War veterans have seized an opposition candidate’s farm only days before he was due to challenge his electoral loss in court, news reports said on Tuesday. Philemon Matibe from the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) was quoted as saying that the winning candidate in his parliamentary race told him last week to abandon his court challenge if he wanted to keep his farm. “He said that I should withdraw my petition, and in exchange the government and ZANU-PF would look after me and make sure I don’t lose my farm,” Matibe told AFP. According to the report a day later pro-government war veterans arrived on the farm with the district administrator and the police from Chegutu, 100 km west of Harare. Matibe said they gave him 24 hours to leave his farm and started pegging the plots for resettlement. Webster Shamu, the winning candidate in Chegutu from the ruling ZANU-PF was quoted as denying making the threat.
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