Zimbabwe – The Saga of Roy Bennett
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It may seem odd, but it appears the positive works of one man has positioned him unfortunately at the nucleus of the current political turmoil in Zimbabwe. Roy Bennett, one of the right-hand men of Zimbabwe’s Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai – and an implacable opponent of President Mugabe – has been a major thorn in the side of the Zanu (PF) party, who have in turn been a major thorn in the side of hope for the peoples of Zimbabwe.
The 51-year-old Deputy Agriculture Minister-designate has been arrested multiple times- even as Mr Mugabe was swearing in the Government’s power-sharing Cabinet – on allegations of “terrorism, banditry, sabotage and insurgency”.
Mr Bennett is hated by the top echelon of Mr Mugabe’s Zanu (PF) party, particularly the powerful coterie of military men close to the President, because he is a former white farmer and an ex-member of the Rhodesian security forces – and because he is popular with many black Zimbabweans. His command of the Shona language and knowledge of their customs means that they regard him as one of their own.
The political turbulence reached a fever pitch today. “To swear MDC treasurer-general. Roy Bennett, into Zimbabwe’s unity government would be akin to having a former NAZI infantryman serving as a deputy Minister of Justice in Israel today” , stated controversial legislator Professor Jonathan Moyo.
Moyo, once the Minister of Information and Publicity in President Robert Mugabe’s government, became Zimbabwe’s only independent Member of Parliament until he was recently allowed to re-join Zanu-PF, the party that booted him out in 2005.
Moyo said the MDC’s choice of Bennett as deputy Minister of Agriculture was “deeply provocative and treacherous”.
It is being alleged that Moyo and Justice and Legal Affairs Minister Patrick Chinamasa instigated the arrest of Bennett again last week Wednesday after he was indicted for trial in the High Court.
“Given that reclaiming our priceless land from British colonialists who brutally and illegally stole it from our ancestors was the single most important driver of our national liberation struggle, the MDC-T’s treacherous nomination of Bennett who served in the Rhodesian Infantry for the post of deputy Minister of Agriculture is morally quivalent, and therefore as insulting as, having a former NAZI infantryman serving as a deputy Minister of Justice in Israel today,” Moyo said.
The mentality of the Zanu (PF) party has been akin to a government constantly feeling under siege and paranoid, viewing the phantom of British rule as a tangible element in their everyday affairs. It is a mentality which the MDC wish to revolutionize, but has since only been met with a stubborn referral to days gone by, and an ultimate hindrance in economic and indeed social stability for the once-breadbasket of Africa.