The brother of a farmer murdered in Zimbabwe has appealed for Nelson Mandele to intervene to prevent further bloodshed in the country’s deepening crisis.

Paul Dunn, who farms 1,500 acres at Ash, called on the former South African president and ANC leader to condemn Robert Mugabe’s murderous regime and help end the killings that have disfigured the presidential election campaign in the African republic.

Mr Dunn, a campaigner for peace in Zimbabwe since his brother, Alan, was murdered by Mugabe’s war veterans on his farm near Harare eight years ago, said it needed someone as respected and eminent as Mr Mandele to find a solution to the crisis.

He said: “I am convinced it needs Mandela’s intervention to end the killings. He is the one person in that region that Mugabe respects and if Mandela said 'enough is enough’, a solution could be found.

“Only Africa can solve this crisis. The western governments need to keep away, and that includes Gordon Brown.

“If Mandela was still in power Morgan Tsvcangirai would still be fighting this election. South Africa’s president Thabo Mbeki has done nothing to mediate. He’s a disgrace.”

Mr Dunn keeps in regular contact with Cherie Dunn, Alan’s widow, who still lives in Harare.

He said she still lived in fear of her life but was determined to remain in a country she and her late husband loved before the bloodshed began.

Mr Dunn added: “She is in a difficult situation having been ousted from the farm by the war veterans.

“The land that once reaped tobacco, maize, and ground nuts is now a derelict wilderness.

“My brother not only paid the black farm workers under his control, but fed them and their families. Many of them came to his funeral. They loved him and his wife.

“One day, when this is all over, I want to go there to walk over the land that was so plentiful in crops during my brother’s lifetime.”