After Zimbabwe Recount, Factions Unite Against Mugabe

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change, which has been divided since senate elections three years ago, announced yesterday that its two factions will unite in the country's parliament.

The move gives the combined MDC majority control of the house of assembly, with 109 seats out of 210, after a partial recount by the country's election commission did not materially change any of the results.

The two faction leaders, Morgan Tsvangirai, who says he won an absolute majority in the presidential election last month, and Arthur Mutambara, a scientist and academic, appeared together at a press conference in Johannesburg to make the announcement.

"It's our pleasure to announce that our two formations in parliament have agreed to work together," Mr. Tsvangirai said.

"There will be no division among ourselves vis-a-vis the resolution of the Zimbabwean crisis. I'm here to show solidarity to the winner of the presidential election in Zimbabwe," Mr. Mutambara said.

If the move had come earlier it could have given Mr. Tsvangirai an unquestionable majority in the presidential poll, as the Mutambara faction backed a third candidate, the former Zanu-PF finance minister Simba Makoni, who is estimated to have taken 8% of the votes.

Independent monitors say Mr. Tsvangirai came first, but fell just short of the absolute majority needed for victory in the first round.

The Zimbabwe Election Commission is expected to announce its presidential result this week after a month-long delay, which President Mugabe has used to launch a campaign of violence and intimidation, including unleashing his land invaders.

As a result, the country's farms are falling into such ruin that livestock are turning on their offspring as they go without food and water for days.

Even by the standards of the destruction wrought by the invasions of white-owned farms, events at the piggery near Chinhoyi, 65 miles north of Harare, are extreme.

A deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, Edwin Mashiringwani, has been trying for six months to take it from its original owner, Louis Fick.

A group of men hired by Mr. Mashiringwani arrived at the farm a week ago and have refused to allow Mr. Fick's workers to feed the livestock. As a result, sows are turning on their piglets as they go mad through lack of water.

"Pigs in maternity need about 40 liters of water a day," Mr. Fick said yesterday. "Without it they go mad and that is why they eat their own."

An official from the Zimbabwe National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty for Animals said it had sent a lorry with food and water to the farm, but had been refused entry. "We believe about 30 pigs have died already," he said.