Demanding the Impossible

Mugabe names a Cabinet and some ambitious goals

"Why are you asking so much from my poor little Zimbabwe?" chuckled Robert Mugabe in response to one reporter's knotty question about his future government. Indeed, almost every one seemed to be seeking what once might have been considered the impossible from the Prime Minister: that he satisfy black aspirations, retain white confidence and keep the peace. Yet last week the former revolutionary leader was succeeding at those tasks far beyond anyone's expectations. Said Bernard Miller, white editor of the monthly Rhodesian Farmer: "We were all wrong about him. Everyone's got egg on his face."

Nothing demonstrated Mugabe's statesmanship more dramatically than the unveiling of his broad-based 24-member Cabinet, which will officially take office after an April 18 independence ceremony presided over by Britain's Prince Charles. As expected, the lion's share of portfolios went to Mugabe's own Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU), which won a sweeping majority in last month's parliamentary elections. But in keeping with his postelection pledge of "reconciliation," Mugabe also included two prominent whites. David Smith, 58, a plain-spoken Scot who was Rhodesia's Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister under Ian Smith, was given the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. Denis Norman, 49, leader of the country's 5,300 commercial white farmers, will take over the Ministry of Agriculture.

Mugabe also completed his fence mending with Joshua Nkomo, his former partner and rival in the uneasy Patriotic Front alliance and leader of a powerful guerrilla army. Nkomo's regionally based party won only 20 parliamentary seats, against Mugabe's 57. Though he immediately agreed to join forces with Mugabe in a coalition government, Nkomo turned down an offer of the figurehead presidency.* "I didn't think I was ready to neutralize my life," he explained to TIME Johannesburg Bureau Chief William McWhirter. When Mugabe decided to retain the strategic Defense portfolio for himself, Nkomo demanded control over the police. Mugabe finally agreed and gave Nkomo the Ministry of Home Affairs, with authority over the country's 8,000-man police force. Three other ministries and two deputy posts went to members of Nkomo's party.

Mugabe also announced an ambitious set of goals for his new Cabinet. Among them: the immediate restructuring of the white-dominated civil service and local government, "complete overhaul" of the state broadcasting network (with help from the BBC), abolition of all official discrimination, resettlement of the country's estimated 850,000 displaced persons, and the reopening of schools and clinics closed during the seven-year civil war.

One of Mugabe's top priorities is the purchase of underutilized land for the establishment of collective farms and redistribution to black peasants. He will probably begin, ironically, by dusting off an agricultural plan developed for the short-lived interim government headed by Bishop Abel Muzorewa. That program, which involved some 11 million acres of undeveloped or abandoned white farm land, would cost $165 million. The biracial Muzorewa regime never found financial backing for the resettlement scheme, a failing that contributed to its crushing electoral defeat last month. But Mugabe's government has already sought pledges of substantial aid from the U.S., Britain, Scandinavia and Western Europe--but not from the Soviet bloc. Foreign assistance will be sorely needed: estimates for rebuilding the war-torn nation range close to $6 billion.

While Mugabe has resisted impatient black demands for drastic, immediate change, he has still not won the full confidence of the country's 200,000 whites. Tens of thousands of settlers, fearful that their presence will be tolerated only until Mugabe consolidates his power, are preparing for eventual departures. White policemen are resigning in large numbers and scores of military officers are expected to leave when their one-year bonus contracts expire next month. Others, like Lieut. General Peter Walls, the country's top military commander, have been encouraged by the first steps toward integrating the guerrillas into the new national army and are prepared to stay on for the time being (see box). Mugabe's victory has also caused concern among whites in South Africa. After the election, Prime Minister Pieter W. Botha told his National Party followers that some apartheid laws--such as those banning interracial marriage and sex could be relaxed in order to defuse mounting pressures for social and political change. Said Botha: "This country cannot live as an island." But his proposed reforms fell far short of black African demands for one-man, one-vote equality.

The Zimbabwe election has hardened Botha's stance on Namibia (South West Africa). South Africa continues to govern the territory in spite of repeated United Nations demands for self-determination. Mugabe's victory has left white-ruled South Africa more isolated than ever behind a ring of less-than-friendly black states; consequently, there now seems to be little chance that the Pretoria government will agree to internationally supervised elections in Namibia. Instead, South Africa-backed parties in the huge territory may be tempted to go ahead with their own version of unilateral independence. If that happens Namibia might become a new international outcast, and the theater for an increasingly bloody civil war.

* Mugabe's apparent choice for the presidency is the Rev. Canaan Banana, 44, an eccentric Methodist minister and ZANU militant best known for his adaptation of the Lord's Prayer to the goals of black nationalism: "Teach us to demand our share of the gold. Forgive us our docility . . ."

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