Harare mayor in hiding after Mugabe thugs kill his wife
An election poster for Robert Mugabe's Zanu PF party in Harare. Photo: Desmond Kwande, Getty Images
The Mayor of Harare was in hiding last night night after his wife became the most high-profile opposition figure to be murdered since President Robert Mugabe unleashed a campaign of terror to help him cling to power.
Abigail Chiroto (27) was kidnapped with her four-year-old son on Monday by armed men who then petrol-bombed the house she shared with her husband, Emmanuel Chiroto, the recently elected mayor of Harare and a member of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.
Her body was found in a forest close to the couple's burnt-out house, north of the capital Harare. She was still blindfolded. Police did not immediately disclose the cause of death.
The couple's son, Ashley, was found alive and unharmed.
The grim discovery was made as Thabo Mbeki, the President of South Africa, was meeting Mr Mugabe in Zimbabwe's second city, Bulawayo. Mr Mbeki has come under fierce criticism for his policy of "soft" diplomacy with Zimbabwe, where a wave of violence has swept opposition strongholds, driving about 50,000 people from their homes.
Mr Mbeki is believed to have been seeking to arrange a meeting between Mr Mugabe and the opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai. He is thought to have informed Mr Mugabe that negotiations would be difficult while Mr Tsvangarai's deputy, Tendai Biti, is in custody.
Mr Biti was due to be brought before a court in Harare yesterday to be charged with the capital offence of treason, but his hearing was cancelled due to a power cut.
Thugs
The death of Mrs Chiroto follows at least 60 political murders that have been recorded since the presidential election's first round in March. Thugs funded by Mr Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF movement are suspected of carrying out the vast majority of the attacks. "I knew when I heard that a woman's body had been found that it was her,'' Mr Chiroto (43) said.
"But I had to wait till my brother went to identify her at the Parirenyatwa Hospital mortuary this morning. Of course it was her. The blindfold is still on.
"Now the police are telling me that a specialist has to examine the body, so they say I can't take the body yet. I don't know if they are trying to trick me to get me to come out of hiding or if they are telling me the truth.
"My son keeps on saying to me, "Daddy, go and get mummy from the forest, go and get her and bring her home". I have not told him his mummy is dead.''
His wife's death mirrors others investigated by the observer mission from the Pan-African Parliament, whose leader, Marwick Khumalo, said yesterday that "certain elements are indicating that there will be war".
He said his observers had been to the grave of a wife of a local opposition leader, apparently murdered by Mr Mugabe's supporters, who had been "chopped up". "We have heard so many horrendous stories," he said.
"Now violence is at the top of the agenda of this electoral process, and that is regrettable."
The leader of South Africa's ruling ANC party, Jacob Zuma, said that he did not expect the run-off election next week to be fair. "I think we'll be lucky if we have a free election," he said.
United Nations food agencies said that more than five million people in Zimbabwe risk going hungry by early next year and that production of the staple maize in 2008 would be almost 30pc lower than last year.
Their report urged the government of Zimbabwe and the international community to ensure that emergency aid reached hungry people in barren rural areas.
It was also reported yesterday that US$1 was now worth ZWD$23bn. (© Daily Telegraph, London)
