March 2001 Africa News Headlines

Monday, March 5, 2001 - Web posted at 8:18:59 AM GMT

Zim woman farmer slain
CRIS CHINAKA

HARARE - Gunmen yesterday shot and killed the mother of a farmer slain last year at the start of Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's campaign to seize white-owned farms for redistribution to blacks, a relative said.

The relative, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters that 68-year-old Gloria Olds was found shot to death on her farm near Zimbabwe's second city,Bulawayo, where she lived alone."

"It appears a group broke into the house and shot her several times.

We understand this happened just before daybreak.

We don't believe it was a burglary - I think they just used the car to get away because nothing else was stolen," the relative said.

Olds' son, Martin, was the second of five white farmers killed last year in a land-grab sanctioned by Mugabe and headed by veterans of the former Rhodesia's 1970s liberation war.

Two more white farmers were killed in apparent robberies.

Martin Olds was killed when more than 100 war veterans surrounded his home and opened fire.

His wife and two children later sought political asylum in Britain.

Yesterday's shooting came two days after a war veteran threatened white Chief Justice Anthony Gubbay with "war" if he refused to obey a government order to take early retirement.

Gubbay agreed a day after the threat to go on leave immediately and to retire 10 months early on July 1, clearing the way for Mugabe to appoint a new head of the judiciary.

- Nampa-Reuters

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