Sorry I've been off for so long but such is life.

Can anyone tell me who was the famous Zim that put all his rifles in his bathroom and fought off those that came to steal his farm while he was in a bath full of water (they burned the house down around him).

https://www.theguardian.com/wo.../zimbabwe.garyyounge



Gayne is this the incident?



Death at dawn: the agony of Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe: special report

Hear Gary Younge report on the crisis in Zimbabwe
Gary Younge in Harare
@garyyounge
Wed 19 Apr 2000 06.48 EDT

They had come in a convoy of 14 cars and a tractor trailer, many of them carrying hunting weapons.

By 6.15am Olds, 42, was radioing the Commercial Farmers' Union, which represents white farmers, in a state of panic. "They're cutting through my fence," he said and warned the CFU that it looked as though the situation might turn ugly.

Within minutes it was out of control. The protesters had broken down his gate and were at his door. The homestead, which Olds had named Compensation, was surrounded.

The next time he called the CFU his message was short. "I've been shot, call an ambulance."


His appeal sent the airwaves crackling as the local white community got on their radios. Following the abduction and murder of the white farmer David Stevens in another part of the country, they had been worrying about where the protesters might strike next.

Rumours had been circulating in Matabeleland - which includes the area surrounding Bulawayo - that war veterans had been armed with AK-47s. What is more, Olds knew he might be a target; he had already been threatened at least once.

According to one local couple, last month he took "trespassers" on his land to the police station and had them arrested after a court ruled that the land occupations were illegal. The squatters warned him they would get even.

No sooner had the word gone out that one of their number was in trouble than white farmers in the area climbed into their pickup trucks and raced to Old's cattle farm to offer their assistance. One flew his private plane over the house to see what was happening.

But whenever they got close to the homestead they were shot at by the veterans who also, say the farmers, opened fire on an ambulance.

Back at the house Olds was engaged in a shootout with the squatters which some locals say lasted for three hours.

A spokesman for Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF, which has supported the squatters, said that Olds had fired at the veterans, hitting five of them with pellets, and it was only then that they shot back.

Farmers insist that Olds, a father of two, was simply defending his house by the same means that the squatters were trying to take it - through the barrel of a gun.

The police arrived at the scene while the gunfight was in full throttle but did not stop it. The stand-off ended when squatters threw molotov cocktails into the house.

Olds's home started to burn and when the heat became too intense inside he stumbled out into the hands of the veterans. They beat him severely and then shot him twice in the face at close range.

"They killed my son," said Gloria Olds, Martin's mother. "They beat him to a pulp."

Compensation crumbled to a cinder - a smouldering backdrop to its owner's corpse - and the squatters left as they had come: slowly, in a long, snaking convoy edging back towards Bulawayo.

No attempt was made to occupy the land they had just taken. Instead, they exchanged a few, casual words with the police as they left. The police here, say locals, are simply coathangers for uniforms. They did not make any arrests.

White farmers in the area still do not know quite how to react. They have accused the government of arming the protesters and claim it proves that the occupations are acts of political intimidation, prompted by Robert Mugabe's government, rather than a misguided policy to help the landless.

"If land invasions were demonstrations for land, why are people being given weapons?" asked Mac Crawford, the chairman of the Matabeleland CFU. "This is a deliberate ploy to escalate violence."

Crawford believes that the police's inaction makes them complicit in the occupations but he can provide no proof beyond anecdotal evidence.

The home affairs minister, Dumiso Dabengwa, denied knowledge of anyone supplying arms to protesters.

He agreed that the state of law and order in Zimbabwe left much to be desired but insisted that the police were doing all they could to stop the violence.

White farmers are not convinced. Despite the fact that they are hopelessly outnumbered and have little political clout, they have started issuing scarcely-veiled threats that they are ready to fight back.

"The farmers are now on alert and standing by," Mr Crawford said, adding that his members were taking "necessary security measures".

But on the ground, there is a mixture of bewilderment, frustration and despair rather than defiance.

Farmers in the area have decided to move women and children out immediately and are holding a meeting tomorrow to decide whether to remain or evacuate the area altogether, as happened in the Macheke area after David Stevens was killed at the weekend.

"This thing will escalate until somebody takes a stand to stop it," says Chris Jarrett, who has a farm nearby.

"What precautions can you take when 150 men break onto your land and burn down your house?" asked Harry Greaves who lives on the farm next to Compensation. "Especially if the police will not protect you."

https://www.facebook.com/80519...on/1086189268424098/

Link has photos



Here is where they report on the bathtub


20 years ago: The attack on Martin Olds:

At 04.00, on 18 April 2000, emergency personnel at the ambulance centre in Robert Mugabe Way, Bulawayo, looked on curiously as a convoy of no less than 13 vehicles including cars, pick-ups and minibuses sorted itself out on the opposite side of the road. The men there were not the usual rag-tag of out-of-work types. These were well-armed with AK-47s and had a purpose and demeanour about them that suggested honed military skills and recent training. ZANU-PF had bussed this Shona-speaking group in from Mashonaland, especially for the task to hand. They were commanded by the infamous Comrade from Karoi and were stiffened by regular CIO or army personnel from the North Korean trained 5th Brigade.
They were a hit squad.”
This ominous convoy passed by the Nyamandlovu police station and waved knowingly to the police on their way to Martin Old's farmstead. The police, who in turn were armed with FN rifles, were clearly expecting the hit squad and the police put up a roadblock immediately after they had passed through to prevent any help from reaching Martin while he was under attack. Just before dawn this Convoy from Hell arrived at the workers’ compound. They rounded up the employees including Jukumani Sibanda, who had worked for Martin for 10 years and placed them under armed guard.
The well organized hitmen then completely surrounded the farmhouse security fence and ‘set up seven firing positions’. Martin phoned a neighbouring farmer and told him he was surrounded by between ’30 to 40′ well armed veterans and that the position looked pretty serious.
There were in fact, at least 70 ZANU PF employed terrorists.
Martin then made the unwise decision to walk out unarmed to speak to them; no doubt hoping to diffuse the dangerous situation. In reply he was immediately shot in the leg shattering the bone. Under fire, through sheer
will power, Martin somehow managed to make it back into his house where he quickly made a splint for his leg using two planks to enable some continued mobility.
He fought for his life, sending out an SOS on his CB radio, while moving from room to room and returning the fire of his attackers. The walls of his modest home were soon peppered with bullet strikes. "He was a trained soldier salted by combat from the Bush War, even though that was 20 years before. He was gutsy to boot and knew what he was doing.”
Realising his attackers would cut the phone line,
Martin quickly made another call to his neighbour explaining he had been shot and asked that an ambulance be called. This ambulance was prevented from reaching Martin by the armed police road block.
Not realizing the complicity of the police, he then phoned his mother, Gloria Old's, who lived in the area and asked her to phone the police. Although she did this four times the police failed to respond.
“They cut the security fence, advanced on the house and threw the flaming Molotov's, intending to burn him out. Martin fought a desperate rear-guard action although his weapons were no match for the automatic AK-47’s, many of which were loaded with armour piercing bullets. He had kept his own weapons loaded which enabled him to switch from one to the next. He was a crack shot, especially at close range. The fight lasted three hours [in fact it was later reported as 5 hours in the Guardian newspaper] during which he wounded and killed numerous of the veterans.”
The ambulance called for Martin was forcibly detained at the police road block. They were then ordered to treat wounded “veterans”. Meanwhile, the remaining “veterans”, had set the house ablaze. Martin sheltered in the bathroom by filling the bath with water to avoid the intense heat and flames but eventually he was forced to exit via the window and crawled along the side of the house, dragging his splinted leg behind him.
“Because of his heroic resistance, his attackers took their revenge on his bullet riddled body and savaged it with iron bars and axes.”

http://reclaimingrhodesia.com/zimbabwe-martin-olds/

Because the Zimbabwe government was deeply embarrassed by their casualties and the fact that it took several hours for their elite 5th Brigade to finally overcome Martin, they officially claimed only a few wounded.
However, eyewitnesses reported fleets of ambulances and other vehicles to cart away the 5th Brigade dead and wounded. Military Intelligence in Pretoria informed us that Martin killed at least 18 of the attackers and wounded and known number of others.

It is understandable why from both perspectives, that of the Mugabe regime and from the farming community, they both wanted to downplay the casualties of this several-hour gunfight, but realistically, a Greys Scout would not have been able to keep a company of well armed 5th brigade attackers at bay for hours without causing numerous casualties.
Also: because of restrictive Zimbabwe laws, gun owners were limited to something in the region of only 120 rounds of ammunition at any one time. Martin ran out of ammunition as a result.

This attack occurred on Zimbabwe's "independence day", 20 years after the Revolution, 1980. The attack on Martin Olds signified the beginning of the 2nd Phase of the Revolution: Farm Invasions... His resistance shocked ZANU-PF & discouraged similar open attacks on other farmers...

Farm Disaster Report 2008:
"...the infrastructure on Martin Olds’ Compensation Farm, which was a thriving safari and wild animal conservation operation, is burned out and abandoned. All the animals, including a herd of rare sable antelope and Olds’ herd of 1,000 pedigree cattle, have been killed for the pot. Peasant subsistence farmers settled by the government on the land in mud and wattle huts have been unable to produce crops…”

I smell a Sporting Classics Daily...

God as a American I can’t imagine not having access to a few ar15s. The farmers aren’t building compounds, clearing lines of fire and rifle pits? Posting sentries and trying to developer local like minded militias to protect themselves? Are the attacks very infrequent? I honestly can’t imagine I’d follow the firearms laws living in a situation like that. Admittedly I’m pretty ignorant of the realities of living in that world.

Many thanks!

Over 20 years ago and it still boils my blood!

Damn straight