Alec Smith - Political Involvement

Political Involvement

During the period 1975 to 1979, Rhodesia descended into an increasingly violent civil war between the white minority government and the two black nationalist armies ZANLA and ZIPRA.

"The war was both bloody and brutal and brought out the very worst in the opposing combatants on all three sides," Mike Subritzky (former NZ Army ceasefire monitor in Rhodesia, 1980)

The Christian Moral Rearmament (MRA) group became active in trying to bring the conflict to an end. MRA seeks to secure social reform through personal reform and, to this end, promotes relationships between people on different sides in conflict situations. Alec Smith was a prominent member of MRA. The black nationalist party ZANU-PF won the 1980 election outright, but elements in the white elite were plotting a military coup (Operation Quartz) to prevent it from taking over the government.

MRA members sought to prevent a renewal of the war and determined that the only way to do this was to broker a face-to-face meeting between Robert Mugabe (leader of ZANU-PF) and Ian Smith. MRA member Joram Kucherera (a senior civil servant) used contacts inside ZANU-PF to approach Mugabe while Alec Smith approached his father Ian. Eventually, a meeting was arranged. Ian Smith went to Robert Mugabe's house, on the night of 3/4 March 1980, accompanied only by Kucherera. The meeting lasted several hours and was surprisingly friendly. The matter was settled - Ian Smith accepted the verdict of the election while Mugabe agreed to continued white participation in the government and administration.

Alec took no further role in politics, although he remained active in community issues through the development of sport. It is believed that he declined an invitation to participate in the Movement for Democratic Change in the late 1990s.