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A prominent white Zimbabwean farmer has been murdered at his home west of Harare.

Assailants shot and killed 67-year-old Kobus Joubert, beat up his wife, Mariana, and robbed the couple of cash in an overnight attack Monday.

Mike Clark of the Commercial Farmers’ Union that monitors unrest on Zimbabwe’s white-owned farms, says the motive for the murder is unclear.

The union says the attackers stole Mariana Joubert’s laptop and accused the couple of supporting Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change. Tsvangirai’s party is in a difficult inclusive government with the ZANU-PF party of President Robert Mugabe.

Militants loyal to Mr. Mugabe have seized more than 4,000 white-owned commercial farms since 2000.

Joubert, the former president of the Zimbabwe Tobacco Association, had been attacked by pro-Mugabe militants two years ago.

He and his wife were forced to temporarily flee their home, until the late Vice President Joseph Msika secured a permit for the couple to remain on their land.

President Mugabe says his land reallocation program is aimed at correcting colonial-era injustices by evicting white farmers and giving the land to blacks. Zimbabwe’s agricultural output dropped sharply in the years after the program began, triggering food shortages and hyperinflation.

Article by VOA News