List of heads of state of Zimbabwe

Initially, the territory was referred to as "South Zambezia", a reference to the River Zambezi, until the name "Rhodesia" came into use in 1895. This was in honour of Cecil Rhodes, the British empire-builder and key figure during the British expansion into southern Africa. The British government agreed that Rhodes' company, the British South Africa Company (BSAC), would administer the territory stretching from the Limpopo to Lake Tanganyika under charter as a protectorate. Queen Victoria signed the charter in 1889. The territory north of the Zambezi was the subject of separate treaties with African chiefs: today, it forms the country of Zambia. The designation "Southern Rhodesia" was first used officially in 1898 in the Southern Rhodesia Order in Council of 20 October 1898, which applied to the area south of the Zambezi,[1] and was more common after the BSAC merged the administration of the two northern territories as Northern Rhodesia in 1911.

As a result of the various treaties between the BSAC and the black tribes, Acts of Parliament delineating BSAC and Crown Lands, overlapping British colonial commission authority of both areas, the rights of the increasing number of British settlers and their descendants were given secondary review by authorities. This resulted in the formation of new movements for expanding the self-government of the Rhodesian people which saw BSAC rule as an impediment to further expansion. Opinion in the United Kingdom and South Africa favoured incorporation of Southern Rhodesia in the Union of South Africa, but, by forcing the pace of negotiation, the Southern Rhodesians obtained unfavourable terms and the electorate backed Responsible Government in a 1922 referendum.

In view of the outcome of the referendum, the territory was annexed by the United Kingdom on 12 September 1923.[2][3][4][5] Shortly after annexation, on 1 October 1923, the first constitution for the new Colony of Southern Rhodesia came into force.[6][4]

No.	Portrait	Monarch (Birth–Death)	Reign			Royal House	Prime Minister
			Reign start	Reign end	Duration
1		King George V (1865–1936)	12 September 1923	20 January 1936	12 years, 130 days	Windsor	Coghlan Moffat Mitchell Huggins
2		King Edward VIII (1894–1972)	20 January 1936	11 December 1936 (abdicated.)	326 days	Windsor	Huggins
3		King George VI (1895–1952)	11 December 1936	6 February 1952	15 years, 57 days	Windsor	Huggins
4		Queen Elizabeth II (1926–)	6 February 1952	2 March 1970 (de facto) 18 April 1980 (de jure)	18 years, 24 days (de facto) 28 years, 72 days (de jure)	Windsor	Huggins Todd Whitehead Field Smith

On 7 October 1964 the Southern Rhodesian government announced that when Northern Rhodesia achieved independence as Zambia, the Southern Rhodesian government would officially become known as the Rhodesian Government and the colony would become known as Rhodesia.[7] On 23 October of that year, the Minister of Internal Affairs notified the Press that the Constitution would be amended to make this official. The Legislative Assembly then passed an Interpretation Bill to declare that the colony could be referred to as Rhodesia. The Bill received its third reading on 9 December 1964, and passed to the Governor for assent.

On 11 November 1965, following a brief but solemn consensus, Rhodesia's leading statesmen issued their country's Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI).[8][9] This was immediately denounced as an "act of rebellion against the Crown" in the United Kingdom, and Prime Minister Harold Wilson promised that the illegal action would be short-lived.[10][11] Initially, the state retained its pledged loyalty to Elizabeth II, Queen of the United Kingdom, recognizing her as Queen of Rhodesia. However, few seemed to initially realize that Rhodesia was no longer within the Commonwealth's direct sphere of influence and British rule was now a constitutional fiction; Salisbury remained virtually immune to credible metropolitan leverage.

During a two-proposition referendum held in 1969, the proposal for severing all remaining ties to the British Crown passed by a majority of 61,130 votes to 14,327. Rhodesia declared itself a republic on 2 March 1970.

Under the 1969 Constitution, the first constitution of the Republic of Rhodesia, the President replaced the monarch as ceremonial head of state. The President was elected by Parliament. In the event of a vacancy the President of the Senate served as Acting President.

No.	President		Term of office Duration in years and days		Party	Previous office	Ref.
1		Clifford Dupont GCLM ID 1905–1978	2 March 1970	31 December 1975	Rhodesian Front (RF)	Administrator of the Government (1965–1970)	N/A
			5 years and 305 days
–		Henry Everard GCLM JCD DSO TD 1897–1980	31 December 1975	14 January 1976	Rhodesian Front (RF)	General Manager of Rhodesia Railways (1953–1958)	[12]
			15 days
2		John Wrathall GCLM ID 1913–1978	14 January 1976	31 August 1978 †	Rhodesian Front (RF)	Minister of Finance (1964–1976)	N/A
			2 years and 230 days
–		Henry Everard GCLM JCD DSO TD 1897–1980	31 August 1978	1 November 1978	Rhodesian Front (RF)	General Manager of Rhodesia Railways (1953–1958)	[12]
			63 days
–		Jack William Pithey GOLM ICD CBE 1903–1987	1 November 1978	5 March 1979	Rhodesian Front (RF)	President of the Rhodesian Senate (1970–1979)	N/A
			125 days
–		Henry Everard GCLM JCD DSO TD 1897–1980	5 March 1979	1 June 1979	Rhodesian Front (RF)	General Manager of Rhodesia Railways (1953–1958)	[12]
			89 days

Under pressure from the international community to satisfy the civil rights movement by Blacks in Rhodesia, an "Internal Settlement" was drawn up between the Ian Smith administration of Rhodesia and moderate African nationalist parties not involved in armed resistance. Meanwhile, the government continued to battle armed resistance from both Soviet and Chinese backed Marxist liberation movements it referred to as "terrorists"- the Rhodesian Bush War was an extension of the Cold War, being a proxy conflict between the West and East, similar to those in Vietnam and Korea.

The "Internal Settlement" agreement led to relaxation of education, property and income qualifications for voter rolls, resulting in the first ever Black majority electorate. The country's civil service, judiciary, police and armed forces continued to be administered by the same officials as before, of whom most were Whites, due to the composition of the upper-middle class of the period.[13]

No.	President		Term of office Duration in years and days		Party	Previous office
1		Josiah Zion Gumede OLG 1919–1989	1 June 1979	12 December 1979	United African National Council (UANC)	None
			195 days

The Lancaster House Agreement stipulated that control over the country be returned to the United Kingdom in preparation for elections to be held in the spring of 1980. From 12 December 1979 to 17 April 1980, Zimbabwe Rhodesia was again the British colony of Southern Rhodesia. On 18 April 1980, Southern Rhodesia became the independent Republic of Zimbabwe.

• World Statesmen – Zimbabwe