Smith had many fine qualities as a political leader. However, he was very much a creature of his background. His life revolved around the cricket team, the whites only school, the RAF, the country club and the company of other gentleman farmers. He never escaped from this or saw beyond it. - Peter Hain, Foreign Office Minister in Tony Blair's British government, 1999
“Smith was misunderstood in a lot of ways. He is an African [and] understands the African mentality. It wasn’t his problem what happened in Rhodesia. He came in [to power] in 1965 after Winston Field, so he was along the system that had been created. If you look at the development of Rhodesia, Smith contributed enormously [to] that. It didn’t only benefit the whites, it benefited the blacks....Smith was being realistic-if you give people something before they are ready [for it] they are going to mess it up. And that has happened. If he had had the opportunity to work with the people [and] help bring them up, Zimbabwe would be a better place now. Smith did make it better during his government. There is no reason why he could not do that if he had been allowed to go on.” - Ernest Mtunzi, Former UK Representative of Joshua Nkomo (Vice-President of Zimbabwe under Robert Mugabe from 1987 to 1999)
