SA denies asylum for Roy Bennett (Mail and Guardian)
JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA May 26 2006 12:08
South Africahas decided against granting asylum to white Zimbabwean opposition politicianRoy Bennett, who fled his country two months ago amid fears for his life, hislawyers said on Friday. Bennett, a former member of Parliament for theopposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), sought asylum in South Africain March after Zimbabwean police sought to question him over the discovery ofan arms cache that security agents claimed was to be used to overthrowPresident Robert Mugabe's government.
"His asylum application has beenturned down," said Jacob van Garderen of South Africa's Lawyers for HumanRights, who is helping Bennett make his case. Bennett plans to appeal thedecision by the home affairs department, Van Garderen told AgenceFrance-Presse. "It's true he is looking for political asylum in SouthAfrica," said MDC spokesperson Nelson Chamisa at the time. Bennett losthis large coffee plantation in eastern Zimbabwe during Mugabe's land reformprogramme launched in 2000, which saw nearly 4 000 of the 4 500 whiteZimbabwean large-scale commercial farmers evicted from their land which wasgiven to landless Zimbabweans.
The feisty lawmaker was in trouble in Marchafter the discovery of a huge arms cache, in which a former white soldier, MikePeter Hitschmann, was identified as the kingpin, and fled the country to avoidarrest. Zimbabwe state authorities said Hitschmann, whom they described as amember of a shadowy organisation called the Zimbabwe Freedom Movement, wasinvolved in stashing arms at various locations in the country. State mediareports said a Kalashnikov 47 assault rifle, seven Uzi machine guns, four FNrifles, 11 shotguns, six CZ pistols, four revolvers, 15 tear gas canisters andseveral thousand rounds of ammunition had been found at Hitschmann's home.
TheMDC denied any links to Hitschmann and claims he is a police reservist. Jailed Bennettwas released from prison in June last year after serving eight months forshoving the justice minister during a heated debate in Parliament. He wasjailed in 2004. In the incident, Bennett traded blows with Patrick Chinamasa,the Parliamentary leader of the ruling Zanu-PF legislators and Justice andParliamentary Affairs Minister, allegedly over racial insults during a debateover changing the country's laws concerning livestock theft. Bennett hadcharged at Chinamasa as he was making comments that "agitated"Bennett. "Again for the umpteenth time, he [Chinamasa] took attack andthrew racial and all sorts of abuse at me. I confronted him and pushed. He fellover," said Bennett, one of the three white MPs in the 150-memberParliament. "Didymus Mutasa [the anti-corruption minister] kicked me frombehind and I turned and pushed him," said Bennett. "These things getto you and you react and that is what I did. I don't regret it," Bennettsaid. "Whatever the consequences, I am ready to die for Zimbabwe. I am aZimbabwean, I am not a white man, I am not a black man," he said.
Acorrespondent for the state-run Ziana news agency had said Bennett"grabbed Chinamasa by the throat, shook him violently and pushed him tothe ground". "While the minister was struggling to sit up, Bennettcharged at him again, stood with his legs spread over him and threatened toassault him further," he said. Bennett had said he was opposed to thechanges to the proposed law that was being discussed during the altercation,which will make it a mandatory for anyone convicted of livestock theft to beimprisoned for nine years. The Zimbabwe Parliament at the time voted 53 to 42ballots for the immediate imprisonment of Bennett. He was the first legislatorin the nation's history to be jailed by the Parliament. Opposition officialsat the time described the imprisonment of Zimbabwe-born Bennett, an outspokenand fluent speaker of the local Shona language, as vindictive.
Before the voteratified the sentence, a Parliamentary panel, dominated by the ruling party,sentenced Bennett to a year in jail with hard labour for assaulting the twoministers. Bennett, in a 35-minute address to Parliament, said he was"sorry for the disturbance" on May 18 2004. -- Sapa-AFP
Source:Mail & Guardian Online Web Address:http://www.mg.co.za/article/2006-05-26-sa-denies-asylum-for-roy-bennett