Overview of todays News

From SW Radio Africa, 8 April: High Court postpones decision on MDC presidential vote case, again

By Lance Guma

High Court judge Tendai Uchena postponed to Wednesday a ruling on an application by the MDC demanding the release of presidential election results from the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission. Despite an earlier ruling that the matter was urgent, the judge demanded a second round of hearings ‘to deal with matters with full concentration.’ It remained unclear whether the judge was physically tired or just needed more time and arguments from the different legal teams. The case will begin again 10am on Wednseday. Opposition lawyer Alec Muchadehama told the court his clients ‘have a legitimate concern to have the results announced expeditiously.’ ZEC however had sought to block the High Court from intervening, by arguing it had no jurisdiction to order ZEC to announce the results. This argument was thrown out by Uchena and paved the way Tuesday for the actual court case to begin.....

From The Times (UK), 9 April

Zimbabwe faces starvation as mobs rampage through farms

Catherine Philp in Harare South

Just as Tommy Miller was milking his Friesian herd early yesterday morning, the mob stormed into Dunluce Farm. Armed with sticks, stones and a shotgun, they ordered him to stop. He refused. The cows had to be milked or they would become ill. "This is the law," replied their dreadlocked leader, brandishing his baton. "You must throw the milk on the ground." As they rampaged through Zimbabwe’s last productive farms, Robert Mugabe’s feared militiamen threatened to drive the country to starvation with a campaign not just to reclaim white-owned land but to destroy the farming system. Reports flooding into farmers’ unions in Harare yesterday told of the wilful destruction of farm equipment, produce and buildings as part of an alleged "popular uprising" by government-backed mobs in the name of getting the land back for the black population.

Agriculturalists fear that the country could run out of food within weeks as the farm invasions stop the maize harvest in mid-flow and threaten the future of wheat crops with only four weeks left for planting. As of yesterday, 60 commercial farmers – including two black farmers with opposition sympathies – had been evicted from their farms by mobs of so-called war veterans, the shock troops unleashed by Mr Mugabe in a desperate attempt to cling to power. Dozens more have fled their farms, unwilling to resist the increasingly violent mobs, which have set fire to farm labourers’ huts and beaten workers. Up to 300 veterans, in T-shirts of the ruling Zanu (PF) party, turned up at Mr Miller’s sprawling dairy farm south of Harare yesterday, closing down production when he refused to leave, and surrounding his heavily fortified house to try to flush him out.

Milk has become one of the scarcest commodities in Zimbabwe since the first invasions in early 2000, and long queues form from early morning in the rare places it can be found on sale. In a land of such desperate hunger, the wanton waste of milk seems unbelievable. But while millions of Zimbabweans spent their day in the exhausting search for food, Mugabe supporters spent theirs in a frenzied effort to destroy the supply chain. The militias, financed by trillions of Zimbabwean dollars printed since Mr Mugabe’s apparent election defeat 11 days ago – official results have still not been announced – are answering a call to arms to defend the land from a new white invasion and reclaim what is held by the country’s few hundred white farmers. Mr Mugabe has cast the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) as the stooges of former British colonial rulers, claiming that it is seeking to hand back land to ousted whites.

When two white Times journalists drove to Dunluce Farm yesterday on the pretext of buying meat, the car was set upon by the chanting mob occupying the farm. They dragged a cart across the driveway to block an escape and gathered, chanting and mocking, round the car. "The butchery is closed, the farm is closed," their leader said. "This is the law." Similar tales were told by the white farmers fleeing to Harare for safety and congregating at the offices of the Commercial Farmers’ Union (CFU) to report attacks on their farms. "They are saying they have come to reeducate the people and repossess the land," one white farmer from Mashonaland Central said, refusing to give his name for fear of retribution. Too afraid to return to his farm, he was fretting over what would happen to his wheat crops, which must be planted within four weeks. Other farmers were evicted or fled in the middle of the maize harvest, raising fears over how long the country could last on its food stocks.

Zimbabwe needs 23,000 tonnes of maize a week to feed its population, half of which it imports. Its remaining stocks stand at just two thirds of that figure. Trevor Gifford, president of the CFU, calculated that more than 1,000 lorryloads of maize would have to be imported every week just to keep the country at subsistence level. The political limbo, meanwhile, shows no signs of ending. Yesterday a court postponed the opposition’s petition for the release of disputed election results, as news emerged that officials had been arrested for allegedly undercounting Mr Mugabe’s vote. There is no sign of the promised run-off between Mr Mugabe and his challenger, Morgan Tsvangirai, but every sign of a violent campaign unfolding to intimidate opposition supporters. In Harare, the queues for basic food-stuffs stretched along the pavements into the evening. "We are suffering here," said one woman, holding her crying baby. "When will it end?"

From Zim Online (SA), 9 April

Soldiers beat up revellers and shoppers

By Own correspondent

Harare - Soldiers beat up revellers and late evening shoppers in the city of Gweru as punishment for not "voting correctly", a human rights group has reported as Zimbabwe’s election stalemate looks increasingly set to degenerate into violent clashes between rival political groups. The Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP) said soldiers, some of them wearing face masks, on Sunday raided bars and a public market in Gweru’s Mkoba 6 surbub, assaulting people they accused of failing to vote correctly. Gweru, which is in Mdilands province, is a stronghold of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party led by Morgan Tsvangirai which trounced President Robert Mugabe’s ruling Zanu PF party in the city in just ended elections. The ZPP said: "Soldiers descended on unsuspecting revellers in bars and late night shoppers beating them up. The soldiers were allegedly saying the people’s crime among other things was that they did not vote correctly." The soldiers, who allegedly used logs and broom sticks to assault their victims, were back on Monday morning but this time at a different shopping centre in Mkoba 14 suburb where they again beat up civilians, according to ZPP......

From The Star (SA), 9 April

Tsvangirai in Harare airport scare

Moshoeshoe Monare and Hans Pienaar

Harare - An SAA flight, whose passengers included MDC leader and potential Zimbabwean president Morgan Tsvangirai, battled to land at Harare airport because runway lights had been switched off. But SAA spokesperson Robyn Chalmers said the company "had no record" of such an event. Tsvangirai was on his way back after his brief visit in South Africa, where he met, among others, ANC president Jacob Zuma. He caught the 7pm flight (SA23) to Harare on Monday, which was supposed to land at around 9pm. According to a passenger, who spoke to The Star on condition of anonymity, the plane had to fly around the airport because the pilot could not see the runway lights. "(The pilot) told us that we have passed the airport and there was still no word from the tower about switching on the lights. He said he was facing a dilemma either to return to Johannesburg or fly around the airport. But he raised the concern that he may run out of fuel if he did not land in the next hour," said the passenger. He confirmed that Tsvangirai was on the same flight and that the lights were finally switched on, to the relief of anxious passengers.

MDC secretary-general Tendai Biti said he knew nothing about the flight problems. Chalmers said the Harare flight left OR Tambo Airport 14 minutes late, but arrived "five or six minutes early" at Harare Airport. Biti confirmed that Tsvangirai had met Zuma and Provincial and Local Government Minister Sydney Mufamadi, but refused to disclose any further details. "Those are the two that I am authorised to disclosed … But everyone is concerned about the situation in the country," was all that Biti was prepared to say. Meanwhile Biti has warned Southern African Development Community and African Union leaders not to wait for dead bodies, but to intervene urgently to broker the tense political impasse triggered by the failure to announce the presidential election result. "We are aware that Zanu-PF wants to … put us in a position where we are frustrated and we say we are demonstrating and protesting … They want to declare a state of emergency … We remain steadfast in our commitment to peaceful ways of resolving this dispute … We are keeping our members restrained … I say to my brothers and sisters across the continent, don't wait for dead bodies in the street of Harare. There is a constitutional and legal crisis in Zimbabwe," Biti said.

From AFP, 8 April

Mozambique ready for Zimbabwe refugees: president

Maputo - Mozambique’s President Armando Guebuza has said his country was willing to house refugees from Zimbabwe, in the event of post-election violence in the country, local media said Tuesday. Speaking at an event to mark Women’s Day celebrations in Maputo, Guebuza said he was willing to accept refugees from Zimbabwe, where tension is rising over the unannounced outcome of a presidential poll ten days ago. "We are thinking of the good of the people of Zimbabwe," he said, in repsonse to questions from journalists on the possibility of an influx of refugees, should the tension spiral into violence. The independent online news service Canal de Mocambique quoted Guebuza as saying the outcome of a court case in which Zimbabwe’s opposition is attempting to force the release of results of the presidential poll should be awaited. "The election process in Zimbabwe is not in an impasse. It appears to me that there are issues before the courts," he said. "Let’s wait for the outcome of the court case. We have to respect the sovereignty of Zimbabwe and for that we have leave it up to them to decide their own fate without us pressurising them."....