ZIMBABWE’S OPPOSITION ministers were sworn into the new cabinet by President Robert Mugabe yesterday amid confusion over why their party treasurer was arrested by security forces shortly before the ceremony began.
Roy Bennett, a white Zimbabwean farmer who was living in South Africa until recently and was set to become deputy minister for agriculture as a Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) nominee to the cabinet, was reportedly arrested while attempting to leave for South Africa.
According to the MDC, Mr Bennett was picked up at a small airport on the outskirts of Harare by police from the force’s notorious Law and Order section, which deals with political crimes.
Mr Bennett, a former MP, served a jail term in Zimbabwe before fleeing to South Africa when he was convicted of assaulting a Zanu-PF official during an argument in parliament.
“Roy Bennett, MDC treasurer general and deputy minister of agriculture designate, has just been arrested by state agents,” the party said in a statement.
“We understand that they are taking him to Marondera, where there is a notorious torture and interrogation base,” it added.
Yesterday’s developments highlight the concerns many observers have in relation to how the country’s rival political parties can work together given that the ruling regime has arrested and allegedly tortured many of the opposition in the past. “It is very disturbing. I don’t understand the rationale,” said Innocent Gonese, MDC’s chief whip in parliament, “It undermines confidence in the all-inclusive government,” he said.
Mr Bennett’s lawyer, Dannie Fourie, said South Africa, the regional powerhouse, would be asked to step in immediately, saying the powersharing deal guaranteed the safety of ministerial nominees.
Yesterday’s ceremony at State House in Harare, where Mr Tsvangirai was sworn in on Wednesday as prime minister by Mr Mugabe who remains the country’s president, brings to an end the official formation of the unity government.
Mr Mugabe only revealed yesterday which members of his party would be appointed to the 15 ministerial positions he secured under the compromise powersharing deal copperfastened last month.
Mr Tsvangirai’s MDC received 14 posts while a breakaway MDC faction was allocated three. Despite declaring last year that his then cabinet was “the worst in history”, Mr Mugabe reappointed many of its members. The Herald newspaper reported yesterday that 20 of the 84-year-old’s previous choices for minister and deputy minister were once again appointed to positions of power.