School head killed in run-up to by-election

A primary school headmaster was beaten to death in what Zimbabwe’s main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), said on Friday was a politically motivated killing ahead of a legislative by-election next week, AFP reported.

Felix Mazava, headmaster of a school in the small town of Chivhu, south of the capital Harare, was found dead early on Wednesday in a field outside the usually sleepy town, police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena told AFP. Mazava had apparently been abducted late on Tuesday and beaten to death, he said. “Apparently there are some witnesses who heard some screaming and so on as he was being beaten, but they didn’t do anything because they were also scared,” Bvudzijena was quoted as saying.

“We haven’t yet established a motive, but two views are coming up - one that it was politically motivated, and another that there was a love triangle somewhere,” he said. The report said that MDC officials said Mazava was an opposition supporter and they were convinced that his killing was politically motivated. They had sent one of their MPs from Harare to investigate, they said.