ROBERT Mugabe's feared war veterans this weekend launched a new wave of white farm invasions in retribution for the ruling party's poor showing in last week's polls.
Mobs invaded "five or six" farms in southern Masvingo province on Saturday, said an official from the Commercial Farmers' Union (CFU).
State-run ZTV filmed about 50 militants as they tried to break through the gates of Crest Farm, owned by Graham
Goddard, making the invasions appear orchestrated, the official said.
"It's totally stage-managed. There was a government bus company that went round and collected them (the veterans] this morning," said the official.
Zimbabwe's agricultural sector is in crisis. With food shortages rife, attacking white farmers will only make the situation worse.
Mugabe, increasingly desperate, is lashing out in anger as suspicions grow he may not even have secured enough votes in the 29 March presidential polls to warrant a rerun against opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
The president, who is 84, claims white farmers gave Mr Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) financial support and are planning to recolonise Zimbabwe.
Several electoral officials have been arrested for "miscounting" votes in favour of the opposition leader, the official Sunday Mail reported.
Lawyers for Mugabe's Zanu-PF, which has been in power virtually unchallenged since independence in 1980, have demanded a recount of all votes, claiming mistakes had been detected in at least four constituencies. This is likely to further delay the release of results.
Unused to defeat, ruling party officials now say the polls were "the worst run ever".
The MDC went to court twice at the weekend to try to force the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission to release presidential results, claiming the eight-day delay was causing "unnecessary anxiety".
On Saturday, a man in a Zanu-PF T-shirt barred opposition lawyer Alec Muchadehama from entering Harare High Court. Backed by three armed police, the man told Muchadehama that if he went in he would not come out, the lawyer said.
There was no police presence at the court yesterday and Judge Tendai Uchena announced he would give a ruling today.
Opposition spokesman Nelson Chamisa maintained his party's claim that Mr Tsvangirai won the poll outright and dismissed calls for a recount and a run-off. Zimbabwe's electoral laws say a rerun must be held within three weeks if no presidential candidate secures a majority of 50 per cent plus one vote. The MDC says Mr Tsvangirai won 50.3 per cent of the vote.
Zimbabwe's remaining 450 or so white farmers looked to be first in line for attack yesterday after war veterans vowed to evict them. At least 12 white farmers have been killed since Mugabe unleashed bands of thugs on to hundreds of white-owned farms in 2000, shortly after his unexpected defeat in a constitutional referendum.
The authorities, trying to raise anti-white sentiment, claim there has been a "huge influx" of white former farmers in the Save Valley Conservancy who are waiting to take back their land if Mr Tsvangirai gets into power.
State media have claimed that farmers have been massing in Mozambique and near Lake Kariba. Farmers' groups deny the claims.
THE RESULTS SO FAR…OFFICIAL results give the MDC 99 seats in parliament, a breakaway opposition faction ten and Zanu-PF 97. One seat went to an independent. No presidential results have so far been released.
Senate results show contested seats split 30-30 between the combined opposition and the ruling party. Control of the 93-seat Senate will depend on who becomes president, with powers to appoint 15 members directly and strongly influence who gets other positions. The MDC said Mr Tsvangirai won the presidential poll outright. Zanu-PF projections show that although he won he fell short of the absolute majority needed for first-round victory.
The full article contains 643 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
