White Zimbabwe farmer faces death sentence

A white Zimbabwean farmer faces the death sentence after being convicted today of the murder of a black squatter.

Harare Judge Ben Hlatshwayo convicted Phillip Bezuidenhout, 52, of “murder with constructive intent.”

Bezuidenhout had admitted manslaughter but not murder. He will be sentenced tomorrow (Tues).

Judge Hlatshwayo said Bezuidenhout deliberately drove his car at a crowd of squatters in the process of occupying his farm last year, and ran down Febian Mapenzauswa, financial director of a major Zimbabwe 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 ‘war veterans’ who claimed that the incident was “a declaration of war” by white farmers.