The Zimbabwean government publicly threatened Smith on a regular basis, but in practice left him and his property largely untouched—Mugabe frequently pointed to Smith's freedom as evidence of Zimbabwe's reconciliation policy. Smith renamed the RF the Conservative Alliance of Zimbabwe (CAZ) on 21 July 1984, concurrently removing racial criteria for membership and inviting black Zimbabweans to join. The CAZ was very successful in the 1985 parliamentary election, winning 15 of the 20 white seats; Smith won decisively in Bulawayo Central. Mugabe interpreted this as "the racists of this country" defying his government and rejecting reconciliation, and immediately pledged to abolish the white seats, which he said compromised "the sovereignty of our people". After Smith described Mugabe's government as "illiterate" on BBC television in November 1985, Mugabe told the House of Assembly Smith was "an incorrigible racist" who "should long ago have been hanged and hanged publicly". Later that month, Smith's close friend and long-standing political associate "Boss" Lilford, who had provided much of the finance to form the RF, was found beaten and shot to death on his ranch. Smith described Lilford afterwards as a man "who was prepared to die for principles", but refused to openly discuss any possible political motive, saying simply that "it would be premature to come to conclusions".