Roy Bennett finally granted asylum

By Violet Gonda
14 May 2005

Opposition official Roy Bennett was granted refugee status in South Africa on Friday after a long struggle. The decision came after South Africa’s Refugees Appeal Board reversed an earlier decision made by the Department of Home Affairs. The former MDC Member of Parliament for Chimanimani said: “I was delighted to have received some sort of justice after seven years of persecution. But obviously I’d rather be at home, I don’t want to be here.”

He fled the country last year after years of constant harassment and intimidation by the government and state sponsored thugs. This was combined with a year of ill treatment and humiliation in jail for pushing a government minister in parliament.

Bennett, affectionately known as Pachedu by his supporters, also lost his commercial farm in Chimanimani to war veterans, government officials and army. His farm workers not only lost their jobs but were also subjected to a six-year campaign of intimidation. During this period several people were murdered at his farm and Zanu PF supporters also raped a number of women.

In early March 2006 Bennett went underground after the state announced that they were looking for him, following claims by the police of the discovery of an arms cache at the home of Peter Hitschmann in Mutare. It was after this incident that he finally fled to South Africa.

It’s estimated that as many as 40 000 Zimbabweans are fleeing to South Africa every month and yet Zimbabwe’s neighbour has failed to publicly speak out about the problems next door. Many people have been denied asylum because South Africa’s policy has mainly been that there is “no war in Zimbabwe.” Bennett said he was fortunate to be a high profile person and able to access the media around his situation, but sadly there are millions of Zimbabweans who are suffering the same fate but are not as lucky.

When asked if his victory finally meant that South Africa now recognizes there is a problem in Zimbabwe Bennett said the decision came out of the Refugees Appeal Board, which is an independent body that has overturned many Home Affairs decisions. He said: “Whilst the government of South Africa would not like to recognize there is a problem in Zimbabwe, independent bodies like this (Refugees Appeal Board), who have access to the full facts and are able to deliver free and fair judgments, make these judgments which prove beyond any doubt that there is a serious problem in Zimbabwe and serious persecution.”

The MDC official said hopefully his case would show the SADC region that there is a war in Zimbabwe by a government, against unarmed defenseless people who don’t happen to share the same political views as them.

He has another case pending, but this time it’s before the African Commission on Human and People's Rights that he submitted while he was in prison. The human rights case, which will be heard in Ghana on the 21st May, will show that he has been denied every form of justice inside Zimbabwe.