Harare small military force of the British South Africa Company, and named Fort Salisbury after the British prime minister Lord Salisbury. Company administrators demarcated the city and ran it until Southern Rhodesia achieved responsible government in 1923. Salisbury was thereafter the seat of the Southern Rhodesian (later Rhodesian) government and, between 1953 and 1963, the capital of the Central African Federation. It retained the name Salisbury until 1982, when it was renamed Harare on the second anniversary of Zimbabwean independence. Harare is Zimbabwe's leading political, financial, commercial, and communications centre, as well as a trade centre for tobacco, maize, cotton, and
1985 Zimbabwean parliamentary election Eventually, in April 1985, the Independent Zimbabwe Group was formed in preparation for the election. Generally, whites in Harare and Bulawayo had little complaint about the conduct of government, having seen little change in their lifestyles. There was therefore a genuine contest in the Zimbabwean white community between the Conservative Alliance of Zimbabwe (the renamed Rhodesian Front), advocating strong defence of white interests, and the Independent Zimbabwe Group, advocating conciliation and partnership with ZANU (PF). The House of Assembly of Zimbabwe consisted at this time of 100 seats, of which 20 were reserved for white voters, and the remaining 80