The swearing-in on Friday of Zimbabwe’s new unity government was marred by the arrest of a top aide to Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, whose party said he was then charged with treason.
Roy Bennett, who returned last month from three years of self-imposed exile in South Africa — where he had fled to escape charges of plotting to kill Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe — was arrested at a Harare airport, Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change said.
Bennett was later taken to the eastern city of Mutare where the MDC said he was charged with treason.
“Police have again changed charges on Roy Bennett. They have now charged him with treason,” the MDC statement said. “These charges are scandalous, vexatious and without bases in law, but are simply politically motivated, simply intended to justify the continued incarceration of Roy Bennett.”
Bennett’s lawyer, Trust Maanda, said the “police have orally told him of his treason charges.”
“He was told of the treason charges but the police will formalize the charge documents tomorrow. His case is likely to come up in court either Monday or Tuesday,” he told reporters from the Mutare police station where he said the politician would spend the weekend.
“The police fired shots in the air to disperse the crowd of MDC supporters asking for Bennett’s release,” he said, confirming an earlier statement by the MDC.
Despite the arrest of Bennett, a white farmer who became treasurer of the MDC and was designated to become deputy agriculture minister, Mugabe said he was committed to the new government.
“When I say I am committed I mean it. When I say I want to work with you sincerely and honestly, I mean it,” Mugabe said in a speech after presiding over the swearing-in ceremony.
“The people will expect a lot from us. Let’s never let them down. It should never be forgotten that the suffering of our people is our suffering. Our failure hurts them and our success yields benefits to them,” he said.
The MDC’s chief whip in parliament, Innocent Gonese, described Bennett’s arrest as “very disturbing.”
“I don’t understand the rationale. It undermines confidence in the all-inclusive government,” Gonese said.
The swearing-in had already been held up by more than two hours as the MDC accused Mugabe of trying to bring 22 ministers into Cabinet, although their agreement allowed his ZANU-PF party only 15 seats.
In the end, Mugabe swore in two extra ministers, while the MDC took one more seat than expected.
Tsvangirai’s party in a statement blamed the development on “backstage chaos and confusion” within ZANU-PF.
Mugabe gave some of his party’s staunchest hardliners the key posts of defense, home affairs and national security.
The defense portfolio went to Emmerson Mnangagwa, seen as the president’s right-hand man, who earned notoriety as the head of state security in the 1980s, when a North Korean-trained army brigade allegedly massacred up to 20,000 suspected dissidents from the minority Ndebele people.
Sydney Sekeramayi, who was defense minister in the last Cabinet, took up the state security post.
Kembo Mohadi retained his position at home affairs, a portfolio he will share with a co-minister from Tsvangirai’s party.
At home affairs, Mohadi has presided over the police during a period that saw widespread accusations against the force of rights abuses and intimidation of the MDC.
Foremost among those are allegations that security forces have detained and tortured MDC supporters and other activists at secret camps.
About 30 activists remain in custody, and Bennett’s arrest raised new doubts about their fate.
Public hospitals are closed, even though 1.3 million people have HIV. A cholera epidemic is also ravaging the country, hitting about 70,000 people and killing 3,400 since August.
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including