OWN CORRESPONDENT, Harare | Wednesday 10.00am.
MORE political violence on Zimbabwe’s farms and in the cities was reported on Wednesday as the countdown to elections began after parliament was dissolved at midnight.
A spokesman for the Commercial Farmers Union said two violent attacks were reported overnight amidst the ongoing occupation of some 1000 white-owned farms by squatters.
CFU official Stephen Crawford said a group of people arrived at Linden Farm near Lake Chivero west of the capital Harare in three vehicles, beat up an assistant farm manager, torched a vehicle and trashed barns.
To the east of the capital, in Arcturus, gunshots were reportedly fired when Lonely Park Farm was attacked and the farmhouse broken into, he said.
Meanwhile, local newspapers report brutal assaults in the teeming working-class suburbs of the capital Harare involving supporters of President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party and those of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.
The increasing violence was condemned by several members of parliament on Tuesday before the legislature was dissolved, setting the stage for elections which must be held within four months.
“It is a great shame, a frightening phenomenon that even before we know the actual election date, we have begun to hack each other,” lamented an outgoing MP of Mugabe’s ruling Zanu-PF party, Livingstone Manhombo.
Meanwhile Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo said on Tuesday that he is prepared to act as a “midwife” if necessary and mediate a solution to the crisis. — AFP
11