'It's game over for Zanu-PF,' says Roy 'Pachedu' Bennett

MDC-T treasurer, Roy Bennett (RB) has been living in exile in South Africa since 2010, after fleeing what he called persecution by President Robert Mugabe's faction in the government of national unity (GNU).

Last week, The Standard (S) caught up with the former Chimanimani legislator, who spoke about this week's elections, the future of Zimbabwe and many other issues.

S: We are a few days away from election day. What should be done to ensure that the plebiscite is fairer than the previous one?

RB: According to the observers, it was an illegitimate election in 2008. We are going into an election endorsed and facilitated by Sadc. They guaranteed free and fair elections. That agreement has already been broken in many ways. There is duplicity, lack of transparency and the lack of a commitment by politicians who make agreements and don't honour those same agreements.

S: Why does MDC-T keep on referring to Sadc, yet you know that the regional body has Mugabe sympathisers?

RB: Sadc guaranteed the government of national unity. We take part in the elections now because it's a Sadc brokered process with a Sadc appointed facilitator. This means the regional body is responsible and accountable for the elections. It's up to the people to claim their space. It's game over for Zanu PF, it's game over for Sadc. The people of Zimbabwe are going to embarrass them all hugely by demonstrating their will democratically.

S: Why is the opposition in Zimbabwe not unified?

RB: We are not the opposition, we are the ruling party, and we hold the majority of seats in parliament. There is major unification of all forces opposed to the Mugabe regime, there is only a minority with Welshman Ncube (MDC) and Dumiso Dabengwa (Zapu), who for personal reasons have taken their personal agendas before the national agenda. But a united front can bring democracy to Zimbabwe.

We have had a very serious approach from the Zapu leadership. They will disown Dabengwa and publicly say that they are part and parcel of the unity of Zimbabwe.

S: So, do you think Tsvangirai could win the elections?

RB: It will be a landslide victory for the MDC and the presidential candidate Tsvangirai. Zimbabwe will never be the same again. I believe this [result] will be accepted and we will move on to the next stage to the evolvement of our country. I honestly believe if the election should be rigged, the people of Zimbabwe are not just going to sit on their hands and accept it as they have done for the last 13 years. I see Zimbabwe moving into an ungovernable state should the election be stolen.

S: You live in South African exile and you are the party treasurer, how do you manage this?

RB: The fact that I'm the treasurer is one of the reasons I have been targeted [by the Mugabe regime]. Having been honoured by the people of the MDC to be elected as treasurer general, it's a key role to raise the financial resources and place the party in a very strong position for elections.

I can't be in Zimbabwe. They will arrest me again if I go back. This persecution comes down to my role as the treasurer of the party and to the fact they are blocking any funding to mobilise the people of Zimbabwe through the Political Parties Act. As long as I would be now in Zimbabwe, they would arrest me, kill me, do whatever they want. Of course it's terrible to be in exile, it affects your family and life.

But it's a sacrifice one has to make for what one's beliefs are. Zimbabwe is my home and I will come back when the MDC-T is in power. Had it not been for the international community, there wouldn't have been an overthrow of apartheid in South Africa and there would never have been an overthrow of the Rhodesian government in Zimbabwe.

I also want to add my disgust about those parts of the international community who only participated in the fight against apartheid effectively when it was the black and white issue - and now when it's a black and black issue, sit down and fold their hands.

'Land reform irreversible'

Standard: What is your view of the past land reform? Do you look forward to ever repossessing your farm?

Roy Bennett: However skewed the land position has been, it's irreversible, it's done.

S: So you don't hope to repossess your own farm?

RB: Whatever will be done specifically, there must be justice and transparency. MDC has always said there will be a land audit by a land commission and there will be a just and fair compensation for all Zimbabweans - clearly: I'm not saying whites but all Zimbabweans. They will come up with an agrarian reform to economically empower the people who possess the land.

With the land audit, the vast majority of stolen farms will be released because many Zanu PF politicians and military elite are holding more than one farm. Once the compensation has been paid and the title deeds are released, serious agriculturalists will be able to get lines of credit and drive the economy forward.

S: Some quarters assert that you were involved in illegal diamond mining activities with the mining giant De Beers in the nineties. Is it true or just part of their election campaign?

RB: This allegation is ridiculous. In 1996 De Beers came to my farm and spent three months exploring Harinyari River. We never found out what their findings have been. But notice: I lived in Charleswood Farm up to 2004 when I was evicted with my workers. There was a permanent labour force of 350 people and I used to truck in 2 000 people to my farm every day. You can't tell me I was mining diamonds with all those people around and they didn't know about it. This is really part of Mugabe's desperate election campaign.

S: Do you contemplate coming back to Zimbabwe one day?

RB: You need to understand the road we have travelled is long. I am a third generation Zimbabwean. I have no other home apart from Zimbabwe. My first language is Shona. So of course I will return home - the day after MDC is in power.

Bennett proud of his stint with bsap

S: In the late 70s you were a member of the British South Africa police, which was not famous for protecting human rights. Nowadays, as activist for the MDC, you claim for democracy and people's freedom - how can we understand this big change?

RB: I am very proud of having been a member of the BSAP. I was an investigating officer for the Pearce Commission against officers who had carried out human rights abuses. This is on record.

In 1978 I left the police, while the Rhodesian war was in full swing and pursued a career in agriculture.

After the independence, I chose to remain in Zimbabwe and to help building the new Zimbabwe. I believed what Robert Mugabe pleaded in his inauguration speech in 1980: All weapons should be turned into plough shares; racism was the most evil of all evil. And Mugabe said because the struggle had been white against black, it never should be black against white.

But rantings of the past hold no water. The promises were not kept.