President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe has appointed a powerful new defence minister in a cabinet shuffle yesterday. The shuffle had been anticipated following the deaths of the defence minister, Mr Moven Mahachi and the youth and gender minister Mr Border Gezi in car accidents earlier this year, and the resignation of the industry and international trade minister, Mr Nkosana Moyo.
Mr Mugabe appointed Mr Sidney Sekeramayi - a former state security minister who headed the mines and energy department - as defence minister. He named the former education minister Mr Herbert Murerwa as Mr Moyo's replacement as industry and trade minister.
Mr Elliott Manyika, who earlier this month fought off an opposition challenge to win the Bindura parliamentary seat left vacant after Mr Gezi's death, has also inherited Mr Gezi's job as head of the Youth and Gender Ministry.
Mr Mugabe created a new ministry for the informal business sector to be headed by Mr Sithembiso Nyoni, and also appointed three new deputy ministers for education, transport and energy, and justice.
In his first public comment on Mr Moyo's resignation last month, Mr Mugabe called on "cowards" to quit his cabinet, saying he was not prepared to work with ministers who were unable to face political and economic challenges.
Mr Moyo's associates said the minister was frustrated with Mr Mugabe's leadership, especially after militant, ruling ZANU-PF party supporters began invading businesses and allegedly extorting money earlier this year.
Mr Mugabe is battling a severe economic crisis, which many blame on government mismanagement since ZANU-PF took over the reigns of power at independence from Britain in 1980.
Meanwhile, a score of white farmers, charged with inciting public violence after clashes on a white-owned farm, returned to court yesterday to press for bail.
The farmers, who were charged and remanded in custody on Wednesday, were back arguing their case in the magistrate's court in Chinhoyi, 120 km north-west of Harare.
The political temperature remained high around the court, with hundreds of youths from Mr Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party singing and chanting anti-white slogans outside.
The farmers were arrested for allegedly assaulting supporters of Mr Mugabe on Monday on a farm occupied by so-called war veterans backed by the government.
Militant supporters of Mr Mugabe went on the rampage in northern Zimbabwe yesterday, attacking and looting 15 white-owned farms, farmers' leaders said.
Farmers and their families were evacuated from 10 properties in the Lion's Den, Mhangura and Doma districts near Chinhoyi.
Another five farms were under siege and one homestead was burned to the ground, said a spokeswoman for the Commercial Farmers' Union, Ms Jenni Williams.
"There is widespread looting" of evacuated farms, she said.