Bye-Bye for Tiny Rowland

An industrialist gets burned at Rhodesian liberation politics

He has been described as a modern-day Cecil Rhodes. If anything, comparison with the great 19th century imperialist understates the restless, driving ambition and material success of Roland ("Tiny") Rowland, 60, chief executive of the London-based conglomerate Lonrho, Ltd. Rowland has transformed a small initial stake in Africa into one of the continent's biggest commercial empires. Among his friends are Presidents Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia, Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire, Hastings Kamuzu Banda of Malawi and Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya --not to mention Prime Minister Ian Smith of Rhodesia.

Last week Tiny Rowland came a cropper at one of his favorite vocations:meddling in the politics of black majority rule in Rhodesia. Not only does Lonrho have vast investments in the breakaway British colony but Rowland has friends--favored ones--both among the leaders involved in Smith's "internal settlement" and among the Patriotic Front leaders who are fighting them. The industrialist's immediate problem, however, lay in nearby Tanzania, where the socialist government of President Julius Nyerere announced plans to nationalize Lonrho's 18 local affiliates.

Ostensibly, the reason for the takeover was that Lonrho had been evading the United Nations' economic sanctions against Rhodesia (which black African leaders refer to as Zimbabwe). In fact, the move was an irritated response by Nyerere, a prominent backer of the Patriotic Front, to Rowland's ambiguous dealings with both sides in the delicate Rhodesian situation.

Rhodesia has a special meaning for Rowland: it is where the India-born entrepreneur got his start. Emigrating from London to Salisbury in 1948, Rowland used a small fortune acquired from a local Mercedes-Benz dealership to buy up 30% of Lonrho in 1961; at that time it was a sleepy ranching and mining company known as London and Rhodesian Mining and Land Co. Ltd. He then embarked on a strategy of befriending black nationalist leaders on the way to furthering his business interests. It paid off: Lonrho's holdings now include an estimated 1 million acres of Rhodesian land and substantial concessions, sugar and tea plantations in Malawi, textile mills in the Ivory Coast, newspapers, copper mines and breweries in Zambia, coal, platinum and copper mines in South Africa, and the continent's largest auto dealership (selling, in addition to Mercedes, Ford and Toyota cars). The company has diversified far beyond Africa, employing 100,000 people in 600 subsidiaries in 43 countries.

Ever since U.N. sanctions were imposed on Rhodesia in 1965, Lonrho's Rhodesian subsidiaries have operated --theoretically, at least--at arm's length from the parent firm. Rowland, who for years has known virtually all of the country's political leaders, black and white, seems to be obsessed with finding a workable solution to the political dilemma. Says one of his London business colleagues: "There is a messianic streak in Tiny's makeup that he, and he alone, can solve the Rhodesian problem."

For some time Rowland has been funneling money to Joshua Nkomo, co-leader of the guerrilla armies of the Patriotic Front.* Among other things, he footed a $65,000 hotel bill for Nkomo and his entourage at the unsuccessful Geneva peace talks of 1976. Last September, Rowland flew Ian Smith in a Lonrho Learjet to a clandestine meeting with Zambia's Kaunda, one of the five front-line black leaders supporting the Patriotic Front. In February, Smith asked Rowland to arrange another meeting between Kaunda and a senior white Rhodesian Cabinet minister. Smith's goal: to get Kaunda's help in bringing Nkomo into the interim Executive Council that now rules Rhodesia. Since Rowland and Kaunda both objected to certain aspects of Smith's proposal, the initiative failed.

Meanwhile, Lonrho's Rhodesian subsidiaries were supplying easy credit to followers of the Rev. Ndabaningi Sithole, one of three moderate black leaders on the Executive Council. Sithole loyalists, once known to be virtually penniless, have bought expensive houses and farms, and ride around in Land Rovers and Mercedes automobiles that younger Africans describe sardonically as "Lonrhomobiles." Asked one black student leader at the University of Rhodesia: "What the hell is Rowland trying to do, swap Ian Smith for this crowd of bought blacks?"

Many African experts believe that Rowland wants to woo Nkomo away from his Marxist co-leader in the Patriotic Front, Robert Mugabe, and thus clear the way for Nkomo to become the first black President of independent Zimbabwe. Some Mugabe loyalists go further: they accuse Rowland of trying to encourage members of their faction to defect to Nkomo's camp. The allegations were passed on to Tanzania's Nyerere, who has tried assiduously to avoid such a split within the Patriotic Front. Thus Nyerere's reaction to Rowland's maneuvering was predictably furious.

Tanzania's expropriation of Lonrho's assets amounts to no more than a slap on Rowland's wrist. Nyerere's government is talking about a payment of $4 million for the nationalized properties; whatever their worth, they make only a tiny contribution to the company's total revenues ($2.5 billion last year). The Tanzanian President hoped that other African countries would follow his lead in chastising the corporate giant. No such luck. Zambia's Kaunda, whose country's ailing economy might collapse if Rowland abandoned his interests there, made it clear that he would not touch Lonrho. But even with the support of his friends, it looked as if Tiny Rowland's days as a behind-the-scenes matchmaker in Rhodesian politics might be coming to an end. -

*Last week Nkomo admitted, as Western intelligence experts have long suspected, that Cubans are training his Zambia-based forces.

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