The Situation in Zimbabwe

by John Thompson

October, 2002

I know a man who was tortured a couple of days ago. So does our Minister of Foreign Affairs. I cannot do much about it; he can do more.

Roy Bennett is a short, muscular man. Normally cheerful and hardworking; he also has to be brave. He is a White farmer in Zimbabwe, he is also a member of Parliament for the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) — the official opposition there.

In contemporary Zimbabwe, ruled by and for the henchmen of the aging megalomaniac Robert Mugabe, these make Bennett an enemy of the state. For his neighbors, constituents, and political colleagues — the vast majority of whom are Black Zimbabweans — he is one of their leaders in their hopes to fend off famine, prevent utter economic collapse, and restore democratic government to their nation.

I met Roy Bennett when he came to Canada to explain what was going on in Zimbabwe. The leader of the MDC, a Black Zimbabwean, cannot leave the country as Mugabe’s henchmen have seized his passport. Roy’s colleague, a Black labour union leader who had been beaten and tortured by the police, was unable to come any further than Britain; but hopes to come to Canada sometime in the future.

The situation in Zimbabwe is simple. They have a corrupt and rotting government, headed by a stale and aging leader, that has driven the nation to the edge of bankruptcy. Mugabe, like so many other "presidents for life" is preoccupied with his own dignity and wealth. As he ages, he and the cadre of opportunists around him are increasingly pre-occupied with their position.

The MDC, which represents a vast majority of the various peoples of Zimbabwe, is striving to ensure that their country has a future different from that of so many ‘failed states’ elsewhere in Africa. Their opposition (and popularity) is an affront to Mugabe’s self-image and to the thievery of his supporters.

Still, Mugabe is smart enough to sell some simple lies: He cloaks himself in nationalism and "anti-Colonialism" and has sold a program of bogus land reform by stripping many White farm owners of their property and purports to give the land to poor "peasants".

These farms are vast estates that tend to produce food and export goods on an industrial scale. Bennett’s coffee and beef alone brings in millions of dollars in trade; he also has some 400 Black employees and their families — some of whom have been murdered by Mugabe’s goons. Thus are the "peasants" helped. These so-called reforms are also stripping Zimbabwe of its ability to feed itself.

The so-called peasants who purportedly stand to benefit from reform also voted Bennett into office. His constituents included about 11 Whites and 50,000 Blacks, and the power of the MDC can be seen by the fact that he got 80% of the popular vote in his riding. Were there to be a real election in Zimbabwe (one without a majority of seats being specifically dedicated to Mugabe’s ZANU-PF hacks) the country wouldn’t be in crisis.

As pressure has grown on Mugabe, he has accelerated his expropriations — but the farms seized from their owners do not go to hundreds of individual subsistence farmers. Instead, productive estate farms become the new fiefdoms for brutal police chiefs, his mistresses and sundry flunkies. No wonder that famine beckons and Zimbabwean exports are plummeting.

Roy Bennett’s trip to Canada was partly successful. He could represent the MDC Leader, and his stranded colleague, he talked to the media and met with Bill Graham our Minister of External Affairs. On his return home, he paid the price for telling the truth.

Last week, Bennett was arrested for photographing some of Mugabe’s goons engaged in some election chicanery (only Government approved reporters are allowed to use cameras). You cannot blame him for holding such goons in contempt. Some of his farm employees had been killed by such as these earlier, and his wife had been so beaten by more of them that she lost their third child some months ago.

Bennett was stuffed in the local jail, sharing a cell with a number of Black prisoners. These were told by the police that their own releases could be secured if they beat Bennett up. Instead, they protected their White neighbor, their MP and their champion. The last communication I had about Bennett was that the police had to do their own dirty work and had subjected him to brutal beatings — his cellmates also.

I can’t help Bennett, but our Government must.

John Thompson is President of the Mackenzie Institute which studies political instability and terrorism. He can be reached at: mackenzieinstitute@bellnet.ca