The Smith regime has reacted to the breakdown of settlement talks with the Nkomo wing of the African National Council by, on the one hand, renewing its efforts to promote the white-appointed tribal chiefs as the "real" leaders of Rhodesia's black majority, and, on the other, setting in motion a wave of arrests of ANC members and supporters. The funerals of two chiefs were recently given star coverage in the Rhodesian press, with feature article on their successors' significance and powers. Moves have been made to enhance the position of the chiefs in the parliamentary structure, and possibly to introduce a selected few, together with leading black businessmen, into Ministerial posts. Meanwhile, several hundred people are reported to have been arrested or detained, many of them following violent incidents in urban areas which have been officially attributed to rivalries between the Muzorewa and Nkomo wings of the ANC, but many others apparently without charge and for reasons connected solely with their political affiliations.
On 23 March, it was revealed that ARTHUR CHADZINGWA, former organising secretary of the ANC, had been arrested in Rusape, a town 160 km east of Salisbury. He was reportedly to appear before magistrates on a charge under the Law and Order (Maintenance) Act, but the exact details were not given. Chadzingwa was only released from three years detention at the end of January 1976 and he then announced that he was joining the Nkomo wing of the ANC.
A few days later banning orders were issued against four top men in the Muzorewa wing of the ANC, prohibiting them from entering the Rhodesian Midlands for a period of three months. ENOS NKALA, acting deputy-secretary-general, REUBEN CYAWWEDA, national organising secretary, WILLIE MACHIKANO, youth secretary and MOTON MALIANGA, the national chairman, had been planning a series of "meet the people" rallies in the Midlands town of Gwelo, Que Que, Gatooma and Hartley. All the meetings were banned.
On Sunday 4 April, a total of 158 Africans were arrested by police in the farming town of Sinoia, north-west of Salisbury, for taking part in an illegal meeting on the main Sinoia-Salisbury road. They included MOTON MALIANGA, said to be one of the speakers at the meeting, DR. EDWARD CHITATE, national secretary for education, and CLAUDIO ZHUWARARA, deputy secretary for youth. 13 other ANC officials were also arrested. 86 of those detained appeared in Sinoia Magistrates' Court the following day, charged under section 7 of the Law and Order (Maintenance) Act, which prohibits the holding of public meetings (more than 200 people) on Sundays or public holidays. On pleading guilty, they were each sentenced to a R40 fine, or 40 days in prison.
Similar charges were laid against Malianga, Chitate and Zhuwarara. Following two appearances at Sinoia Magistrates Court on 6 and 12 April, at which they pleaded not guilty, their hearing was adjourned until 26 April for judgement. The three men were allowed bail, but the magistrate ordered that all relevant travel documents be surrendered until after the trial, to prevent them from leaving the country. Further police raids on the Muzorewa wing of the ANC quickly followed. On 10 April, police searched the organisation's offices in Bulawayo, seized papers and documents, and detained Enos Nkala. No reason was given for his arrest. Over the next two days, at least 50 more Muzorewa supporters, many of them prominent local officials, were arrested up and down the country, apparently without charge. They include A. MWUMBE, the administrative secretary in Matabeleland, (arrested in Bulawayo); ARNOLD SAWANA, a member of the national executive, (arrested in Umtali); and EXCELIA MANDIZVIDZA, the wife of the secretary for commerce and industry, Crispen Mandizvidza, who was in London at the time. Mrs. Mandizvidza was among a number of people detained in Victoria Province.
Commenting on the arrests, the deputy president of the Muzorewa wing of the ANC, Dr. Elliott Gabellah, said that they were "obviously an attempt to make way for the government's preparations to bring the chiefs into the administration". In addition to these detained without charge, large numbers of people have been arrested in recent weeks and charged with public violence, following stoning and burning incidents in which cars and other property have been destroyed. The disturbances have been blamed on factionalism within the ANC and official police warnings have been issued to representatives of both wings that violence on the part of their followers will not be tolerated. Regardless of the underlying causes, the regime will probably seek to make what political capital it can out of such incidents, by using them not only to discredit the nationalist movement but also as a "cover" for further arrests and detentions of African politicians and organisers.
