Victim:The late Reverend Ndabaningi Sithole-Top right
Useless and unreliable witness Ari Ben Menashe Center
Victims: Roy Bennett and Morgan Tsvangirai below left
The arrest and incarceration of Roy (Pachedu) Bennett on 13 February 2009 over alleged treason elevates him to a rare breed of illustrious freedom fighters in our country.
From colonial times not a single leader who confronted the British colonists escaped detente on allegations of committing treason against the settler regime.
Many others were abducted never to...
.
be seen again.
President Mugabe and most of the geriatrics he has appointed to the Inclusive government whose first casualty of treason allegation ironically is Roy Bennett who was earmarked to be a Deputy Minister in the said government were not sparred the abuse of trumped up treason allegations and detentions without trial.
Where they were “lucky” to secure a court hearing the verdict was foregone and the hearing only provided them rare publicity albeit negative publicity which paradoxically had positive motivational effects on their followers.
The kind of motivation associated with spectators to rooting for the underdog in any sporting contest.
The reaction of MDC supporters in Mutare to news of the detention of Mr Bennett is a case in point.
The arrest was a carefully planned prod by remnants of the notorious JOC mindset aimed at testing resolve and commitment to the Inclusive Government by it subscribers.
A proverbial spanner thrown into the works so to speak. A provocation to gauge reactions of the National Security loathed Inclusive Government Prime Minister to escalated pressure in the opposite direction to the liberated and free political environment he coalesced to achieve.
Bennett returned to the country after assurances had been given by the defunct government that preceded the Inclusive Government but some mischievous law enforcement foot soldier of the disgruntled military commanders in possession of a valid Court warrant for his arrest was given the green light to execute the warrant and provoke the Prime Minister’s reaction.
The mischief mongers must have been utterly disappointed by the PM’s response to the provocation.
“The commitment to the Inclusive Government initiative has reached a point where irritating distractions from remnants of previous beneficiaries of the corrupt proceeds of the immediate past regime will not derail it but rather there is need to address the residual pockets of resistance,” he responded or something to that effect.
In its generality treason is accepted as the crime committed by anyone expected to be loyal to a State authority by citizenship or residence and or both who tries to actively or otherwise encourage others to depose the State authority by unlawful means.
The reasons for such unlawful conduct are neither here nor there no matter how justified they maybe.
It is not clear how a treasonous act towards a State authority who is lawfully deposed by another prior to the treasonous act materialising would be handled by the new authority.
In many countries however it would appear that blanket pardons and or clemency have been employed to clean the slate of such crimes.
Be that as it may, it is clear that the number of treason allegations a state authority alleges are an accurate measure of the popularity of the State authority with its subjects.
In Zimbabwe anyone who actively seeks to depose Mugabe and Zanu PF from power by whatever means is at a great risk of being done for on allegations of treason.
This is an integral Zanu PF strategy that evolves from its desire for a One Party State democracy. Augustine Chihuri Police Commissioner General, former Minister of Economic Development Rugare Gumbo, Wilfred Mhanda aka Dzinashe Machingura, the late Henry Hamadziripi, Crispen Mandizvidza, Mukudzei Mudzi were accused of treason within Zanu PF as far back as1978.
Mugabe never forgave them for that and all the deceased have failed to make it to a National Hero Status which the likes of party novices like Dr Chenjerai Hunzvi, Elliot Manyika, Elliot Manyika and Sally Mugabe were generously granted.
If it had not been for the late Mozambican President’s intervention Mugabe intended to keep them in detente in military camps where they had been confined from 1978 until 1980 when they were freed. Henry Hamadziripi was hardened by the detention and died an unrepentant critic of Mugabe.
Mhanda still holds a very low opinion of Mugabe to date because of the ill treatment he was subjected to while fighting for the liberation of our country.
Detention of political competitors by Mugabe’s Zanu PF has remained a central suppression weapon Mugabe uses generously.
In March 1982, six supporters of Joshua Nkomo’s PF ZAPU that included Dumiso Dabengwa and Lookout Masuku were cleared of treason charges but Mugabe ordered they be held indefinitely.
Their leader Joshua Nkomo was sacked from the coalition Zanu PF, CAZ and PF Zapu government, Gukurahundi was unleashed in the Matabeleland PF Zapu stronghold.
On 13 March 198 the embattled PF ZAPU leader escaped trumped up treason charges to seek refuge in former colonial master’s Britain.
He then revealed he had intelligence that his life was in grave danger from Zanu PF government deployed 5Th Brigade that was committing genocide among his supporters.
The treason charges arose from arms caches allegedly discovered at various farms owned by PF Zapu’s Nitram Investments Company which Dr Nkomo and his leadership denied ownership of and alleged were the clandestine implants of the CIO to justify the repressive genocide.
On 14 October 1995 it was the turn of the late ZANU founder member Reverend Nbabaningi Sithole, 75, whose party had frustrated Mugabe’s One Party State initiative by holding onto two Parliamentary seats in Manicaland to be detained for treason.
He was alleged to have links with a rebel group in neighbouring Mozambique. He was abducted and held incommunicado in various police cells and his relatives spent days trying to establish his whereabouts until a concerned Inspector Edmund Kahari disclosed that he was in police custody and could be anywhere during the day but was a Highlands police station prisoner at night.
Incensed Reverend Sithole’s wife Vesta then commented that the allegations against her husband were malicious political fabrications by Zanu PF and Mugabe over the ZANU acronym of the parties the two led. "These are trumped... Mugabe has a personal vendetta against him and ZANU-PF is pursuing this grudge and I find that very unfair," she said.
He died in hospital in Philadelphia, United States, aged 80 on 11 December 2000 with the treason allegations still hanging on his neck. Nothing has been said thereafter about the fate of his alleged Mozambican based dissidents.
On 8 January 2001, the Zimbabwe Chief Justice Anthony Gubbay ruled that the Zimbabwe Police entries and seizure of property at the residence of John Nkathazo and Solomon Chikowero during the early hours of 14 September 2000 were unlawful and in contravention of the Constitution.
The seizures of the documents from the MDC offices on the afternoon of 15 September 2000 without first identifying by means of searches that such documents afforded evidence of the commission or suspected commission of an offence were unlawful and in contravention of the Constitution."
The same court also ruled that the detentions of Gandhi Mudzingwa, an assistant to the MDC president Morgan Tsvangirai, Nelson Chamisa, the party's national youth chairman, Nkathazo, the dismissed MDC security chief, and Solomon Chikowero, a party security official, were unlawful.
They were being investigated for treasonous acts of trying to overthrow Mugabe after the nascent MDC party had given Zanu PF a bloodied nose in the 2000 Parliamentary elections where it had to resort to open massive rigging to retain power.
On 26 February 2002 current Zimbabwe Prime Minister Morgan Richard Tsvangirai was charged with treason for allegedly plotting to assassinate President Robert Mugabe, charges he vigorously denied.
He had challenged Mugabe in a Presidential election that was to be held in March of the same year when the charges were raised while he was on the campaign trail.
“This whole thing is contrived to damage me politically,” Morgan Tsvangirai said and added “The timing is obvious. This was all along a Zanu PF party strategy to eliminate me from the race.”
On 15 October 2004 he was exonerated of the treason allegations by Justice Garwe in a case where Ari Ben Menashe was the star State witness and where the Court was asked to convict on the basis of grainy and video evidence that was neither visible nor laudable.
He still had another treason charge hanging on his neck over allegations of calling an illegal five-day strike in June 2003.
The spurious 2nd set of treason allegations fell through on 2 Aug 2005 when Prosecutor Florence Ziyambi told the Magistrate Courts;
"The state is withdrawing charges before plea," without giving a reason.
On 26 September 2002, Zimbabwe National Students Union (Zinasu) national council member Mehluli Dube was charged with treason over statements he had mad at a student’s meeting in Gwanda where he allegedly stated “if President Mugabe does not want to go, we will remove him by the ballot or the bullet”.
The matter is still pending.
On 23 December 2004,Phillip Chiyangwa, Godfrey Dzvairo, Zimbabwe's ambassador to Mozambique; Kenny Karidza, Zanu PF deputy security chief; and Tendai Matambanadzo, Metropolitan Bank secretary, all of them renowned Zanu PF zealots, picked up at different times and dates by unknown people the previous week were charged with espionage.
There was a deliberate avoidance of alleging treason because Chiyangwa is a close cousin of Mugabe and an attempt to charge him with an offence carrying the death sentence would have embarrassed Mugabe within extended family circles which in Zimbabwe are a powerful social behaviour modification control.
He was to be the only one to escape imprisonment over the charges.
Although not an illustrious freedom fighter the arrest of Chiyangwa was meant to send a clear national message that no one is safe from such allegations.
In March 2007 after savagely beating up opposition leaders in custody for attending a Save Zimbabwe Campaign prayer meeting the Police and Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) stage managed petrol bombings of police stations railway lines and bridges in was later found to be falsified pretext upon which to detain opposition MDC political activists by a court presided over by Justice Kamocha.
Prominent MDC members Ian Makone, Morgan Komichi, Paul Madzore, Luke Tamborinyoka, Tonderai Ndira (late) and 29 others were rounded up and detained without trial for four months before being freed following Justice Kamocha’s ruling that Police had:
• faked evidence against opposition activists accused of mounting a gasoline bombing campaign
• failed to show the location on maps of a farm where the suspects were allegedly trained in terror tactics which as it turned out were non existent
• Two men whom police had called key witnesses, but did not produce to testify, were fictitious persons who did not exist.
Attorneys for the 34 detained MDC activists Alec Muchahedama and Andrew Makoni were themselves arrested by the police during the trial for describing evidence given in court as having been faked.
Their detention sparked a protest march by Legal Practitioners which was violently disrupted by riot Police and where President of the law Society Beatrice Mtetwa was abducted and severely assaulted.
On 17 April 2008 a ludicrous challenge on British Prime Minister Gordon Brown was mounted by Zanu PF Junta spokesman Patrick Chinamasa over his correct observation that,
"No one thinks, having seen the results of polling stations, that President Mugabe has won."
The incoherent and garrulous Chinamasa retorted: "It is clear from the correspondence that Tsvangirai along with Brown are seeking regime change in Zimbabwe, and on the part of Tsvangirai, this is treasonous. There is no doubting the consequences for acting in a treasonous manner."
Evidently Chinamasa never understood the fundamental elements of the crime of treason from his curious legal training on which he casts aspersions by interpreting an actual reading of electoral results by anyone to be treasonous.
Either that or he was just being mischievous.
On 12 June 2008, after flying back to Zimbabwe from neighbouring South Africa, Hon Tendai Biti, Minister of Finance in the current coalition Zimbabwe government was arrested and ridiculed by being brought to Court in leg Irons over treason allegations stemming from the announcement he made claiming an MDC Parliamentary and Presidential victory after the ZEC had withheld announcement of final Presidential results for two weeks after the election was staged.
The allegations were weighted with a fraudulent strategy document he allegedly authored on the MDC regime change strategy which both the Party and he personally denied having authored alleging it was another product of the nefarious activities in State CIO offices.
It was never understandable how the universal political claim of victory after elections could degenerate into a treasonous act in Zimbabwe alone.
And the allegations as was largely expected were dropped after the State failed to prosecute.
The Biti charges followed hard on the heels of the 29 May 2008, State arrests and charges of retired Zimbabwe National Army Captain Mugove Matapo, in service Brigadier Engelbert Rugeje, Capt Shepherd Maromo and Olivine Morale with treason involving attempting to recruit ZNA soldiers to topple Mugabe.
To date they are still languishing in remand prison.
On 4 November 2008 Police arrested Africa Sun CEO Shingi Munyeza on treason allegations arising from him having allegedly told Nigerian tourists staying at the Kingdom Hotel during the Sanganai Festival that Zimbabwe is a bad tourist destination and overpricing foreign currency charges for services rendered by his enterprise.
It sounds really absurd doesn’t it? But in a country where several bankers have been forced to flee to seek refuge from Reserve Bank harassment over suspected externalisation of foreign currency it is of major concern that an entrepreneur in the shrinking tourism can be accused of treason for stating the obvious reason why the sector is experiencing challenging times.
On 24 December 2008, Police brought to court Jestina Mukoko and no less than 36 other Human rights and MDC activists including a two year old child and journalist Shadreck Manyere, who had been missing since 3-13 December 2008.
All of them had been abducted by CIO agents, held incommunicado and tortured on allegations of treason in that they allegedly were involved in recruiting insurgents for training in Botswana to be used in effecting regime change in the country through violent uprisings.
The false allegations were even tabled before SADC as evidence why the Home Affairs Ministry could not be allowed to be solely ministered by an MDC Minister.
Hitherto The Zanu PF junta government had denied any knowledge as to the whereabouts of the abductees.
They were only brought to court by the Police when then Prime Minister designate Morgan Tsvangirai threatened a total pull out from negotiations to form an agreed coalition government for the country if they were not released or formally charged in court by 1 January 2009.
Now the Police have arrested and charged Mr Bennett who had been exiled in South Africa but had been recalled by the MDC to take up appointment as Deputy Agriculture Minister in the coalition government which was being sworn into office at the time of his arrest.
The timing of the arrest was intended to cause disaffection with the Inclusive government within the feared and loathed MDC-T party and the still birth of the Inclusive government or alternatively to provoke a reaction that would give the police a pretext to arrest other senior MDC-T party functionaries for attempting to obstruct the course of justice.
That would embarrass the party that has for over a decade accused government of selective application of justice if it was to intercede on Bennett’s arrest.
All they got was an MDC comment stating;
"These charges are scandalous, vexatious and without basis in law, but are simply politically motivated, simply intended to justify the continued incarceration of Roy Bennett."
The main target of the provocation Prime Minister Tsvangirai outsmarted the incident initiators by stating it had everything to do with remnants of previous regime indoctrination that will be addressed and corrected through due process.
The reality is that the arrest of Roy Bennett was and is malicious and vindictive. The intent is to rock the Inclusive Government with divisive political initiatives that will distract in particular MDC-T Ministers from focussing on the economic turnaround agenda and situate it in the unproductive political power salvaging arena.
It is crucial for the MDC to assign the Party’s Legal and Politics Departments to deal with the Bennett and other party political distractions and leave the Cabinet members to concentrate on National governance issues.
Any leader who is subject of the intensity of treason to the extent above must think twice about his her continued leadership of disillusioned citizens.
It is incomprehensible that Bennett can be successfully prosecuted for treasonous crimes against a defunct regime that is no longer physically possible of dethroning legally or otherwise.
The same goes for the political detainees in current detente.
It will only be a matter of time that charges are withdrawn and or Unity Government Presidential clemency will free them.
In the meantime all we can do is extent national solidarity to the gallant fighters for our emancipation from totalianism and State abuse.
No comments:
Post a Comment