More inequalities in the Settlement

On 3 March 1978, the Internal Settlement was signed in Salisbury. Under this agreement the existing distribution of land will continue. This means that the existing individual tenure on all the larger rural holdings will exclude all but the wealthiest blacks from ownership of land in white areas.

There are other aspects of the Internal Settlement which operate against the principle of true majority rule. Many safeguards will severely limit any attempts to make the Public Service, police and defence forces truly integrated. Fundamentally state power will still remain in the hands of the white minority because the administrative structure of Zimbabwe has not changed. If there are no laws restricting land ownership, but all the "white" areas are priced out of the range of all but the whites, then nothing has really changed.

It is in response to such flaws in the proposals that civil war flared up to the extent that the elections, vital for the political survival of the settlement have had to be post-poned. The opposition to the Settlement is now so strong that it is most unlikely that it will ultimately survive.