Ian Harvey - Zimbabwean "Biggles" RIP

The Zimbabwe defence forces held a military parade in honor of the late retired air vice marshal Ian Mowbray Harvey at Manyame air base on April 11th after he died from a stroke at the age of 65.He is survived by wife Penny and son Robert.General Constantine Chiwenga,(see pic) commander of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces was visibly moved to tears at the ceremony to remember the last serving white officer in Zimbabwean military forces.

One of those larger than life characters who can only survive in the military. Ian Harvey was Rhodesian born white African who were determined to stay in his native countries even in times of radical transition and upheaval. First, the Royal Rhodesian Air Force, then the Rhodesian Air Force of Ian Smith’s rebel minority regime, and finally of the Air Force of an independent Zimbabwe, of which he rose to become deputy commander and become personal pilot to Robert Mugabe for nearly 20 years.

At 17 he left Umtali Boys’ High School and entered the RRAF as a trainee pilot cadet. After basic training on piston-engined Provosts, he graduated to Vampire jets.

In September 1961 Harvey was one of an escort of Vampire pilots waiting at Ndola airport in Northern Rhodesia to meet the UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold’s DC4 aircraft, which was approaching from the Comgo border. The Vampires were to provide protection from fire from secessionist rebels. The aircraft never came into radio contact.

At first light the next day, Harvey went out with his squadron to find the aircraft, which was eventually found burnt out in deep forest, with no survivors. Harvey contributed to the official crash report which said that the pilot had misread the name of Ndola on the

His Boys Own Paper (he is often called "Biggles") lifestyle started in earnest after Ian Smith’s unilateral declaration of independence (UDI) in 1965, Harvey served with the rebel air force and was a flight lieutenant when guerrilla incursions began in the following year. Over the next few years he served in helicopter attack operations against Zimbabwean rebels and also against guerrilla camps in neighbouring Mozambique and Zambia.

President Mugabe’s election was no problem for Harvey. “I’m a third-generation Zimbabwean,” he said. “I refuse to be a refugee. The only thing I’ve ever done since I left school was fly aeroplanes. So when the war was over, I said, fine, let’s get on with life.”

After a brief spell in the Air Force of Oman in 1980 with David irbing the revisionist historians brother, Harvey was eventually promoted to air vice-marshal and became chief of operations in 1994. He was involved in Zimbabwe’s campaign in Mozambique against Renamo rebels and also in the controversial war in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

By 2000 Mugabe had plunged the country into chaos with violent suppression of the opposition and lawless invasions of white-owned farms. The handful of whites left in the security forces were under suspicion. Harvey was now forbidden to pilot Mugabe.

In 2001 he reluctantly left the air force. He continued to work at flying instruction and aviation consultancies. But his pension was rapidly eroded by inflation as Mugabe’s policies wrecked Zimbabwe’s economy. Two months before he died from complications after suffering a stroke, he took on a job as a warehouse manager to supplement his income.

After suffering a stroke, he took on a job as a warehouse manager to supplement his income.

Apparently his passing was celebrated with rather a severe wake at Cranleigh Park Club, Prospect.No doubt many would remember the tearful General Chiwenga's brutal, nasty wife.

Gugulethu Moyo, a solicitor who had gone to try to secure the release of a detained journalist at Harare police station was beaten up by here.

A year earlier Mrs Chiwenga threatened a terrified white farmer: "I have not tasted white blood since independence." She ordered one of her guards to "kill the white bastards." He cocked his automatic weapon but didn’t fire.