News / National
Zanu-PF describe Baroness Margaret Thatcher as mature leader
09 Apr 2013 at 03:21hrs | Views
FORMER British Prime Minister Baroness Margaret Thatcher has died.
She was 87
Baroness Thatcher, who was Britain's first female premier and the first such in the western hemisphere, succumbed to stroke-related complications. She was the Conservative prime minister from 1979 to 1990 and it was under her watch that Britain pledged to meet the costs of land reforms in Zimbabwe at the Lancaster House Constitutional Conference in 1979.
The new Labour government of Tony Blair that succeeded the Tories in 1997, however, refused to be bound by the obligations made by the Tories claiming they were a new government even though the international law of succession bound them to honour obligations made by their predecessors.
The Labour government's intransigence precipitated a bilateral standoff that the Blair regime internationalised drawing in the European and the US to impose ruinous sanctions on Zimbabwe.
Zanu-PF national chairman Simon Khaya Moyo described Baroness Thatcher as mature leader.
"She did better during her time in terms of concluding the Lancaster House Agreement and making efforts to its implementation in terms of the land issue by establishing a fund to see that white farmers were compensated for land acquired for resettlement.
"When John Major took over (1990) he also tried to proceed with what was agreed but when Tony Blair took over his government totally disowned the agreement (to fund land reforms in Zimbabwe.
"They even did it in writing when Claire Short (British Secretary for International Development) wrote to us repudiating that agreement and that is when we decided to implement the land reform on our own, however, may her soul rest in peace at least she showed some maturity and direction while in power than Blair," he said.
Baroness Thatcher visited Zimbabwe in March1989 and during her visit expressed confidence in the manner the land resettlement programme was being carried out.
She said then: "The land settlement scheme we saw this morning seemed to us extremely good in every way, not only for the variety of agriculture and the kind of village and rural life they were having, but also the education they were giving in the schools and the health service which they received."
Baroness Thatcher was instrumental in getting the Patriotic Front led by Cdes Robert Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo and the Internal Settlement trio of Ian Smith, Ndabaningi Sithole and Abel Muzorewa onto the negotiating table at the Lancaster House Constitutional Conference that ushered in independent Zimbabwe on April 18 1980.
This was after the short-lived "internal settlement" agreement between Ian Smith, Bishop Abel Muzorewa and Reverend Nbabaningi Sithole in March 1978.
The agreement had, however, failed to stop the liberation struggle and soon after her ascension to power in May 1979, Lady Thatcher initiated a new round of negotiations under the auspices of the Commonwealth.
Negotiations between the Patriotic Front the British government and partners in the "internal settlement" then began at Lancaster House on September 10, 1978.
On December 21, after three months of negotiations the parties finally signed the agreement ending the war with the British government and Western donors pledging to fund Zimbabwe's land reforms for resettling landless blacks that had been pushed to marginal land during the colonial era.
BBC political editor Nick Robinson said Baroness Thatcher had been a controversial politician who inspired "passion" among both her critics and supporters.
Her government privatised several state-owned industries in Britain and was involved in a year-long stand-off with unions during the Miners'' Strike of 1984-5.
She was also in power when the UK and Argentina fought a war over the Falkland Islands in 1982.
Baroness Thatcher survived an assassination attempt in 1984, when the Irish Republican Army bombed the Brighton Grand Hotel, where she was staying for the Conservative Party's annual conference.
She stood down in 1990 after she failed to beat Michael Heseltine by enough votes to prevent his leadership challenge going into a second round.
US President Barack Obama said the world had "lost one of the great champions of freedom and liberty" and that "America has lost a true friend".
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she would "never forget her part in surmounting the division of Europe and at the end of the Cold War".
British Prime Minister Mr David Cameron told the BBC: "Margaret Thatcher succeeded against all the odds. The real thing is she didn't just lead our country; she saved our country.
"I believe she will go down as the greatest British peacetime prime minister."
A Buckingham Palace spokesman said: "The Queen was sad to hear the news of the death of Baroness Thatcher. Her Majesty will be sending a private message of sympathy to the family."
She was 87
Baroness Thatcher, who was Britain's first female premier and the first such in the western hemisphere, succumbed to stroke-related complications. She was the Conservative prime minister from 1979 to 1990 and it was under her watch that Britain pledged to meet the costs of land reforms in Zimbabwe at the Lancaster House Constitutional Conference in 1979.
The new Labour government of Tony Blair that succeeded the Tories in 1997, however, refused to be bound by the obligations made by the Tories claiming they were a new government even though the international law of succession bound them to honour obligations made by their predecessors.
The Labour government's intransigence precipitated a bilateral standoff that the Blair regime internationalised drawing in the European and the US to impose ruinous sanctions on Zimbabwe.
Zanu-PF national chairman Simon Khaya Moyo described Baroness Thatcher as mature leader.
"She did better during her time in terms of concluding the Lancaster House Agreement and making efforts to its implementation in terms of the land issue by establishing a fund to see that white farmers were compensated for land acquired for resettlement.
"When John Major took over (1990) he also tried to proceed with what was agreed but when Tony Blair took over his government totally disowned the agreement (to fund land reforms in Zimbabwe.
"They even did it in writing when Claire Short (British Secretary for International Development) wrote to us repudiating that agreement and that is when we decided to implement the land reform on our own, however, may her soul rest in peace at least she showed some maturity and direction while in power than Blair," he said.
Baroness Thatcher visited Zimbabwe in March1989 and during her visit expressed confidence in the manner the land resettlement programme was being carried out.
She said then: "The land settlement scheme we saw this morning seemed to us extremely good in every way, not only for the variety of agriculture and the kind of village and rural life they were having, but also the education they were giving in the schools and the health service which they received."
Baroness Thatcher was instrumental in getting the Patriotic Front led by Cdes Robert Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo and the Internal Settlement trio of Ian Smith, Ndabaningi Sithole and Abel Muzorewa onto the negotiating table at the Lancaster House Constitutional Conference that ushered in independent Zimbabwe on April 18 1980.
This was after the short-lived "internal settlement" agreement between Ian Smith, Bishop Abel Muzorewa and Reverend Nbabaningi Sithole in March 1978.
Negotiations between the Patriotic Front the British government and partners in the "internal settlement" then began at Lancaster House on September 10, 1978.
On December 21, after three months of negotiations the parties finally signed the agreement ending the war with the British government and Western donors pledging to fund Zimbabwe's land reforms for resettling landless blacks that had been pushed to marginal land during the colonial era.
BBC political editor Nick Robinson said Baroness Thatcher had been a controversial politician who inspired "passion" among both her critics and supporters.
Her government privatised several state-owned industries in Britain and was involved in a year-long stand-off with unions during the Miners'' Strike of 1984-5.
She was also in power when the UK and Argentina fought a war over the Falkland Islands in 1982.
Baroness Thatcher survived an assassination attempt in 1984, when the Irish Republican Army bombed the Brighton Grand Hotel, where she was staying for the Conservative Party's annual conference.
She stood down in 1990 after she failed to beat Michael Heseltine by enough votes to prevent his leadership challenge going into a second round.
US President Barack Obama said the world had "lost one of the great champions of freedom and liberty" and that "America has lost a true friend".
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she would "never forget her part in surmounting the division of Europe and at the end of the Cold War".
British Prime Minister Mr David Cameron told the BBC: "Margaret Thatcher succeeded against all the odds. The real thing is she didn't just lead our country; she saved our country.
"I believe she will go down as the greatest British peacetime prime minister."
A Buckingham Palace spokesman said: "The Queen was sad to hear the news of the death of Baroness Thatcher. Her Majesty will be sending a private message of sympathy to the family."
Source - HR/BBC.
