The largely cordial relationship between Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and South Africa, established in the 1890s, instantly turned hostile at Zimbabwe’s independence in 1980. This reconfiguration, marked by Harare’s termination of diplomatic contact with Pretoria, was due to divergent ideologies between apartheid South Africa and the black majoritarian Zimbabwean government. Shying away from the orthodox approach that emphasises the security and military dimension of the breakdown of relations, the article utilises the lens of diplomacy and everyday interstate engagements to explore Zimbabwe’s anti-apartheid posture and its campaign against South Africa’s occupation of Namibia. It considers how South Africa attempted to exploit Zimbabwe’s overwhelming economic reliance on its trade and transportation networks and infrastructure to assert its power and force its northern neighbour to abandon its hostile stance. Relying largely on recently available archival material, I argue that Zimbabwe terminated political contact in order to force South Africa to change its domestic and regional politics while Pretoria adopted trade and transportation diplomacy as a stick with which to beat its obstinate neighbour.

罗得西亚（现津巴布韦）与南非之间的友好关系建立于 1890 年代，但在 1980 年津巴布韦独立后立即变成敌对关系。这种重新配置，以哈拉雷终止与比勒陀利亚的外交接触为标志，是由于种族隔离的南非之间的意识形态分歧和黑人多数派津巴布韦政府。本文回避强调关系破裂的安全和军事层面的正统方法，利用外交和日常国家间交往的镜头来探讨津巴布韦的反种族隔离姿态及其反对南非占领纳米比亚的运动。它考虑了南非如何试图利用津巴布韦对其贸易和运输网络以及基础设施的压倒性经济依赖来维护其权力并迫使其北部邻国放弃其敌对立场。我主要依靠最近可获得的档案材料，认为津巴布韦终止政治接触是为了迫使南非改变其国内和地区政治，而比勒陀利亚则采用贸易和运输外交作为击败其顽固邻国的大棒。