The countryside around Marondera, 100 km east of Harare, could for all the world be in Europe, with its smooth tarmac roads twisting through neat fields of swaying tobacco plants. But the campaign of violence and intimidation that has shattered the rustic quiet is intended to prop up a very African-style Big Man.
President Robert Mugabe faces the biggest threat to his 20-year rule at elections next weekend. One poll has suggested the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party could take most of the seats.
The "war veterans", a mixture of former combatants and young Zanu PF thugs, are determined to ensure otherwise.
All of the workers on Ted Hodgson's farm were summoned to a meeting by the occupying war veterans last Monday night. They were told to bring their ID cards. But when five men turned up late, they were forced to the ground, made to drop their pants and beaten viciously with a rod.
One man winced due to painful welts on his buttocks as he described the attack. "They told us `you can go to the police if you want to, but we could kill you and they will do nothing'," he said, asking to be identified by his nickname, Shokoremoyo.
But the policy of bludgeoning rural Zimbabweans into voting for Mr Mugabe's Zanu PF party appears to be backfiring. "We agree that we need land but the way they are doing it is not good. If there is not intimidation, we will vote MDC because it has some hope for the future," said one of the beaten men.
In the front room of the luxurious farmhouse, Mr Hodgson and his wife Lil contemplated the future. Having moved to "Zim" from South Africa in 1970, they have stuck it out through thick and thin.
During the war of liberation, the couple barricaded themselves in and defended the house with a rifle.
But this time round it's different. They have cleared out the oil paintings, antiques and precious photographs with their memories of happier days. They will sit out the elections at the weekend at a small apartment they have bought in Harare.
"We're shit-scared Mugabe will get in again. If he does we're out of here," he said, stroking his V-shaped grey beard anxiously.
His business is already on its knees. Last year he sold US$300,000 worth of tobacco. This year he hasn't even cleared $50,000, which in real terms is worth only half that amount when adjusted for hyper-inflation.
Just 100 yards away, six "war veterans" stood outside their new home, a small brick building which used to be the creche for workers' children. They justified their actions using jaded political rhetoric.
"We fought for our soil and have been waiting for 20 years to be given it, but they rejected us," said Victor Chazah, who claimed to be a 35-year-old war veteran but looked 25 at most.
Mr Mugabe had promised to buy equipment to work the land and money to pay labourers once the elections are over, they said. It was an optimistic view of a government that has tackled its economic woes by printing millions of new banknotes.
Over 1,600 other farms across Zimbabwe have been occupied by young men like these since last February.
In some cases the violence has been more extreme, at least 31 people, mainly black farm workers, have been killed and several thousand wounded.
The "war vets" claim they are fighting for land. Many of them believe it too. But the reality is that they are fighting primarily to keep Robert Mugabe in power. Next weekend will tell if rural Zimbabweans, traditionally Mugabe's strongest supporters, endorse their violent canvassing methods.