1980 - ZIMBABWE Exploratory Visit

We were living happily in Cape Town in 1980, although we were very worried about the political situation and the escalation of violence in the community. I was offered a position in the Zimbabwe subsidiary of the international insurance group I was working for at the time. I had finished my schooling in the 50s in Rhodesia as Zimbabwe was called then and had two business trips there during the early part of 1980. I thought it would be a good move but Rab was less convinced, so the company offered us a trip to Zimbabwe to see what it would be like to live there.

This is a brief summary of our first impressions from that trip. The Rhodesian War or Chimurenga had finally been concluded, a peace negotiated and the country was Independent. Most of the whites still resident were looking for a way to get out of the country, but it was difficult. Financial controls limited the value of assets that could be transferred or removed. The universal view of our friends in South Africa and all the folk we met in Zimbabwe was that we were nuts. For us it was a chance to get out of South Africa and avoid what seemed to be the inevitability of a civil war developing.

My commentary reflects the fact that we had not done much travelling – at least by air. Rab and I had both been overseas, travelling by mail ship as most people did, and we had been on a cruise to South America after we were married, but we had done very little international  flying!

The South African Rand and the Zimbabwe dollar were on a par. The rates against  US dollar and sterling were about R1.00:US$1.25 and about R1.00:£0.60p.

Friday December 5, 1980 – Cape Town/Salisbury

We left Cape Town late because of some problem on the aircraft. We couldn’t hear what the problem was when it was announced, but it held us up about thirty minutes. We didn’t have a window seat but at least we had plenty of leg room because we were on the emergency aisle. There were a lot of noisy schoolchildren on the plane, heading home for the holidays. They were a bit of a nuisance wandering around the cabin.

The pilot was quite chatty and told us there were thunderstorms over Johannesburg which worried Rab a bit, but apart from two or three bumps on approach we had a very smooth flight. We made up for lost time and landed at Jan Smuts in Johannesburg on time. We only had coffee and biscuits on the flight, with a very poor choice of biscuits too.

There was no-one to meet us at the airport – not that we really expected anyone to trek out to the airport – so we went straight across to International Departures. I showed Rab where she would book in if she goes on the Lufthansa flight next year and then we went to the Duty Free to pick up some cigarettes for the people in Salisbury (re-named Harare in 1982) plus a bottle of de Kuypers Peach Brandy for me – very reasonable at R7.50. (Although some of the finest tobacco in the world was grown in Zimbabwe, shortage of foreign currency meant that no international brands were manufactured or sold locally, so for smokers it was always a pleasure to get South African cigarettes. I collected liqueurs so was always on the lookout for something different.)

There was an interval of about forty five minutes before we boarded and we had a beer while we waited. There were so many curious looking people about and we were fascinated. We spotted Shelagh Holliday (a well known South African actress) who was on her way to London and just as our flight was called Rab spotted some old friends of hers – Beryl and Owen Leibbrandt – who she hadn’t seen for about twenty years. As a result we were almost the last people to get on the bus which was taking us across to the aircraft. It turned out that we needn’t have worried because on our plane was a team of Nomad golfers who found it difficult to leave the bar so they held things up of about fifteen minutes. (Getting recalcitrant drinkers aboard turned out to be a common problem with Air Zimbabwe flights, which often left late as a result.)

There was a further delay when a storm swept across the airport. It started to rain heavily and there was lightning all over the place. We taxied down to the end of the runway and waited there for the storm to move on, finally taking off about twenty minutes late. I thought it might be bumpy due to the storm but it was not. Just a couple of little bounces. One of the golfers sat next to me – Rab had the window seat (as she did for most of our joint flights for the next thirty plus years) but as we were over the wing, she didn’t have much of a view.

My companion, John, had been one of the last arrivals on the bus and was quite talkative. He was also teasing the hostess (who looked like Cilla Black I thought) and he undid her apron. She apparently didn’t notice, but when he did it up again, she really snapped at him to leave her alone. She was very cheeky. When I asked her if she could get us a drink, she said she would try, but she wasn’t an octopus! When I finally got a drink, I had a cane spirit and kept the miniature bottle for Matt, as it was a Zimbabwe one and rather unusual. Rab also found an interesting map which she kept, plus two Air Zimbabwe spoons.

Rab had chosen the window seat because she wanted to see the lights of Salisbury as we came in to land but she didn’t see many, mainly because she was on the wrong side of the aircraft. We landed about twenty minutes late and were surprised to find that it was quite cool. There was quite a wait getting through Immigration and we laughed at the golfers and their antics. They were all a bit under the weather but were being quite amusing, especially about one of their number wearing a big black Stetson a la Dallas. They kept making cracks about JR.

By the time we got through Immigration, our luggage was on the conveyor belt and we went through Customs easily. Rab was most impressed by the politeness of the officials but couldn’t get over how small the airport was. We were met by Terry Burt and his wife Sherry who took us to Meikles Hotel in their old Renault station wagon.(The lack of foreign currency and the ability to import motor cars resulted in the Zimbabwean national vehicle fleet being mainly very old units.)  We had to walk a long way to his car at the airport because most of the parking area had been cordoned off for the crowd expected for President Nyerere’s (President of Tanzania) departure – he was here for a State Visit.

 

Manica Road, Salisbury - one of the main thoroughfares

The Burts were going on to a party, so they just dropped us off at the airport. Rab and I were feeling quite weary, so we just unpacked and watched some local television. The programmes were all running late because of Nyerere’s visit so I didn’t see the one programme I wanted to see – Kremen. It was odd to see TV being broadcast in black and white – and not very clear. (In fact the broadcast was in colour but it was not possible to buy a TV set in Zimbabwe that received colour signals.) As an indicator of the quality of the programming, The Muppet Show was broadcast in what was prime time in Zimbabwe – 19.15.