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| author/source:News24 (SA) |
| published:Mon 16-Sep-2002 |
| posted on this site:Tue 17-Sep-2002 |
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| Article Type : News |
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| Since February 2000 when thousands of President Robert Mugabe's lawless ruling Zanu PF militias began invading white land, 13 white farmers and 31 farm workers have been murdered. No-one has been prosecuted for any of the killings |
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Harare - A white farmer, Phillip "Blondie" Bezuidenhout (52), was found guilty in the Harare High Court on Monday of murdering a black squatter on his farm in July last year. Judge Ben Hlatshwayo convicted Bezuidenhout of "murder with constructive intent" in what was the first fatality of a squatter at the hands of a white landowner in two-and-a-half years of state-driven invasions of white-owned land. Bezuidenhout pleaded not guilty to murdering Febian Mapenzauswa but guilty to manslaughter. Murder carries the death penalty in Zimbabwean law. Hlatshwayo said he would sit again on Tuesday to consider sentence. He ruled that Bezuidenhout has deliberately driven his car at a crowd of squatters in the process of occupying his farm in the Odzi district about 320km east of Harare on July 14 last year, and ran down Mapenzauswa, financial director of a major national company. Bezuidenhout said he was surrounded by squatters and was trying to escape when Mapenzauswa got in the way of his vehicle.
The killing was followed by a rampage of violence and looting of white-owned farms in the area by so-called guerrilla war veterans who claimed that the incident was "a declaration of war" by white farmers. Since February 2000 when thousands of President Robert Mugabe's lawless ruling Zanu PF militias began invading white land, 13 white farmers and 31 farm workers have been murdered. No-one has been prosecuted for any of the killings.
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