A white farmer has been killed in Zimbabwe, the first in almost 18 months, the predominantly white Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) announced on Wednesday.
The body of Peter Sivertsen, believed to be in his 70s, was found ”mutilated … in a hole in the ground” by a neighbour in the central town of Kwekwe, about 200km west of the capital.
”A Kwekwe farmer has been murdered in his home … apparently during a household robbery,” the CFU said in a statement.
Police could not immediately comment on the murder.
”We do not have the details yet,” said police spokesperson Oliver Mandipaka.
The CFU blamed the incident on lawlessness which it said was rampant and had resulted in widespread theft, car hijackings and house break-ins.
”The CFU strongly condemns this incident and the current spate of criminal activity and general lawlessness in the country, and urges the authorities to make every effort to control the situation,” the farmers’ body said.
About a dozen white farmers and scores of blacks were killed between 2000 and 2002 when the government embarked on a land reform scheme of forcibly taking land away from a minority group of white farmers, and giving it to landless blacks.
Some 4 500 whites used to own a third of the country’s land — 70% of prime farmland — before the government launched the ”fast-track” land reform programme in 2000 for redistribution among new black farmers.
The remaining less than 400 white farmers now own just three percent of the country’s land, according to a government audit of the land reform programme.
Most of the dispossessed white farmers have settled in neighbouring countries such as Mozambique, Zambia and Botswana. – Sapa-AFP