Desmond William Lardner-Burke
ID (17 October 1909 – 1984) was a politician in
Rhodesia
Rhodesia (, ), officially from 1970 the Republic of Rhodesia, was an unrecognised state in Southern Africa from 1965 to 1979, equivalent in territory to modern Zimbabwe. Rhodesia was the ''de facto'' successor state to the British colony of S ...
.
Early years
Desmond Lardner-Burke was born in
Kimberley in the
Cape of Good Hope
The Cape of Good Hope ( af, Kaap die Goeie Hoop ) ;''Kaap'' in isolation: pt, Cabo da Boa Esperança is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula in South Africa.
A common misconception is that the Cape of Good Hope is t ...
on 17 October 1909, and was educated at
St. Andrew's College, Grahamstown. Lardner-Burke became a lawyer.
He became a leading member of the
Dominion Party
The Dominion Party was a political party in the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, led by Winston Field.
History
The party was established in 1956 by a merger of several political groups and the remains of the Confederate Party, which had d ...
, and in 1957 was a founder member of the
Southern Rhodesian Association, of which he soon became leader. In 1962, this merged with
Ian Smith
Ian Douglas Smith (8 April 1919 – 20 November 2007) was a Rhodesian politician, farmer, and fighter pilot who served as Prime Minister of Rhodesia (known as Southern Rhodesia until October 1964 and now known as Zimbabwe) from 1964 to ...
's
United Group
United Group is an alternative telecom provider in Southeast Europe that operates both telecommunications platforms and mass media outlets.
History
United Group was formed in 2007, as a Luxembourg-registered multinational entity, in a merger o ...
and other organisations to found the
Rhodesian Front
The Rhodesian Front was a right-wing conservative political party in Southern Rhodesia, subsequently known as Rhodesia. It was the last ruling party of Southern Rhodesia prior to that country's unilateral declaration of independence, and the rul ...
, of which he was a prominent member. Lardner-Burke was a supporter of
white supremacy
White supremacy or white supremacism is the belief that white people are superior to those of other races and thus should dominate them. The belief favors the maintenance and defense of any power and privilege held by white people. White su ...
, and claimed to support the views of
Cecil Rhodes
Cecil John Rhodes (5 July 1853 – 26 March 1902) was a British mining magnate and politician in southern Africa who served as Prime Minister of the Cape Colony from 1890 to 1896.
An ardent believer in British imperialism, Rhodes and his Br ...
. In 1971, he preached a sermon from the pulpit of the
Cathedral of St Mary and All Saints,
Salisbury
Salisbury ( ) is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers Avon, Nadder and Bourne. The city is approximately from Southampton and from Bath.
Salisbury is in the southeast of Wil ...
, in which he claimed that Christ had never declared that everyone was equal, nor that everyone was entitled to equal treatment. He attempted to illustrate how Christian theology could be shown to support
apartheid
Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...
.
At the
1962 Southern Rhodesian general election
General elections were held in Southern Rhodesia on 14 December 1962. Voters elected 65 members of the Legislative Assembly. The election was notable for bringing to power the Rhodesian Front, initially under Winston Field, which set the colon ...
, Lardner-Burke was elected for the
Gwelo
Gweru is a city in central Zimbabwe. Near the geographical centre of the country. It is on the centre of Midlands Province. Originally an area known to the Ndebele as "The Steep Place" because of the Gweru River's high banks, in 1894 it became ...
constituency. The Rhodesian Front formed the new government, and after a period on the backbenches, Lardner-Burke was appointed Minister for Law and Order and Justice. In this role, he gave advice on which political detainees were suitable for release. He also acted as Leader of the House.
''
The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...
'' described Lardner-Burke as "responsible for the harassment, arrest and detention without trial of tens of thousands of black nationalists, including President
Mugabe
Robert Gabriel Mugabe (; ; 21 February 1924 – 6 September 2019) was a Zimbabwean revolutionary and politician who served as Prime Minister of Zimbabwe from 1980 to 1987 and then as President from 1987 to 2017. He served as Leader of the Z ...
, fighting against white rule in the 1960s and 1970s."
He first ordered Mugabe to be detained in December 1963, writing:
"whereas certain information has been placed before me and whereas due to confidential information which I cannot reveal, I am satisfied that you are likely to commit acts of violence throughout Rhodesia"
Mugabe spent the next eleven years in various prisons.
Unilateral Declaration of Independence
Lardner-Burke held his seat at the
1965 general election, and was one of the signatories to the
Unilateral Declaration of Independence
A unilateral declaration of independence (UDI) is a formal process leading to the establishment of a new state by a subnational entity which declares itself independent and sovereign without a formal agreement with the state which it is secedi ...
(UDI), signed in
Salisbury
Salisbury ( ) is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers Avon, Nadder and Bourne. The city is approximately from Southampton and from Bath.
Salisbury is in the southeast of Wil ...
on 11 November.
Following the UDI, Lardner-Burke stepped up his struggle against militants opposed to the Rhodesian Front. He made the possession of "weapons of war" a mandatory
capital offence
Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...
, and to escape this punishment, those accused were expected to demonstrate that they did not intend to endanger life.
In 1967,
Michael Holman, a white student activist, published a poem criticising the Rhodesian Front's racial policy. For this, he was arrested, but a trial acquitted him of any crime. However, Lardner-Burke used his powers to immediately have Holman arrested and detained without trial.
Lardner-Burke again held his seat at the
1970 general election, but stood down in
1974
Major events in 1974 include the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis and the resignation of United States President Richard Nixon following the Watergate scandal. In the Middle East, the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War determined politics; f ...
. By 1974, he had been given powers to "arrest without warrant and detain without communication anyone regarded as a threat to the 'public interest'".
[''News Dictionary'', Facts on File, Inc. (1974)]
The white Rhodesian government was replaced in 1979, and in 1980 a government including Mugabe was elected. Lardner-Burke died in 1984 at St Anne's Hospital, Harare.
Election of 2008
In the run-up to the
2008 Zimbabwean parliamentary election
General elections were held in Zimbabwe on 29 March 2008 to elect the President and Parliament. Because of Zimbabwe's dire economic situation, the elections were expected to provide incumbent President Robert Mugabe with his toughest electoral ...
, the
Movement for Democratic Change Movement for Democratic Change or MDC may refer to:
* Movement for Democratic Change – Tsvangirai (MDC–T), the former main opposition party in Zimbabwe
** Movement for Democratic Change – Tsvangirai Congress 2006, the second MDC–T congres ...
opposition to Mugabe noted that Lardner-Burke's name appeared on the
electoral roll
An electoral roll (variously called an electoral register, voters roll, poll book or other description) is a compilation that lists persons who are entitled to vote for particular elections in a particular jurisdiction. The list is usually broke ...
for the
Mount Pleasant suburb of
Harare
Harare (; formerly Salisbury ) is the capital and most populous city of Zimbabwe. The city proper has an area of 940 km2 (371 mi2) and a population of 2.12 million in the 2012 census and an estimated 3.12 million in its metropolitan ...
. They alleged that the presence of names such as Lardner-Burke's on the roll would permit Mugabe's
ZANU-PF party to engage in
electoral fraud
Electoral fraud, sometimes referred to as election manipulation, voter fraud or vote rigging, involves illegal interference with the process of an election, either by increasing the vote share of a favored candidate, depressing the vote share of ...
by falsely claiming the support of dead people. Reports noted the irony of Lardner-Burke potentially posthumously assisting Mugabe in securing a further term as
President of Zimbabwe
The president of Zimbabwe is the head of state of Zimbabwe and head of the executive branch of the government of Zimbabwe. The president chairs the national cabinet and is the chief commanding authority of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces.
The in ...
.
References
Citations
Sources
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Lardner-Burke, Desmond
1909 births
1984 deaths
Alumni of St. Andrew's College, Grahamstown
Justice ministers
People from Kimberley, Northern Cape
Rhodesian anti-communists
Rhodesian Front politicians
Members of the Legislative Assembly of Southern Rhodesia
Signatories of Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence
South African emigrants to Rhodesia
White Rhodesian people
White South African people