory in the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland (1953–63)