Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe dissolved his cabinet today in a surprise move that official sources said was linked to a government drive to seize white-owned farms for landless blacks.
Mr Mugabe, who has vowed to press ahead with the land seizures despite resistance from farmers and growing criticism abroad, will announce a new cabinet on Monday, a government statement said.
It gave no reason for the move by Mugabe, 78, who has ruled the southern African country since leading it to independence from Britain in 1980.
Zimbabwe has been gripped by a political and economic crisis since pro-government militants invaded white-owned farms in early 2000 in support of Mr Mugabe's campaign to redistribute farms to landless blacks.
Mr Mugabe's government has ordered 2,900 of the country's remaining 4,500 white commercial farmers to quit their land without compensation.
But nearly two-thirds have defied an August 8th deadline to leave their farms, and police have arrested more than 200 in a crackdown launched last week.
Civic groups also said the cabinet move may be linked to the land programme.
But they speculated that it could have been prompted by court challenges filed by the opposition and white farmers which argue Mr Mugabe's cabinet is illegal because it was not re-appointed after a March election as required by the constitution.