David Colville Smith (19 April 19229 July 1996) was a farmer and politician in Rhodesia and its successor states, Zimbabwe Rhodesia and Zimbabwe. He served in the cabinet of Rhodesia as Minister of Agriculture from 1968 to 1976, Minister of Finance from 1976 to 1979, and Minister of Commerce and Industry from 1978 to 1979. From 1976 to 1979, he also served Deputy Prime Minister of Rhodesia. He continued to serve as Minister of Finance in the government of Zimbabwe Rhodesia in 1979. In 1980, he was appointed Minister of Trade and Commerce of the newly independent Zimbabwe, one of two whites included in the cabinet of Prime Minister Robert Mugabe.
Born in Kintyre, Scotland, Smith emigrated to Southern Rhodesia in 1946 to take up farming. Initially a farm assistant, he rose to become a farm manager and later co-founded a farming enterprise of his own in Mazowe. He was elected to the Southern Rhodesian Legislative Assembly in 1965, the year of Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence, and was added to the cabinet three years later as agriculture minister. He later held the portfolios of finance and commerce, and served for three years as Ian Smith's deputy prime minister. Considered a moderate within the Rhodesian Front, he was one of a few white ministers included in the cabinets of premier Abel Muzorewa of Zimbabwe Rhodesia in 1979, and by Robert Mugabe in 1980. He resigned from the cabinet and the Rhodesian Front in 1981, and remained in retirement in Harare until his death.
Early life and family
Smith was born on 19 April 1922 on the Kintyre peninsula of Argyll, Scotland, either in Campbeltown or at his family's Corran farm in Clachan. He was the son of farmer William Reid Smith, a Newmains native, and Margaret Brown Mundell, who originated from Bellochantuy. He was educated at Campbeltown Grammar School.
Smith emigrated to Southern Rhodesia in 1946, sailing from England on the Winchester Castle first post-war voyage. His brother, Hamish Smith, also moved to the colony and farmed in Nyabira. Prior to leaving, Smith became engaged to Jean Barclay Graham, whom he married in 1948. Together, they had five children, Catherine, Marge, Graham, Elizabeth, and William Lindsay—who died in 1952 at the age of two—and fourteen grandchildren.
Farming in Rhodesia
In Southern Rhodesia, Smith initially worked as a farm assistant, before becoming a farm manager. He later started his own farming enterprise, Smith and Wheeler (Pvt) Ldt., with a partner in Mazowe. He joined the Grain Marketing Board in 1953, and served on several other agricultural committees. He became chairman of the national Farmers' Co-operative in 1966. In 1974, he purchased a farm in Banket worth several hundred thousand dollars.
Political career
In 1965, the year of Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence, Smith was elected to the Southern Rhodesian Legislative Assembly for the Marandellas constituency. On 28 September 1968, he was named to Prime Minister Ian Smith's cabinet as Minister of Agriculture, succeeding George Rudland. At that time, Smith was described as the Rhodesian Front's "most liberal MP" and a moderate within the party who opposed press censorship and favoured a settlement with Britain. He was reelected to Parliament in the 1970 election with 72.5 percent of the vote against independent candidate Thomas Edridge, a Wedza farmer and member of the Rhodesia Tobacco Association's governing council. Edridge and the RTA took issue with price controls put in place by Smith in his capacity as agriculture minister. In April 1970, the month of the election, Smith criticized the RTA and other commodities boards for their political involvement, and accused them of lobbying against him in other government ministries. In 1972, he was elected vice-president of the Rhodesian Front, succeeding Lord Angus Graham. Smith was reelected in 1974 with 79 percent of the vote against Alfred John Harrison, the Rhodesia Party candidate.
On 13 January 1976, Smith was made Minister of Finance after the incumbent minister, John Wrathall, became President of Rhodesia. He became Deputy Prime Minister on 20 August 1976, retaining his finance portfolio. He was returned to Parliament in the 1977 election with 86 percent of the vote against William John Raymond Pratt of the right-wing Rhodesian Action Party. In April 1978, he was appointed joint Minister of Commerce and Industry, serving alongside Ernest Bulle, one of the black co-ministers appointed as a result of the Internal Settlement. That year, he was the first Rhodesian minister to say he would run for Parliament under the Internal Settlement constitution, which would ensure a multiracial government.