Election will be national, but hardly general

Press, 29 July 1977, Page 5

Election will be national, but hardly general

By RODNEY PINDER, NZPA - Reuter correspondent Salisbury More than 9C per cent of adult Rhodesians will oe passive onlookers in the General Election on August 31, according to available statistics. The vast majority of onlookers will be black, either because blacks are disenfranchised under the white-minority Government’s electoral regulations, or because most blacks simply do not want to take part in what many regard as in exercise in white politics. Bishop Abel Muzorewa. a prominent black nationalist leader, has said the poll is tatmed at “producing a leader! lor the white people and a wvemment for, and of, the \iite people.” Vlis remark anoears to nei ikified. Of 172.000 adult] "Ales. 7500 adult Coloureds] ItAed races) and 5200 adult Asts officially counted in' I

June, last year, 85,406, or 46.2 per cent, are registered on the European role, having met franchise requirements based on income, age, and residency qualifications. Of 2,400,000 Africans aged 21 and above, an estimated 150,000. or six in every 100, are believed to qualify to take part in the election. But only 7478—0.3 per cent—have registered as voters. “Blacks just don’t rate in this election. They realise it’s a fiction as far as they are concerned,” said a white lawyer closely involved in the nationalist struggle for majority rule based on one man, one vote.

The Prime Minister (Mr lan Smith) called the elec-; I tion for a mandate to try to reach an agreement over I black majority rule with nationalist leaders such as ] Bishop Muzorewa and the I Rev Ndabaningi Sithole, or i the Zimbabwe United People’s Organisation, formed by Tribal chiefs.

“General Election” is perhaps a misnomer: it is essentially an appeal to the European electorate.

1 There are 66 seats in Rhodesia’s House of Assembly. Fifty are European seats contested by, and voted for by, people on the European electoral roll.

Of the 16 black seats, eight «re filled by a tribal electoral college, a grouping of black chiefs and headmen. Eight M.P.s are elected directly by the black voter, who can vote only for a black candidate. The chiefs are salaried employees of the Government, and they influence the choice of the eight candidates who must face the people for support.

“The nationalists wouldn’t touch this election with a barge pole,” said the lawyer. “The African representation in Parliament is windowdressing by the white Government. The election is meaningless for ’ the vast

majority of black Rhodesians.”

A search through statistics issued by the Rhodesian Government, a look at the basic qualifications required for European and African voters’ roles, and a talk with the economic affairs department of the University of Rhodesia, reveals the extent of the iceberg of frozen potential black votes, the tip of which is represented by the registered 7478. The qualifications demand that an African voter must have had an income of at least SI 14 or he must hava an income of at least $44 a month and have completed two years secondary education, or own static property worth at least $lO7O and have gone to secondary school for two years. The university said 926.000 blacks had jobs in 1976. Most of the rest existed on rural homesteads, growing their own crops and rearing livestock and “play-

ing no part whatsoever in the cash economy.” Of the wage-earners 250,000 are employed in agriculture and earn an average of $l7 a month. About 125,000 are domestic servants in white homes, earning between $3l and $36 a month.

According to an official paper issued in mid-1975 but still judged to be a reasonably accurate reflection of existing earnings, about 82,000 blacks would meet the higher income qualifications.

No statistics are available on the numbers who would meet the lower income and educational requirements, but informed guesswork put the figure at about 70,000 at most.

At the last election, in July, 1974, 3096 of 7052 registered black voters actually cast ballots. A black office worker in Salisbury, Mr Aram Chiota,

is qualified to vote next month, but he will refrain.

“I have no reason to vote,” he said. “It is an election to retain the status quo. It will not help the African. It’s just another white election, and even the Western Powers will not recognise the result.

“If I could vote for anyone I chose, I might take part,” he added. “But I am even prevented from voting for whites who sympathise with the black position.” “Blacks realise the election is a phoney for them,” said a white lawyer. “And because of that, they don’t want anything to do with it. The fact that most don’t register, and that half of those who do, don’t vote, must mean they realise the fiction of it all.” Nationalist organisations have declared they will have nothing to do with the elec tion.

The broad mass of black Rhodesians have not, as far

as a white onlooker can tell, mounted an actual boycott. The abstinence of the qualified voter appears to be a mighty shrug of in litrerence, born of decades of political deprivation. Some white political experts say blacks do not register for fear of reprisals from nationalists who can scan the published voters’ rolls and find out who is taking part. Others say the Rhodesian black is relatively prosperous in African terms and thus has an inbred political moderation or apathy.

“The Rhodesian black is good-natured, but he has become docile from generations of subjugation under the whites,” the lawyer said. “He is missionaryinstilled to believe that goodness will reap its own reward. “That reward cannot come through the present ballot box.”