Category: Postmarks

Gath’s Mine

Gath’s Mine

Victoria District

 

The claims for Gath’s Mine was originally pegged by J W Gath 28 June 1907 and were the first pegging for asbestos in the Mashaba area. Between 1907 and 1908, the ownership moved between:

From as early as 1908, workers were allocated accommodation according to race, rank and skill in housing complexes in high(Chemberi) and low(Gath’s) density residential areas.

Gath’s Mine as it is now collectively known as is a combination of three mines: King Mine and the now-defunct Temeraire and Gaths. The mining operations have stopped though some of the major buildings are located here such as the General Office – Administration, the hospital, the training centre and the high(Chemberi) and low(Gath’s) density residential areas for the workers.

However the area is now occupied by Great Zimbabwe University and the so-called General Office is now the Administration Block of the University. Most houses which were built for the miners were taken by the renovated and became Students Residence. Mining has been shattered down due to lack of funds and materials for mining to progress.

Postal Services

Gath’s Mine was a postal agency under Mashaba.

  • 1949.05.01 – Opened as a Post and Telegraph Agency.
  • 1975.07.31 – Closed.

Postmarks

References

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Eldorado Mine

Eldorado Mine

Lomagundi District – Southern Rhodesia

 

Date: 18.02.1907 – 1920

Type:

  • Postal agency under Sinoa
  • Departmental office (01.01.1909 – 31.07.1909)

Service:

  • Runners to Banket Junction
  • Rail (06.03.1911)

Notes:

  • Changed it’s name to Eldorado (1920-21)
  • Office destroyed by fire (28.12.1930)

Postmarks

TypeStart DateEnd DateNotes
D116.05.190710.02.1908
D220.01.190810.07.1919
D215.01.192130.04.1930Possible replacement due to fire.

References

1975 – Victoria Falls Bridge Constitutional Conference

Victoria Falls Bridge Constitutional Conference

25 August 1975

The Victoria Falls Conference took place  aboard a South African Railways train halfway across the Victoria Falls Bridge on the border between the unrecognised state of Rhodesia and Zambia. It was the culmination of the “détente” policy introduced and championed by B. J. Vorster, the Prime Minister of South Africa, which was then under apartheid and was attempting to improve its relations with the Frontline States to Rhodesia’s north, west and east by helping to produce a settlement in Rhodesia.

The participants in the conference were a delegation led by the Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Smith on behalf of his government, and a nationalist delegation attending under the banner of Abel Muzorewa’s African National Council (UANC), which for this conference also incorporated delegates from the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU), the Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU) and the Front for the Liberation of Zimbabwe(FROLIZI). Vorster and the Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda acted as mediators in the conference, which was held on the border in an attempt to provide a venue both sides would accept as neutral.

The conference failed to produce a settlement, breaking up on the same day it began with each side blaming the other for its unsuccessful outcome. Smith believed the nationalists were being unreasonable by requesting preconditions for talks—which they had previously agreed not to do—and asking for diplomatic immunity for their leaders and fighters. The nationalists contended that Smith was being deliberately intransigent and that they did not believe he was sincere in seeking an agreement if he was so adamant about not giving diplomatic immunity.

Commemorative Covers

Contributors
  • Terence Devine

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Postmark – Salisbury

Salisbury

 

One of several slogans used.

One of several slogans used by a trial machine between 9th to 19th June, 1980.

 

Reference:

  • The Collector’s Guide to the Postage Stamps of the Republic of Zimbabwe – M J Amos
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