Mugabe refuses to swear in Roy Bennett
March 25th, 2009
There’ve been many occasions through the long negotiating process where Zimbabweans, watching a particularly outrageous demand crop up, have wondered ‘will they, or won’t they’? Will the MDC compromise/capitulate/cave in – or will they stand their ground?
Here’s the next: Mugabe is refusing to swear in Roy Bennett. A colleague sent me an sms and said “Let’s hope the PM kicks butt” … I’m hoping, but I’m also really hoping I’m not disappointed. More of the story via The Scotsman:
Zimbabwe’s president, Robert Mugabe, is refusing to swear in a dispossessed white farmer as deputy agriculture minister in a new coalition government.
Roy Bennett, of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), missed the swearing-in ceremony for deputy ministers last month because he was in jail on terrorism charges. Mr Bennett, 51, was released on 12 March on £3,400 bail.
He was sworn in as a senator almost immediately, and the MDC expected him to be sworn in as deputy agriculture minister last week. But Mugabe “has refused point-blank”, an official said yesterday.
“He says he won’t swear in Bennett even if the MDC takes the issue to the South African Development Community,” the official said. The president is said to claim that Mr Bennett faces “very serious charges”.
Mr Bennett’s lawyers say the charges – which relate to a long-discredited “assassination plot” – are fabricated.
Analysts say the nomination of Mr Bennett by the MDC leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, is confrontational. He would be serving under agriculture minister Joseph Made, who oversaw Mugabe’s land seizure programme and sanctioned the takeover of Mr Bennett’s coffee farm.
During Mr Bennett’s time as an MP, he pushed a Mugabe ally, justice minister Patrick Chinamasa, during a heated parliamentary debate. That led to him spending eight months in jail.
Mr Bennett believes the justice minister ordered his arrest last month.
Roy Bennett, a thoroughly decent man, has transcended who he is in his real life – a darn good farmer – and with every twist in his experience at the hands of senior Zanu PF politicians, has been made into some kind of Zimbabwean super-hero. The fact that he takes a principled stand whenever confronted with adversity adds to his hero-like status, but to be honest, I know a lot of Zimbabwean men who would be just as bullish and stubborn over what is right and what is wrong as Roy Bennett is – it’s that kind of spirit that has helped the country survive.
It seems to me that even if Roy stood back and did nothing – was passively carried along by events – he’d still glow with good just by virute of the relentless, mindless and obvious hatred those in power have for one man.
I fear for Roy’s safety because I think the evil ones are running out of options at the various ways they can try and break his spirit – and ultimately, I think that’s what they’re trying to do – to destroy him from the inside out.
The more they throw at him, the more he resists. The more he resists, the more people admire Roy – and the more those in power hate him.
He has everything they wish they had – genuine support and genuine warmth from the people; he comes accross as a clean, honest, straightforward and true man. They, on the other hand, look like complicated, scheming twisted merchants of evil, saturated in blood and holding their positions tenuously through a reign of terror and fear, not respect.
It baffles me that they can’t see how badly they’ve lost this battle: no matter what they do to him; Bennett ‘wins’ every time.
March 25th, 2009 15:26
Isn’t this typical! He forgets all those in his party and former cabinets who were up against charges. What is good for one doesn’t seem to be good for the other. Hypocrisy at its worst.
March 28th, 2009 10:10
I hope bennett is sworn in. During this transitional period, Bennett can be assigned by Made to deal specifically and solely on reviving rural agriculture, while Made concentrates on commercial agriculture.