EMELIA SITHOLE, Johannesburg | Monday 11.00am.
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe has increased the stakes in Zimbabwe’s land battle, refusing to condemn the deaths of three political opponents in a weekend of violence.
The crisis even threatens the unity of his own party.
Two black officials and a white farmer, all members of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, died in the violence, to which Mugabe turned a blind eye on his return on Sunday from a Third World economic summit in Cuba.
The president also refused to tell the veterans he once led in the 1970s independence war against white rule to leave white farms they have occupied in recent weeks. The veterans are trying to force redistribution of land they say was stolen under British rule.
On Monday the Commercial Farmers Union, grouping 4500 mostly white farmers targeted in the invasions, said it is still assessing the situation after the weekend violence.
Political scientist Masipula Sithole said in Harare that Mugabe is allowing a crisis to develop in the hope it will bolster the flagging fortunes of his ruling Zanu-PF party in general elections expected in May.
”Its a very high-risk and divisive strategy and I think we are going to see Mugabe being challenged on this strategy within his own party in the coming days,” Sithole said.
MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai’s driver and a colleague died when their car was set ablaze on Saturday, allegedly by Mugabe supporters.
Meanwhile the British Foreign Office in London summoned Zimbabwean High Commissioner Simbarashe Mumbengegwi to complain about the farm murder and the general violence. British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook has asked Nigeria’s President Olusegun Obasanjo to pressure Zimbabwe to halt the wave of farm invasions. — Reuters