2000 in Zimbabwe - December

December

• 1 December - Bert Gardener, a Chinhoyi farmer in his mid-seventies is attacked in bed where his assailants attempt to strangle and suffocate him.
• 5 December - The state withdraws all charges against the war veteran suspected of murdering Macheke farmer David Stevens. According to the public prosecutor, charges are withdrawn owing to "lack of evidence".
• 6 December - A Nyabira farmer is abducted by war veterans and forced to drive to State House for an audience with President Mugabe. Guards at State House refuse the war veterans entry and police are called in to defuse the situation.
• 8 December - The Electoral Modification Act is promulgated. This Act nullifies all electoral petitions filed by the Movement for Democratic Change challenging the result of the June election in 40 constituencies.
• 11 December - Ndabaningi Sithole, born in 1920 in Nyamandhlovu, dies aged 80. Sithole, a veteran nationalist, was the founder and president of ZANU with Robert Mugabe as secretary general.
• 12 December - Henry Elsworth aged 70, a former MP in both the Smith and Mugabe governments, is shot dead in an ambush on his farm. Mr Elsworth's son, Ian, is shot five times in the same incident and rushed to hospital.
• 14 December - High Court Judges confirm that they have been informed that war veterans intend to attack them in their homes. The Police Protection Unit says they are on full alert.
  • A Karoi farmer is attacked by 40 war veterans and receives severe bruising.
  • The MDC files an urgent application with the Supreme Court challenging the Electoral Modification Act.
• 15 December - Addressing delegates to the annual ZANU-PF congress, President Mugabe accuses whites of destroying the economy. He says, "Our party must continue to strike fear in the heart of the white man. They must tremble...".
  • The anthrax outbreak in Makonde spreads. Thirteen people are hospitalized and 21 cattle have died.
  • The French Ambassador to Zimbabwe announces that France will not fund Zimbabwe's land reform programme as it is not being done within the law.
• 16 December - Police in Harare shoot and kill a woman vegetable vendor whilst chasing a bus driver.
  • A policeman is stabbed and killed by people angered at the shooting of a vegetable vendor. Riot police use tear-gas to control mobs that stone and burn police vehicles.
• 18 December - Chenjerai Hunzvi threatens to "deal with" police whom he accuses of not supporting land resettlement.
  • A farmer in Bulawayo receives a written death threat from war veterans. The letter refers to the murder in April of farmer Martin Olds and reads: "Your friend Martin was our breakfast for Christmas".
• 19 December - 50 people are injured in political violence in Bikita ahead of parliamentary by-elections to be held in three weeks' time.
  • Anthrax spreads to Mashonaland East. Five cattle die in Chiota.
• 20 December - President Mugabe is heckled and booed in parliament as he makes his annual State of the Nation address.
• 21 December - The United Nations Development Programme administrator, Mark Mallock Brown, submits his report on land reform to the government. The UN restates its position that the government should drop the "fast-track" resettlement programme.
  • The Supreme Court declares that the rule of law has been persistently violated in the commercial farming areas and that the people in those areas have suffered discrimination in contravention of the constitution. The Court further states that the people in those areas have been denied the protection of the law and had their rights of assembly and association infringed. The Court orders the minister of Home Affairs and the commissioner of police to restore the rule of law in commercial farming areas by no later than July 1, 2001.