via Stop this nonsense: Taffs | The Zimbabwean 22.05.14 by Sofia Mapuranga

Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) president, Charles Taffs, has described as “nonsense” the recent murder of a Guruve farmer, Malcolm Francis and his daughter, Catherine and called for an end to violence against farmers.

The two were attacked by unknown assailants on May 10 and were found tied to a tree where police recovered various weapons, among them knobkerries and metal rods, in addition to condoms, suggesting that Catherine was raped before being attacked.

They were discovered by his wife and an unnamed relative, and Catherine had an axe embedded in the head.

Catherine, was cremated yesterday died on Wednesday last week while Malcolm succumbed to the wounds he had sustained last Tuesday.

He is likely to be cremated sometime next week, after which a joint memorial service will be conducted.

“This nonsense has to stop,” said Taffs, referring to the murder of Malcolm and his daughter.

“The memorial is going to be a small and private affair but Malcolm’s body is still with the police because this is a police matter,” said Taffs, adding that the two might be cremated.

He said his organisation would issue a solidarity statement to the family on Friday, a day on which CFU is set to hold a press conference on the state of farming in Zimbabwe.

Minister of State for Mashonaland Central, Martin Dinha is on record calling on the remaining white farmers to beef up their security, revealing that the police were investigating the two murders.