Update - Monday, 16th February 2009

Howzit

Okay - I'm back from the hospital - it's a one hour, two bus trip either way - and it is just gone 1730 hours. I am tired, battered and bruised (it is half term and all the sprogs are in town and they do not look where they are going - mind you, there are a few that expressed shock when they crashed into me and felt the solidness of plaster of Paris!), but as promised, an update.

I will refrain from commenting, but will publish 4 stories in their entirety - as I say, I am tired...

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"Zimbabwe’s fledgling power-sharing Government staggered into its fifth day yesterday as fears grew that a shadowy cabal of President Mugabe’s top security bosses are edging towards a military coup.

Roy Bennett, nominated by Morgan Tsvangirai as his choice for Deputy Agriculture Minister, was seized and detained by state security agents on Friday – an act seen widely as an attempt to sabotage the coalition of Mr Mugabe’s ZANU PF and the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), led by Mr Tsvangirai.

Yesterday charges against Mr Bennett were altered from treason to plotting "insurgency, banditry and sabotage" by allegedly funding the MDC to buy arms in 2005, supposedly with the intention of destroying a telecommunications station outside Harare. The charges appear to have been brought under the Public Order Security Act, which carries a maximum penalty of ten years in prison. He is expected to appear at Mutare Magistrates' Court today for a bail hearing.

The arrest of Mr Bennett, who was still in detention yesterday, has raised fears of an impending coup to prevent Mr Tsvangirai from wielding power. The MDC is blaming the Joint Operational Command (JOC), a powerful group of military, police and intelligence chiefs who it said had "planned, directed and operationalised" the arrest to force the MDC to withdraw from the Government.

"For now, the major challenge is to get Mr Bennett out," Tendai Biti, the MDC secretary-general and the new Finance Minister, said. "If that fails, we will have to meet and review everything."

Mr Tsvangirai, now Prime Minister, proposed a meeting with Mr Mugabe about the arrest but this did not take place. At the weekend Mr Tsvangirai said the arrest "undermined the spirit and credibility" of the agreement to form a new administration.

The JOC has been in de facto control of Zimbabwean politics almost throughout the country’s existence. A leftover of the former white-minority Rhodesian government, it includes General Constantine Chiwenga, commander of the defence forces, Lieutenant-General Phillip Sibanda, head of the Army, Perrence Shiri, head of the Air Force, Happyton Bonyongwe, the director of the Central Intelligence Organisation, Augustine Chihuri, the police chief, and Paradzayi Zimondi, the prisons commissioner. Mr Mugabe is its chairman.

In the 1990s the JOC was amalgamated into Mr Mugabe’s administration and grew to have subcommittees in every province, district and town. It is served by numerous covert branches of the security services. Its remit is to undermine all individuals or organisations suspected of being opposed to Mr Mugabe. Their methods range from assassination, abduction and torture to bugging, disinformation and framing operations.

"It appears that a distance is growing between Mugabe and the generals," a Western diplomat said.

MDC lawyers saw Mr Bennett in custody on Saturday and released a statement from him. "Whatever these challenges, if we remain unwaveringly dedicated we will achieve peace, freedom and democracy in our lifetime, believe me," he said."

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"The soon to be defunct Joint Operations Command is showing the deadly kicks of dying horses as they try to scuttle the unity government in Zimbabwe.

News that all five members of the JOC boycotted the swearing in ceremony of the Prime Minster Tsvangirai is not only worrying but significant. Obviously they met and agreed on the boycott strategy. Now even more worrying are the acts of provocation against the MDC- arrest of Roy Bennett, arrest of WOZA members on valentine demonstrations, and the refusal to release political prisoners. Remember the same men have openly declared they would never salute Tsvangirai!

I deduce the JOC are sending a message that they want no part of this unity government. Parliament has instituted a new security council, and this council should dismiss or pension those officers unwilling to serve the new unity government. Not so easy some people will say. In the current constitution power to appoint or dismiss these men lies with the President and not with Parliament.

And we all know these men are not acting in defiance of Mugabe but probably he has no power over them or worse still he is encouraging them. I understand the new Security Council will be meeting every fortnight. I suggest they meet daily to counteract the machinations of the JOC aligned officers.

Instead of critics blaming the MDC for joining government before resolving these issues, let us offer solutions. Every power transition always comes with a fair amount of disgruntled insiders. Remember how much the Rhodesian forces tried to scuttle the elections in 1980."

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"Roy Bennett is not just another ordinary Zimbabwean. He is after all the treasurer general of MDC-T, a position he acquired through an electoral process.

His recent arrest at a defining moment in the history of the country exposes the lack of investment at independence in a social contract that would have assisted in defining the kind of Zimbabwe that people wanted to create and see.

Zimbabwe's new Prime Minister, Morgan Tsvangirai on Saturday blamed Bennett’s arrest on minor ZANU PF elements and defiant small pockets of resistance who want to destroy the country's coalition government.

Is he right in concluding that Bennett is a victim of defiant forces? To what extent is Bennett’s problems related to the colour of his skin?

The arrest is not accidental but goes a long way to highlight the unfinished business of the colonial era that regrettably was not addressed at independence. Beneath the veneer of reconciliation, President Mugabe has yet to accept that white people can be full citizens with the same rights and obligations as the majority black citizens.

When he makes the statement that "Zimbabwe will never be a colony again", he is clear that post-colonial Zimbabwe has no obligation to white people and as such they should know their place. He simply sees Bennett as a nuisance and his presence in the senior ranks of MDC-T confirms Mugabe’s position that a party that can accommodate a person of Bennett’s background and worldview cannot be considered as a legitimate political actor.

At independence, no discussion on race and its place in post-colonial Zimbabwe took place among Zimbabweans. It was left to political actors to assimilate the few white people they deemed to be patriotic but in doing so they were clear that it was not part of the project to confer rights on white people equivalent to the rights of blacks.

By adopting a republican constitution, Zimbabweans accepted that civil rights were open to all irrespective of the past. The democratic constitutional order compelled all citizens to be afforded the same rights.

Bennett, by deciding to remain in post-colonial Zimbabwe at independence, gave his consent to be governed like any other citizens and such consent gave legitimacy to the government.

Unlike the colonial state, the post-colonial state had legitimacy in that it was a creation of all the citizens rather than a select few. All Zimbabweans expected to be treated equally under the law. Many white people who believed in Zimbabwe and its new social contract took citizenship after independence and some of them decided to engage in agricultural activities without the knowledge that their rights were perishable.

Part of the social contract at independence was that the state of Zimbabwe being a collective project was the sovereign over the land and, therefore, the true owner of all the resources. What President Mugabe may not understand is that the theory of law for real property in every country even where freehold title is applicable is that what individuals can own is not the land itself but an estate in the land, that is, a transferrable right to use and exclude others from use. Human beings die after all and, therefore, it would be nonsensical for a concept of permanency to take root in terms of land ownership. What should be critical is the access to land by all and its productive use.

At all material times, the true owner of land is the sovereign because it can make and enforce laws that restrict what one can do on one’s estate. However, the Zimbabwean constitution has been amended to treat land as a different asset class. For the past 29 years, President Mugabe has been at the helm and, therefore, had instruments at his disposal to transform the agricultural industry with minimum disruptions and a diminishing white population need not have posed a threat to an organised majority with clear thinkers at the top.

Even the power sharing agreement has recognised the irreversibility of the land reform programme and to some extent Bennett’s problems may stem from his decision to visit his former farm. By claiming that Zimbabwe will never be a colony again, President Mugabe has accepted that the right to land will be reserved for blacks that he regards as the true sons of the soil.

President Mugabe and his colleagues in ZANU PF hold the view that white people’s constitutional rights must be waived on the question of land and his decision to remain in power may be motivated by a desire to frustrate any white person who may believe that the inclusive government will change the land policy framework as well as compromise the intended indigenisation programmes.

I have no doubt that when President Mugabe learned that Bennett was MDC-T’s nominee as the Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Joseph Made’s name must have been the first one to come to mind. Made has done a good job at destroying commercial agriculture and there could be no better person to counterbalance Bennett than Made in President Mugabe’s mind.

President Mugabe has not shifted in his thinking that MDC-T is a surrogate of the West and, therefore, his cabinet selection was primarily informed by this worldview. Prime Minister Tsvangirai may hold the view that Mugabe is not the problem but part of the solution but the reality is that it is unlikely that President Mugabe will change his views on citizenship and land ownership.

Bennett’s case raises more fundamental issues than the allegations of treason. To President Mugabe, any white person who believes he is a full citizen and, therefore, entitled to the same economic rights like his fellow black citizens is guilty of treason.

It is obvious that President Mugabe believes that the votes garnered by MDC-T do not reflect the genuine will of the people of Zimbabwe. Rather, it reflects the manipulation of the West through the use of financial resources as well as the sanctions regime. Bennett has been credited for raising funds for the election and it will take sometime for President Mugabe to forgive him for what he regards as the execution of an almost successful regime change project.

At the core of Bennett’s problems is that he has refused to be cowed down. He remains defiant and he recognises that without a change of policies, it is unlikely that Zimbabwe’s future is secure.

Bennett’s case is a test case and the mere fact that his arrest has dominated the airwaves goes a long to show that the credibility of the inclusive government is on the line. It is unlikely that sanctions will be lifted if senior politicians of MDC-T continue to be harassed.

The change that people can believe in will be evident when the state ceases to be an agent of oppression. Through democratic means, the MDC-T is now part of the government and to the extent that Bennett is a nominee to join the very government that he is now alleged to be trying to overthrow through unlawful means is laughable to say the least.

If it were someone other than Bennett then it would be believable. Bennett was one of the advocates for proceeding with the inclusive government and yet finds himself accused of undermining it.

There is no doubt that President Mugabe will try to prevail on Tsvangirai to distance himself from Bennett. he problem of Bennett cannot be blamed on junior officers when it is accepted that President Mugabe is yet to be convinced that his administration’s failure to deliver was a consequence of bad policies.

President Mugabe will no doubt take the position that as the Executive, they cannot and should not be seen to be interfering with Bennett’s matter and this should be left to the judiciary and he was not responsible for arresting him.

He will no doubt make the point at the first cabinet meeting that the separation of powers doctrine should be the guiding principle. It is unlikely that he will be persuaded to change his mind and seek to do the right thing for the country by releasing Bennett so that he can focus on the peoples’ agenda.

The assault on Bennett is no different from the treatment that some of us have been subjected to. We have no choice but to follow the Bennett matter with concern and interest. Its resolution will have a material bearing on the credibility of the government as well as in inspiring confidence.

President Mugabe believes that people opposed to ZANU PF are automatically enemies of the state. It is important that with the advent of the inclusive government a distinction be made between the state and political parties. Without such distinction, the future is less secure. President Mugabe must know what time it is and surely it is time to advance the interests of Zimbabwe rather than protect and promote partisan agendas using the state."

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"A Zimbabwean top opposition official earmarked for a deputy ministerial post, Roy Bennett appeared in court on Monday on terrorism charges, just as Zimbabwe's fledgling government reported for work.

Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) treasurer general and deputy minister of agriculture designate Roy Bennett was due to appear in Mutare magistrate's court at 10:00, the party said in a statement.

Police on Sunday dropped treason accusations against Bennett, who returned from self-imposed exile last month, but charged him with attempt to commit terrorism, banditry and sabotage.

His court appearance comes as the new unity government is due to begin work on Monday, with MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai as prime minister, after President Robert Mugabe swore in its ministers last week.

The state-run Herald newspaper said the incoming ministers would move into their offices from 09:00 for briefings and handover formalities ahead of an inaugural cabinet meeting on Tuesday.

The MDC on Monday demanded the release of Bennett as well as other detained opposition activists, saying the charges against him were "discredited and shown to be fictitious".

"Clearly they are on a fishing expedition, clutching at straws and know fully well that there is no basis, even suspicion, at law to charge Roy Bennett," the party said."

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Take care.

'debvhu