Roy Bennett to return home to campaign for Tsvangirai

EXILED MDC-T Senator, Roy Bennett will be returning home to campaign for his party's leader, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai in the next elections expected to be held either this year or in 2013, damn the consequences.

In 2010, Bennett escaped to South Africa following his acquittal on charges of possession of weaponry for insurgency and banditry, to close a decade of perceived political persecution at the hands of ZANU-PF.

Despite the establishment of a Government of National Unity in February 2009 to ease political tensions, ZANU-PF refused to accept him, a development that saw President Robert Mugabe declining to swear him as the deputy Minister of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development.

The Attorney-General's Office has since indicated that the MDC-T official, if located, faces arrest for contempt of court after failing to appear in court after having been slapped with a US$1 million defamation suit by High Court judge, Chinembiri Bhunu.

The defamation suit was precipitated by an interview the politician gave to Britain's Guardian newspaper in which he alleged that the judge was biased.

This week, Bennett told The Financial Gazette that he would be returning to Zimbabwe to campaign for the MDC-T leader and hinted at the possibility of running for the Chimanimani seat which he lost in 2004 after being jailed for an effective year for contempt of Parliament following a scuffle with Justice and Legal Affairs Minister, Patrick Chinamasa.

But critics of President Mugabe's administration doubt whether hard-line militarists in ZANU-PF would allow the MDC-T treasurer general to step into the country with expected funds to bankroll PM Tsvangirai's third presidential bid.

"I will return to Zimbabwe to campaign for my president's re-election. The party structure will decide what, if any, role they wish me to play. The MDC is a Zimbabwean people's driven movement. It is not for me to decide, but for our supporters who have been so courageous in our struggle to choose a leadership capable of re-building our country," Bennett said.

He alleged that he had left the country for a multi-faceted mission to mobilise resources â€" human, financial, political â€" and it was now mission accomplished.

"The party deployed me internationally on a specific mission, which as a loyal member of the MDC, I have now to the best of my ability largely completed," Bennett said.

At law, Bennett remains a Senator as ZANU-PF has put in abeyance plans to move a Parliamentary motion that would have resulted in him losing his Senate immunity after missing 21 consecutive sessions of the legislative assembly.

Although Parliamentary rules say non-attendance of Parliament for 21 consecutive sittings would result in members losing their seats, the ejection needs to be confirmed by more than half of the votes in the member's respective house, a procedure ZANU-PF threatened to undertake, but never carried through.

Bennett said he would donate allowances that Parliament owes him running into thousands of greenbacks to Chimanimani constituency when the funds are finally released to Members of Parliament.

Although Bennett failed to contest for the seat in March 2005 as he was still incarcerated, his wife Heather, stood on an MDC-T ticket. She was, however, defeated by ZANU-PF's Munacho Mutezo, but the latter was outpolled in the 2008 general elections by the MDC-T's Lynette Karenyi.

Popularly known as Pachedu (between ourselves), Bennett has blamed his troubles on harassment, intimidation and outright persecution at the hands of ZANU-PF, which also saw him losing his Charleswood Farm in 2001 under the controversial land reform programme. The once successful coffee enterprise is lying idle and recently diamonds were discovered at the farm.

Bennett said conditions prevailing in the country at the moment do not favour the holding of elections this year as is being agitated for by ZANU-PF.

He added that Global Political Agreement (GPA) reforms must be instituted before fresh polls.

"Zimbabwe can only enter an election once each and every condition in the GPA has been adhered to. Most importantly, the military junta leaders must publicly declare to the Southern African Development Community and the Zimbabwean people that they will respect the decision of the electorate," said Bennett.

Last year, the Prime Minister replaced Bennett with Seiso Moyo as the deputy Agriculture Minister, without having first notified the latter, raising speculation on the two's relationship.

The speculation came against the backdrop of WikiLeaks exposures that said the MDC-T official was critical of the premier and at one stage said: "Tsvangirai does what the last person tells him to do."

But this week, Bennett said the MDC-T was not a party of yes men, adding that his relationship with the Prime Minister was cordial.

"My relationship with president Tsvangirai is cordial, transparent and constructive. However, the MDC is not about any individual. It is an institution and must be structured to survive and prosper well into the future. As an elder figure in the party, my history of support for the president and loyalty within MDC is well known. We in the MDC leadership are not a party of YES men like ZANU-PF, so there is always constructive debate ending in consensus," said Bennett.