Hannes Wessels,
As someone who has read and written quite extensively about the history of Rhodesia and then Zimbabwe, a recent article by James MacManus in the ‘Christmas Edition’ of The Spectator made for interesting reading. Although the article is about his close friend, a former MI6 Intelligence Station-Chief once based in Lusaka, Zambia, much of it pivots around events unfolding in southern Africa.
As a journalist for the hard-left Guardian newspaper MacManus was based in then Salisbury (now Harare, as of 1982) tasked with covering the unfolding political dramas during the turbulent war-years in Rhodesia between 1974 and 1980.
At the time, like most foreign, especially English journos, he was also very critical of the then Prime Minister Ian Smith who he described for his readers as ‘dour’ and ‘boring’, refers to his ‘stupidity’, and unsurprisingly as a ‘racist’. He also wrote what most of the media wrote at the time and reminded his readership that whites in the country were ‘rich’ and blacks were ‘poor’, a binary trope that infected many foreign-based historians, too.
However, what caught my eye was his reflections on his friendship with the late Roger Horrell, the British spy who he tells us came within a whisker of being appointed to head Britain’s foremost intelligence agency, MI6.
It turns out the final decision rested with Sir Percy Craddock, an advisor to then British PM Margaret Thatcher and he blocked the promotion, almost certainly on the grounds that Horrell had been revealed as a homosexual which would have made him vulnerable to blackmail.
Sir Percy’s decision was almost certainly influenced by the fact that three members on the infamous ‘Cambridge Five’, Anthony Blunt, Donald Maclean, and Guy Burgess, all associates of Kim Philby, who turned out to be Soviet spies, were also homosexuals. Just whether their treachery was due to blackmail was never confirmed but the suspicion lingers.
Mr. MacManus, we learn, became a close confidante of Horrell’s and it appears the two shared and swapped information. Horrell, unable to travel to Rhodesia, was able to receive valuable news from MacManus on what was happening south of the Zambezi and Horrell was well placed to inform his friend on events to the north.
During their various discourses there is much of interest. The writer tells us that Horrell explained to him that: “MI6 had an overload of intelligence from Rhodesia. Ken Flower, the head of the Rhodesian Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO), and Derek ‘Robbie’ Robinson, head of the Special Branch, were both passing information to MI6, unknown to each other. Thus, British intelligence was well briefed on the Rhodesian battlefield situation, arms supplies, sanctions operations and plummeting white morale.”
We also learn of the writer being invited to a ‘secret lunch’ at a private residence in London with Robert Mugabe and his military commander Josiah Tongogara while the British-brokered Lancaster House conference, chaired by Foreign Secretary Peter Carrington, was ongoing in late 1979.
Reading between the lines one assumes MI6 knew all about the ‘secret lunch’ because Horrell suddenly appeared “out of the blue” and “feigned surprise” when he intercepted Mr. MacManus on his walk to the designated address. He goes on to explain that the person of interest to Horrell was not Mugabe but Tongogara, who the intelligence community, “… assumed to be ambitious for the top job and probably prepared to kill for it.”
Bearing in mind that all the evidence available to us now indicates the British government of the day was determined to see Mugabe take power in the new Zimbabwe, and the fact that Tongogara died very mysteriously only weeks after this meeting, it adds to the suspicion that MI6, or some related agency, may have played a part in the general’s death.
It should also be remembered that Carrington’s fears of an ascendant Tongogara had only recently been heightened when his aides had reported, with some dismay, how warmly he had greeted and interacted with Ian Smith and Rhodesia’s Military Supremo, General Peter Walls.
We also now know that Tongogara was more than willing to form an informal alliance with Walls, sideline Mugabe, and bring Joshua Nkomo to the fore as the first leader of a moderate political alliance to head the government of a new Zimbabwe. This was not part of the British plan, as Mugabe was their man, and the rest is history.
Just why the British were so set on Mugabe to lead the new country still puzzles me but learning of Horrell’s homosexuality fits a pattern. I have little doubt he shared his friend’s antipathy towards white Rhodesians and bearing in mind the Foreign Office, the Intelligence Services, and the BBC were all staffed at high levels by men of similar sexual proclivities, and political rectitude, I often wonder if they did not have an axe to grind with Rhodesians on a very basic, more prurient level.
Most of the Rhodesian men I knew would in today’s parlance probably be accused of ‘toxic masculinity’ and reviled. I think people like Horrell shared that view then; beer-swilling men of good cheer, sportsmen who loved life but were prepared to dispense with it to protect their friends, families and values, who were somewhat contemptuous of homosexuals, were the sort he would have despised. In this context it is not surprising he and like-minded people in the London establishment sought the elimination of this breed of ‘rebellious’ individualists.
At the birth of the new Zimbabwe and the accession to power of Robert Mugabe, I have no doubt Messrs MacManus and Horrell, along with Messrs Flower and Robinson, were elated. Some of us who cared deeply for the country were not, but we hoped to be proved wrong. Sadly, we seem to have been proved right.
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Always hoped someone would write an Expose of how so many of us were duped by Old Mutual.
After paying in for 30. & 40 years of pension and investment….when time came to collect, we were told the money was Rhodesian Dollars or Zimbabwean dollars, which had become worthless, not worth the postage to send a cheque.
However these funds had been used to buy many, many buildings all over the country, this was the embedded value of Old Mutual.
About a year later, the properties were devalued in USD, the embedded value of the shares skyrocketed.
The MD of Old Mutual paid himself a bonus of STG 3 million for performing this trick.
My Mother and the company she worked for paid in for 46 years, when I enquired how much her pension would be…I was informed USD 6.00 per month.
I paid in for an investment policy for 30 years, when the eventual paid out was due..I was informed it was valueless.
There was not one year when directors in Zimbabwe did not receive hefty salaries, new cars and other perks.
There must be many people who suffered the same disgusting behavior.
Also the same with disability pension…I was injured in ambush on 12/12/79.
Assessed at 31% disabled. We were promised a life disability pension from Lancaster talks.
I received a total of USD 100.00
When I compare to Joyce Mujura, who received USD 250,000 disability pension, from falling pregnant from her commanding officer.
Confused world we live in
I firmly believe John Giles was murdered by these perverted miscreants, as did IDS, and the Giles family in Salisbury.
Dear Hannes
Correction to earlier email dated 11 Jan.
The second sentence should read:-
“Much of what you have written supports Geoffrey Alp hypothesis that the downing of the 2 Air Rhodesia Vickers Viscounts — one in September 1978, the other in February 1979 — were nothing to do with ZIPRA forces but were acts of sabotage using onboard IEDs orchestrated by MI6 to discredit ZIPRA.”
Rgds
There was always quiet comments by RSF leaders in the field, that somebody was selling us out, internally, because why would the specific raids externally to finish off the leadership of ZANU and ZAPU, BOTH, always run into a snag and never be successfully completed, JUST as our boys were arriving ar the Correct location ??
It was often said by Both, Ian Smith and Peter Walls that Rhodesia was being sabotaged from within, but strangely NO ONE was ever caught, detained, or named as being involved in this seditious work, to SCREW our Country, into the Ground — $64,000.00 QUESTION is WHY and HOW COME ???
EVEN to this very Day, Not ONE person in Europe or North America will ever own up to the fact that THEY had a hand in the MURDER, of one of the Most Beautiful Countries ever developed and Truly, what had the potential to be, GOD’S Paradise, on this Earth.
Hi Doug, In my books ‘Perfidious Albion’ and ‘Rhodesia to Redemption – A Memoir’ I expose an informed viewpoint (evolution and deepdive) from a low-level coalface perspective inside the JOC at Centenary. The periodic Special Branch representation at JOC Centenary was ineffective and vacuous. I provide an individual perspective ‘in situ’ that was entirely transparent but true from my perspective. I got to know Mike Edden (ex Commanding Officer of SB Branch One & CID nationally) in Australia. Derek Robinson was in SB Branch Two directly under Ken Flower. Edden become a new immigrant to Australia. I benchmarked what I gleaned from him against what ex PM Ian Smith told a group of ex-Rhodesians at a prolonged dinner at Barbarinos St Kilda in Melbourne Australia. The most important and significant player by far was Tiny Rowland of Lonrho. Even PM Ian Smith paid extra-special attention to what Rowland wanted. Rowland was 100% MI6 and he followed instructions directed from London.
Nothing has changed, rent boy starmer is in charge, an entity on a bike with ukranian nazi heritage runs mi6, bearded men ? dress in jacket and tie with skirts and high heels, what can possibly go wrong. Somehow these chips with misfits on their shoulders rise to the top then make it their life’s work to make others miserable. Judging by the picture mr macmanus had a grand old time in Rhodesia.
Interesting and informative. Many thanks Hannes.
Fascinating!
Good article Hannes. The term “woke” hadn’t been invented yet but would’ve applied to the Duplicitous Pommie Commie govt of the 60-70s up to the present. We all know today how they operate. The Azi govt is much of a muchness.
I found this video of Donald Trump
commenting on the failed communist of zimBOBwe Ruins and it is very accurate regarding Emmerson Mnangagwa. Donald must be well informed on corrupt failed states in Africa. The brainwashed woke general public in the Wimpy West haven’t really got a clue what goes on in Africa.
What Trump says about zimBOBwe Ruins PM Emmerson Mnangagwa…
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1Bpg3Hx9Lj/
Dear Hannes
Thanks for your newsletter.
Much of what you have written supports Geoffrey Alps hypotheses that the downing of the 2 Rhodesian Airways viscounts in 1979 were nothing to do with ZIPRA but were acts of sabotage using onboard IEDs orchestrated by MI6 to discredit ZIPRA.
I still find this hypothesis improbable but it does make one think.
Hi Michael, Geoffrey Alps and I met for coffee and we discussed the various permutations of the Viscount demise’s. We discussed the possibility that Henry William Bacon aka Leon van der Westhuizen; Nicho Esslin; Nigel Barnett (South African Intelligence Agent in BOSS and infiltrated the BSAP / SB) may have planted the bombs in the viscounts at Vic Falls. Extract “Born in Queenstown in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa on 29 May 1949, he was named Leon van der Westhuizen by his mother who put him up for adoption. A local couple, British-born Jeffrey Harold Walker Bacon and his Swedish missionary wife, Aina Amanda Eriksson, completed all the formalities and adopted the child as a younger brother for their son, Olaf, the survivor of twin boys born to Amanda Eriksson two years earlier. The new addition to the family was then registered as Henry William Bacon and, as such, went into the world.”
You may not know that Swedish Intelligence suspected that Bacon may have played a part in the assassination of Swedish PM Olof Palme on 28 Feb 1986 in Stockiholm. I knew Henry William Bacon when he was in the BSAP. I had my own reasons to be very wary of him.
Craig Michael Williamson is most likely Palme’ assassin although two other suspects were nabbed to fog the true perpetrator.
During my seven years as Head of USSR and DPRK Desk operated out of the former Medical Arts Center on Enterprise Road in Highlands, myself and Jake Harper Ronald (Sunday Bloody Sunday) recruited assets from across the board. I wanted to puke when I was approached by white Zimbabweans and Rhodie’s from abroad who wanted to eat out friends, relatives and colleagues to eliminate the completion in business or romance.
You would be surprised which white Rhodie’s worked undercover for Counterintelligence Division. There were several honorable men and women who worked with us to ensure the safety of Zimbabwe’s white population. Then there were those who worked with us to protect their own nefarious interests.
Even my most trusted colleague Jake Harper Ronald reveals in his book Sunday Bloody Sunday that he was a triple agent working for MI6, CIA and BOSS or their external equivalent. My wife and I were in each other’s homes frequently and were non the wiser.
Would you believe good old Mervyn Hamilton the voice on Saturday horseracing and I were trained by the FBI and CIA as the only Hostage Negotiators and Crisis Managers in the country. Many of you had close relatives working in intelligence after independence but will never ever know.
Even my long distance running coach timid but principled Ian Harries who passed away a few years ago in SA was the person who formed Mozambique opposition anti communist forces. You know the one.
Rhodesia and later Zimbabwe was where the world gathered to torment mischief. Lots of nefarious stuff happened there every day, before and after independence.
Most of us will never know.
And to the inevitable snarky question someone will ask about whether I’m proud to have worked there, I say damn right I am. From a curious perch in a socialist country, I made a difference in fighting the scourge of communism.
For so many of us fighting in the Rhodesian war, your revelations now answer questions we were never aware arose during those politically puzzling years Hannes. I wasn’t a great fan of Smiths until I met him in person after the war although I always admired his honesty. It’s a pity he didn’t divulge more of how deep the British betrayal ran. It may have altered much of the more liberal thinking.
Hi A.Kynoch, Ex Rhodie PM Ian Smith was invited to Australia by the then Premier of Queensland. Smith visited the Rhodesians in Melbourne where the extemely unlikey ‘battle of Melbourne took place’. I think Hannes should publish that story. It was extraordinary. At a crowded meeting in Melbourne anti-apartheid /anti-Rhodesian protestors stormed the meeting and the Rhodesians, especially the women, engaged in the old primitive way. The protestors were sent running for their lives, it was a sight to behold. Mr. Smith was duly impressed. At dinner that night he divulged and encouraged our questions.
IT WAS THAT OLD “RHODESIAN FIGHTING SPIRIT”, that came to the surface in Melbourne, so it appears.These wimpy Western Worlders have no idea HOW DEEP our DISTRUST of ANY of THEM really Runs, After WHAT THEY ALL GLEEFULLY JUMPED IN, and Stuck it to US, in Every way possible.
AM I not on the right Track Here ??