Prime Minister of Rhodesia

The prime minister of Rhodesia (Southern Rhodesia before 1964) was the head of government of Rhodesia. Rhodesia, which had become a self-governing colony of the United Kingdom in 1923, unilaterally declared independence on 11 November 1965, and was thereafter an unrecognized state until 1979. In December 1979, the country came under temporary British control, and in April 1980 the country gained recognized independence as Zimbabwe.

Rhodesia's political system was modelled on the Westminster system, and the role of the prime minister was similar to that of countries with similar constitutional histories – for example, Australia and Canada.

History

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} The British self-governing colony of Southern Rhodesia—simply Rhodesia from October 1964—was created on 1 October 1923, from land previously governed by the British South Africa Company. The British government annexed the land, and granted the new crown colony responsible government in the same year.

From 1953 to 1963, Northern Rhodesia, Southern Rhodesia and Nyasaland—equivalent to today's Zambia, Zimbabwe and Malawi, respectively—were joined in the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, also known as the Central African Federation. Godfrey Huggins served as Federal Prime Minister from 1953 to 1956, then Roy Welensky held the post until the end of Federation on 31 December 1963. When Northern Rhodesia gained independence as Zambia on 24 October 1964, Southern Rhodesia began to refer to itself simply as "Rhodesia".

Prime Minister Ian Smith's government issued a Unilateral Declaration of Independence from Britain in 1965, and he remained prime minister when the country was declared a republic in 1970. Under the Internal Settlement in 1979, after a long period of conflict, the country became known as Zimbabwe Rhodesia, with Abel Muzorewa as its first black prime minister.<ref name=NYT1>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

None of these acts were recognised internationally, and under the Lancaster House Agreement the country's government agreed to revert to colonial status in 1979<ref name=NYT2>Template:Cite news</ref> to facilitate the introduction of majority rule and the creation of the independent state of Zimbabwe in 1980.

The office of Prime Minister of Zimbabwe was abolished in 1987, when Robert Mugabe became executive president. However, in 2009, it was restored through political negotiations, resulting in Morgan Tsvangirai becoming the first prime minister of the country in over 21 years.

List of prime ministers of Rhodesia

Parties

Template:Abbr	Portrait	Name Template:Small Template:Small	Term of office			Elected Template:Small	Political party
			Took office	Left office	Time in office
style="background:Template:Party color; color:white;" rowspan="2"|1	File:Sir Charles Coghlan, circa 1925.jpg	Charles Coghlan Template:Small Template:Small	1 October 1923	28 August 1927	Template:Age in years and days	1924 (Template:Ordinal)	Rhodesia Party
Template:Small
style="background:Template:Party color; color:white;" rowspan="2"|2	File:No image.png	Howard Moffat Template:Small Template:Small	2 September 1927	5 July 1933	Template:Age in years and days	— (Template:Ordinal) 1928 (Template:Ordinal)	Rhodesia Party
Template:Small
style="background:Template:Party color; color:white;" rowspan="2"|3	File:No image.png	George Mitchell Template:Small Template:Small	5 July 1933	12 September 1933	Template:Age in years and days	— (Template:Ordinal)	Rhodesia Party
Template:Small
style="background:Template:Party color; color:white;" height=60|	File:Huggins.jpg	Godfrey Huggins Template:Small Template:Small	12 September 1933	7 September 1953	Template:Age in years and days	1933 (Template:Ordinal) 1934 (Template:Ordinal) 1939 (Template:Ordinal) 1946 (Template:Ordinal) 1948 (Template:Ordinal)	Reform Party Template:Small United Party Template:Small
4
			Template:Small
style="background:Template:Party color; color:white;" height=60|
style="background:Template:Party color; color:white;" rowspan="2"|5	File:Garfield todd.jpg	Garfield Todd Template:Small Template:Small	7 September 1953	17 February 1958	Template:Age in years and days	— (Template:Ordinal) 1954 (Template:Ordinal)	United Rhodesia Party
Template:Small
style="background:Template:Party color; color:white;" rowspan="2"|6	File:EWhitehead.jpg	Edgar Whitehead Template:Small Template:Small	17 February 1958	17 December 1962	Template:Age in years and days	— (Template:Ordinal) 1958 (Template:Ordinal)	United Federal Party
Template:Small
style="background:Template:Party color; color:white;" rowspan="2"|7	File:Winston Field 1960.jpg	Winston Field Template:Small Template:Small	17 December 1962	13 April 1964	Template:Age in years and days	1962 (Template:Ordinal)	Rhodesian Front
Template:Small
style="background:Template:Party color; color:white;" rowspan="2"|8	File:Ian Smith 1975.jpg	Ian Smith Template:Small Template:Small	13 April 1964	1 June 1979	Template:Age in years and days	— (Template:Ordinal) 1965 (Template:Ordinal) 1970 (Template:Ordinal) 1974 (Template:Ordinal) 1977 (Template:Ordinal)	Rhodesian Front
Template:Small

Timeline

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Define $today = {{#time:d/m/Y}}

Colors =

 id:rp         value:redorange   legend:Rhodesia_Party
 id:refp       value:yellowgreen legend:Reform_Party
 id:up/urp/ufp value:blue        legend:United_Party_/_United_Rhodesia_Party_/_United_Federal_Party
 id:rf         value:lightpurple legend:Rhodesian_Front

 id:gray1  value:gray(0.85)
 id:gray2  value:gray(0.95)

DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy Period = from:01/01/1923 till:01/01/1980 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal ScaleMajor = gridcolor:gray1 unit:year increment:5 start:1925 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:gray2 unit:year increment:1 start:1923

Legend = columns:1 left:150 top:35 columnwidth:170

TextData =

 pos:(20,38) textcolor:black fontsize:M
 text:"Political party:"

BarData =

bar:Coghlan
bar:Moffat
bar:Mitchell
bar:Huggins
bar:Todd
bar:Whitehead
bar:Field
bar:Smith

PlotData =

 width:5 align:left fontsize:9 shift:(5,-4) anchor:till

bar:Coghlan
 from: 01/10/1923 till: 28/08/1927 color:rp         text:"Charles Coghlan"
bar:Moffat
 from: 02/09/1927 till: 05/07/1933 color:rp         text:"Howard Moffat"
bar:Mitchell
 from: 05/07/1933 till: 12/09/1933 color:rp         text:"George Mitchell"
bar:Huggins
 from: 12/09/1933 till: 01/01/1934 color:refp
 from: 01/01/1934 till: 07/09/1953 color:up/urp/ufp text:"Godfrey Huggins"
bar:Todd
 from: 07/09/1953 till: 17/02/1958 color:up/urp/ufp text:"Garfield Todd"
bar:Whitehead
 from: 17/02/1958 till: 17/12/1962 color:up/urp/ufp text:"Edgar Whitehead"
bar:Field
 from: 17/12/1962 till: 13/04/1964 color:rf         text:"Winston Field"
bar:Smith
 from: 13/04/1964 till: 01/06/1979 color:rf         text:"Ian Smith"

</timeline>

See also

• Governor of Southern Rhodesia
• President of Rhodesia
• Prime Minister of Zimbabwe Rhodesia
• Prime Minister of Zimbabwe