The European settlers were quite comfortable with the 20 seats reserved for them under the Lancaster House Constitution, but, General Peter Walls was unhappy with the election results and demanded that they be declared ‘not free and fair’, writes Dr Felix Muchemwa in his book The Struggle for Land in Zimbabwe (1890-2010) that The Patriot is serialising.

AT Cde Felix Muchemwa’s insistence, all arms, ammunition and radio equipment captured from the Rhodesian SAS were retained by ZANLA forces as proof to the Governor that it was the Rhodesians who were violating the Ceasefire Agreement.
The following morning, the bus ferrying Commander Rex Nhongo (Solomon Mujuru) and other ZANLA and ZIPRA command commissioners to State House was stopped at gun-point by General Peter Walls and his commanders who demanded the surrender of the captured arms.
In response, Cde Nhongo not only defied the demand but placed his head straight on General Walls’ pistol and challenged: “If you really want a bloody war, shoot me!”, at which point the Governor was forced to dash out of State House premises to save the situation.
Inside State House, during the meeting with the Governor, Cde Nhongo successfully produced the equipment ZANLA forces had captured from Rhodesians at Magadzi.
During the same meeting, General Walls privately asked Cde Kambeu what Cde Nhongo had meant when he declared: “If you really want a bloody war, shoot me!”
Cde Kambeu’s explanation to Walls was that Cde Nhongo was aware of Rhodesian COMOPS plans to decapitate the ZANLA Command Structure, and had already put his own counter strategy in place.
The strategy involved the total destruction of the European system and the subsequent deaths of hundreds of thousands of white Rhodesians.
Therefore, by just a single shot to Cde Nhongo’s head, Walls would have detonated a massive bomb against Europeans. (Kambeu)
Meanwhile, COMOPS issued a communiqué which said:
“Yesterday afternoon, elements of the security forces were attacked by an estimated 100 armed ZANLA elements from assembly place ‘Bravo.’
The attack took place at a considerable distance beyond the boundary of the buffer zone surrounding the assembly place and was unprovoked.
There were minor security force casualties and their next of kin have been informed.” (Herald , February 16 1980, p.1)
Interestingly, not a single paragraph in the final Ceasefire Agreement mentioned anything called a ‘buffer zone’ outside the Assembly Points.
If such a ‘zone’ existed, the first group of people to have been informed about it would have been the Australian Ceasefire monitors who had conversely expressed surprise at the presence of the Rhodesain security force unit on the mountain which was right in the middle of the Assembly Point ‘Bravo’.
Moreover, under the Ceasefire Agreement, the Rhodesian Security forces were supposed to have disengaged way back on December 29 1979 and moved into close vicinity of 40 designated military bases (at the company level) and two Airforce airfields (Keesings, p.30174) monitored by the Commonwealth Ceasefire Monitoring Force. (Ceasefire Agreement p.3)
Further, at Magadzi Mine, Assembly Point Bravo for ZANLA, there was neither a Rhodesian Army Base for a company, nor an Airforce airfield.
In any case, COMOPS were making fools of themselves by announcing that the next of kin of ‘minor security forces casualties’ had been informed.
Next of kin could only be informed about the dead, not about minor casualties.
General Ackland also made a fool of himself about this incident when he said:
“General Ackland wishes to make it quite clear that the Rhodesian Security forces were attacked when they were inside the buffer zone.”
General Ackland had never set foot into Assembly Point Bravo; if he did, it would have been in the company of Lady McIntyre with whom he had foolishly fallen in love and totally lost his military mind. (Moorcraft and McLaughlin, 1982: p.173)
Elections and ZANU PF victory
Amid reports a possible coup d’état by the Rhodesian security forces under ‘Operation Quartz’ (Cole, 1984: p.415-18), the election results were announced on March 4 1980.
The ZANU PF party led by Cde Robert Mugabe romped to victory with 63 percent (2 702 245) of the total poll, scooping 57 of the 80 seats assigned to Africans in the Zimbabwean Parliament by the Lancaster House Constitution. (Herald March 5 1980, p.2)
Cde Joshua Nkomo’s ZAPU won 20 seats and Bishop Abel Muzorewa’s UANC, the European settler-favourite, got the remaining three seats. (Herald, March 5 1980, p.2)
The European settlers were quite comfortable with the 20 seats reserved for them under the Lancaster House Constitution.
But, General Walls was unhappy with the election results and demanded that they be declared ‘not free and fair’.
He even made urgent communications to that effect to Margaret Thatcher, the British Prime Minister, but without success. (Stiff, 1999: p.295).
The Second Chimurenga had at last ended but, the restoration of the African people’s land would only begin in earnest at the commencement of the Third Chimurenga.