Mugabe opponent beaten to death

THE ex-soldiers came for Tapiwa Mbwada late on Saturday.

Mr Mbwada was the organising secretary for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in Hurungwe East, northern Zimbabwe.

The attackers beat Mr Mbwada to death, according to the party's secretary for welfare, Kerry Kay.

Mr Mbwada's wife and brother were also badly injured in the attack, carried out by at least two men known to be former soldiers in Robert Mugabe's army, Mrs Kay said.

Last night, there was mounting evidence that Mr Mugabe's thugs had begun brutalising villagers and farm workers who voted against him two weeks ago, dealing the dictator a defeat he refuses to accept.

As the official Sunday Mail newspaper proudly headlined South African president Thabo Mbeki's claim there was "no crisis in Zimbabwe", opposition officials spoke of beatings, burnings and villagers being driven from their homes.

"It's mayhem out there," said MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa.

More than 100 people have been injured and treated since the elections, while many more brutalised villagers are "still hiding in the bush", said Mrs Kay.

About 55 families are believed to have been chased away from a tea estate in southern Chipinge. Meanwhile, up to 300 workers have been kicked off a farm in the eastern Mutasa district.

War veterans and Zanu-PF thugs burnt down 30 workers' homes at Silver Stream farm in Centenary, northern Zimbabwe after a vote count at a polling station on the farm showed "a slight difference" between votes for Mr Mugabe and for Morgan Tsvangirai, the MDC leader.

"They're on a rampage," said Mrs Kay. "When they're beating, they are saying, 'We're going to teach you a lesson so next time you vote properly'."

None of the attacks has been confirmed by the police – nor are they likely to be. Sikhanyiso Ndlovu, the information minister, said Zimbabwe was at peace. He added: "The army will not fight against Zimbabweans."

Zimbabweans, meanwhile, face another week of waiting for presidential election results after the state electoral commission announced it would run a recount next Saturday.

There are fears Mr Mugabe intends to use thousands of spare ballot papers printed ahead of the polls to overturn the MDC's slim parliamentary majority and rule by decree. Opposition lawyers said yesterday they would challenge the recount.

A judge is due to rule tomorrow on an earlier application from the opposition to force the electoral commission to release results immediately. The MDC has said it will embark on a national strike tomorrow if no results are announced.

Mr Tsvangirai says he won the poll outright with at least 50.3 per cent of votes. His party says he will not take part in a second round of voting because of the intimidation supporters face.

RIGHTS GROUP DEMANDS POLL ANSWER

AN EYE-catching advert (see above), illustrating the frustrations felt by a growing number of Zimbabweans and calling for the immediate release of election results, was created by the Youth Initiative for Democracy in Zimbabwe (Yidez).

The group targets women aged 18-30 – which covers the majority of Zimbabwe's female population, who have an average life expectancy of just 34.

Like another local rights group, Women of Zimbabwe Arise, Yidez says it wants to empower women who have suffered socioeconomic and political injustice in the country, where more than 80 per cent of the population currently live below the poverty line.

Yidez is outspoken in its opposition to Robert Mugabe, whose daughter Bona is a teenage student who voted for the first time in this year's elections.

In an article on the group's website, entitled How to Deal With Fear as a Dictator: A Letter to My Daughter on the group's website, an activist claims: "The most frightened person in our society is the president himself."