PM cancels cabinet meeting over Bennett

Zimbabwe Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai called off a cabinet meeting Thursday after a magistrate’s court detained top aide Roy Bennett ahead of his trial on terrorism charges, officials said.

“The Prime Minister has suspended the council of ministers meeting and any government appointments until the Bennett issue is resolved,” an official in the prime minister’s office told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Roy Bennett, Tsvangirai’s pick as deputy agriculture minister, was sent back to jail to stand trial Monday in a ruling his party said was a serious attack on the credibility of the inclusive government.

The Movement for Democratic Change party treasurer, accused of possessing arms for the purposes of banditry, terrorism and inciting acts of insurgency, had been free on bail since March. He had been arrested on February 13, the day the unity government was sworn in.

His renewed detention has cast fresh clouds on the challenges facing the eight month partnership of Tsvangirai with long-time rival President Robert Mugabe amid claims of a crackdown on MDC supporters and disputes over key posts.

Minister of State in Tsvangirai’s office Gorden Moyo told AFP Thursday’s cabinet meeting was cancelled as the prime minister had to attend to matters linked to the unity pact but did not give details.

“The council of ministers meeting which was supposed to be held today has been cancelled because the chairman, who is also the PM, had other pressing issues which relate to the global political agreement which he had to personally attend to and address,” he said.

Bennett, a feisty white former coffee farmer whose land was expropriated under Mugabe’s land reforms, was arrested on his return from South Africa to join Tsvangirai’s government.

He had fled to the neighbouring country in 2006 after being implicated in an alleged plot to kill the veteran leader, for which he stands trial on Monday.

His lawyers said they are planning to appeal to the high court to have him released on bail once again.

The MDC on Wednesday accusing Mugabe’s ZANU-PF of being behind Bennett’s indictment and detention.

“ZANU-PF has invented yet another technicality to have him detained without trial on trumped-up charges of banditry and terrorism,” the party said in a statement.

“The banditry charges are trumped-up and they poison the letter and spirit of the inclusive government” and the unity deal, it added.

The two former rivals formed the unity government in February nearly a year after disputed polls plunged Zimbabwe into deeper economic and political chaos. Source: AFP

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