A man was killed in a scuffle over a loaf of bread in Zimbabwe, where food shortages are worsening, press reports said on Thursday.
The man, believed to have been an illegal gold panner, was killed on Thursday on the outskirts of the city of Gweru, central Zimbabwe, the official Herald daily said.
The report said the man bought a loaf of bread on credit from a woman running a small shop. Half an hour later, five men, including the shop owner’s husband, confronted the man and his brother and demanded cash for the bread.
”A misunderstanding ensued over the matter resulting in the five men assaulting the two brothers with fists, iron bars and stones,” police spokesperson Emmanuel Mahoko said.
One of the men died of his injuries later that night. Police have arrested the five alleged assailants, according to the Herald.
Bread is in critical short supply in Zimbabwe following President Robert Mugabe’s controversial price blitz early last month.
‘Fatally defective’
Meanwhile, Lawyers for six Zimbabweans facing charges of plotting to overthrow President Robert Mugabe protested against the suspects’ detentions on Thursday, saying there was no case against them.
”There is no evidence against our clients and therefore no reason for their continued detention,” lawyer Charles Warara said after a court hearing.
Lawyers were planning to ask the court to dismiss the case at the hearing, but it was postponed until Monday.
”The case is fatally defective and we are arguing that there is no reason for them to continue to be inside, except for political reasons,” he said.
Warara said the magistrate postponed the hearing at the request of state prosecutor Joseph Makwakwa, who still had to familiarise himself with the details of the case.
In June a judge denied the suspects’ bid to be released on bail out of fears they could flee the impoverished country.
The six men, including a retired soldier, have been in prison for nearly two months over an alleged attempt to topple long-ruling Mugabe and replace him with Rural Housing Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa.
Mnangagwa is among those seen as Mugabe’s possible successors. — Sapa-dpa, AFP