Exiled Roy Bennett returns to Zimbabwe

30 January 2007
By Violet Gonda

Three years ago in March, Roy Bennett left Zimbabwe under cover of darkness, after he was accused of plotting to overthrow Robert Mugabe. In 2004 he had also spent eight months in jail for pushing ZANU PF’s Patrick Chinamasa in parliament. But on Friday Bennett flew into Zimbabwe from South Africa for the crucial meeting of the MDC National Council, which made the decision to finally form a unity government with ZANU PF and the second MDC formation.

Speaking on the eve of his departure Bennett told SW Radio Africa he was very apprehensive. He said: “To tell you the truth I am scared because I don’t know what faces me on the other side.” But Bennett felt he wanted to be part of this important occasion and also ‘test the sincerity and genuineness of the Mugabe regime.”

And early Friday morning the MDC’s National Treasurer passed through airport security without any hassle, with one of the security officers merely saying to him: “Oh, it's you Mr Bennett.”

He went straight to the meeting where the National Council committed itself to the unity government. It is believed this decision came after serious pressure from SADC, which had said it would guarantee and deliver the process, with the government formed by mid February.

Bennett, who was a commercial farmer before he was violently driven off his land in Chimanimani, said: “I find it as difficult as the next person to even begin to trust these processes, but there has to be a starting point of moving this forward on the basis that people are suffering and on the basis that SADC has guaranteed this process.”

He added that within SADC the MDC has friends, who believe a power sharing government can be delivered.