Roy Bennett is the real rogue in MDC

By Silence Chihuri

Reports that have been carried out in various publications on the remarks of MDC Treasurer Roy Bennett in which he is quoted to have generally branded exiled MDC supporters as “rogues” in the wake of financial irregularities involving the fired MDC UK must never be allowed to go unchallenged.

Neither should the unauthordox actions of  a misguided few justify the general castigation of the very many people who have sustained the party abroad in very challenging circumstances.

In fact nobody should ever be surprised that Bennet made those remarks because it is a very accurate depiction of what people like him think of the contributions of other people to a cause. It was Bennett and similarly minded people who were branding everyone fighting the liberation struggle terrorists and he is just at it again.

There is nothing racial about Bennett’s comments. It is a case of mentality and sadly, has become part of a chronic and endemic problem in the MDC that sees obscure figures being catapulted to the top echelons of the party at the expense of the hardworking and dedicated cadres of the party.

It’s not just Bennett who has benefited from that profligacy in the MDC although he is by no means the biggest beneficiary. Other similar cases are James Maridadi and people like Gorden Moyo who were nowhere near the MDC when it was formed.

These are people who stayed very far from the party and as for Maridadi, it is called enjoying the best of both worlds because he was enjoying the excesses of ZANU PF at ZESA while the MDC was taking punches some of them fatal blows but there he is, the Prime Minister’s spokesman!

It is the ultimate mockery to those who have died in the name of the MDC party. There is no culture of appreciation or rewarding of the hardwork in the MDC. What we see is the same jobs-for-boys culture that is rampant in ZANU PF. It is a real disgrace.

And as for Bennett, what did he do for the MDC to justify his appointment to the post of party Treasurer? The answer is simple. He did nothing. This is a man who admitted that all he has mobilised in his tenure as treasurer, is 12 vehicles? And yet he is supposed to be the treasurer of a party with a whole fleet of vehicles and various other assets.

Or was he trying to pull cotton wool over the eyes of the people? Because that is a no show since everyone can see the assets of the MDC throughout the country. I suspect that is just an honest admission, the man has done nothing for the party but he simply is, or rather was, a leading commercial farmer with influential contacts.

He was not even there when the MDC was formed, but only jumped on board the MDC ship when he realised the potential of the party. But the motive of Bennett joining the MDC was never to advance the democratic struggle.

Bennett saw a fantastic opportunity to settle an old score because he is one of those few but very hardcore white people who never fully and whole heartedly embraced the idea of a black government in Zimbabwe. It is a shame that the MDC is risking its founding principles by being used in such a manner by people who do not have the interests of the majority Zimbabweans at heart.

I detest Jonathan Moyo and most of his wapped political views and especially policies during his short but disastrous spell in government. But Moyo’s analysis of Bennett was just as spot as his accurate analysis of Mugabe in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s.

Everyone knows that Bennett was in the notorious Selous Scouts and that he also served in the brute Rhodesian army. In 1980 Bennett and some of his unrepentant friends refused flatly to accept the first black government of Zimbabwe and they continued to vote for the Rhodesian Front until it was disbanded due to wanning fortunes. 1980 was never about ZANU PF or Mugabe.

It was about Zimbabwe and Zimbabweans coming together as a people to start a new era of co-existence between the two major races, the white and the black people that had been at war for too long. This is why ZANU PF (then ZANU) was accepted by the people of Zimbabwe as the government of the day.

That is was why even the most luminary figure of the Zimbabwean liberation struggle Joshua Nkomo gave ZANU and Mugabe the benefit of the doubt. Nobody ever reasonably envisaged that ZANU PF would turn out as disastrous in government like it went on to be.

If someone is out there who knew, then that person kept quiet and must remain quiet. Because even Nkomo himself would not have further endorsed the ZANU PF government by signing the Unity Accord as late as 1987. This was why also, most people in the MDC who had been politically active before are ex-ZANU PF like Tsvangirai himself and many others.

Likewise, being in the Rhodesian Army was never necessarily a white thing because there were several black people who also signed up to “fight” alongside the predominantly white “soldiers”. Some were forced through cosncription commonly known as call-up but there were many voluntary takers.

Equally, there were distinguished white people such as the late Guy Clutton Brooke and Joseph Culverwell who fought alongside the liberation forces and Bennett could have taken a leaf out of their cue. The main issue with the Rhodesian Army was not their so-called “cause” since they were adamant that they had a right to fight for “their country.

It was rather their wapped ideology that said black lives were not to be valued at all and this was showcased in the manner in which innocent civilians suffered at the hands of the merciless Rhodesian forces. Everyone knows how brutal the Rhodesian armed forces were to the Zimbabwean povo because they saw the Zimbabwean black people as nothing more than flies that had to be killed for the most stupid reason.

A person could be shot dead in front of their family or children for the silliest excuse such as looking “to ugly” or being “too black”! The brutality was all caused by the frustration of fighting a losing war. That is a characteristic of all unpopular regimes just like we see today with the ZANU PF government imposing itself on the people of Zimbabwe by force.

I dont like invoking the gory war memories at all, but history must never be forgotten or ignored. And most importantly, the MDC party must never be used as a political veil behind which people with a dodgy past come and find ready fefuge.

For Bennet to show such general disdain to the people some whom have worked very hard to raise the profile of the MDC party abroad is reminiscent of how black people who were fighting for independence and majority rule were all branded terrorists. Yes there are people who have been engaging in unacceptable if not illegal tendences in the name of the MDC party but not everyone is as rogue as Bennett seems to very carelessly insinuate.

The responsible people must be identified and the nature of their activities unearthed and they must be dealt with accordingly. The suspension of the MDC UK executive by the MDC National Executive through a directive by the Secretary General was the right thing to.

Some of the MDC leadership must also look at their OWN role in aiding or abating the status quo either willingly or unwittingly because MDC leaders have been coming especially to the UK trying to assert their influence and promising people favours back in Zimbabwe.

This has led to a culture of opportunism whereby people with no track record at all in the party have been allowed to take charge of the party simply because they greased the palms of corrupt MDC leaders . These are people some of whom have had very dubious stints in ZANU PF and they jumped ship onto the MDC and they have imported the destructive and and in some case deadly politics of ZANU PF.

The other worrying aspect is the commercialisation of MDC activities and occasions in the UK. For example, the last two occasions MDC president Tsvangirai visited the UK there were advertisements of admission charges some as high as £75 per head to “secure a table seat to dine with your leader”.

Why would people have to be charged for simply coming to meet their leader and sit down with him and tell him their concerns? Tsvangirai addresses multitudes of people throughout Zimbabwe and all over the world but there have never been cases of admission charges.

Although everytime this has been done it has been met with stiff resistence and disapproval but there was never an occasion when Tsvangirai himself expressed openly, his disapproval or dissociated himself from such questionable arrangements. It is such unpatriotic exploitation of national politics that lead to greed and that is how such a culture is natured because it keeps going on unchecked.

For all the time MDC leaders have been coming to the UK no one has ever been charged anything to see or sit and dine with them. until now People would simply converge at an arranged venue and most of the venues in most cases have been very kindly donated because there has been a lot of sympathy with the plight of the Zimbabwean people in this country.

The authorities and venue owners etc know that Zimbabweans are mainly struggling to make ends meet and wherever they (Zimbabweans) seek to organis an activity to do with their country such as public meetings and rallies, venues have been donated for free. In exceptional cases very nominal fees have been charged for venues and for anyone to seek to charge people is simply exploiting an opportune situation.

Some ridiculous excuses given have been some so-called administrative costs of running the meetings. What administrative costs are involved where people converge at some donated venue where everything from chairs and tables are free? It is very sad to see people who spend their hard earned money to travel, some driving for very long distances to see their political leaders and then to be charged some bizrre “cover charge”.

In most of the venues there are full bars and restaurants where the party faithful even incurr more expenses buying themselves food and drinks. The most common is the “fundraising after party” where traditional food is sold at ridiculously high prices at the end of the meetings.

What I see lacking these days and has led to this sorry state of affairs is proper accountability due to little or non-existent supervision between the national party treasurer (Bennett in this case) and the UK finance department. This has allowed some other shadowy “treasurers” to assume Bennette’s role and in the process pocketing party money.

Bennett must also look at his own failure to supervise the remittance of party money from the UK before he castigates loyal party members as “rogues” because most these people are sacrificing a lot and they dont get anything like party vehicles and offices that people like Bennette have.

Neither do these people get any allowances for their personal expenses. The buck stops with Bennett and no amount pre-emptive grandstanding will absolve him of such chronic failure.

The other worrying perception shown by Bennett and other very mindless MDC leaders is to think that it is a priviledge for all the Zimbabweans in the Diaspora to be members of the MDC! How disturbingly wrong they are because it is a right of all Zimbabweans who have been forced out of the country to join a party of their choice and support it from wherever they are in the world.

The MDC is actually priviledged because ZANU PF is crying for that kind of support. Bennett must check with Gono he will get the right picture. It is the duty of the MDC any such party’s leadership to ensure that just like the local structures of the party, the Diaspora structures are properly supervised and given proper direction.

It is childish to simply come out to castigate people when they are ot being given direction. Bennett must get down to work and come up with proper systems that must be followed by all party structures in the Diaspora. During the tenure of our UK executive we had Fletcher Dulini who was a very hands-on national party Treasurer thanks to his account background.

What qualification does Bennett have other than his heritage anyway, but as for Dulini the accountant, he always ensured proper systems were given to us and me as then UK Treasurer.

Equally, the then organising secretary Elphias Mudhlongwa and late National Chairman Isaac Matongo were very strict in ensuring that cards were issued through the proper channells, There was never any proliferation of party cards such as we see these days whereby any MDC leader coming from Zimbabwe will bring cards and hand them over to their cronnies to sell on their behalf.

Not just money was receited during our time, even the cards were receited once they were issued to the UK and there was utmost co-operation from the branches whose accounting was very up-to-date as well.

It is mere grandstanding for Bennett to say that all external MDC party structures will be disbanded because there are several thousands of Zimbabweans in the Diaspora who will continue to agitate for change in Zimbabwe and it is up to the MDC to give them a leadership that will inspire them to be part of the party.

These people will not wait for Bennett to band or disband them at will because when we launched the MDC in the UK after being involved with it in Zimbabwe, it was not at the orders of people like him. But we have seen Bennett and the likes of him enjoying the external platform that the Diaspora membership of the MDC has been providing.

There are people here and elsewhere outside Zimbabwe who left the country in some cases naked, to escape real and imminent danger to their lives. Some of them were never able to bury their loved ones and have never seen where they lay up to now.

Bennett has been a refugee himself and he knows what it is like and he must not speak like he is from Mars. People have been very loyal and hardworking through and through and it such lack of appreciation of their contributions and the contemptuous utterances that people get from the MDC leadership that is driving down the support of the party in the Diaspora.

Victory will never be certain for the MDC until the party leadership knows how to harness and nature support to stir the party to true victory. How many times has the MDC smelt victory but ended up crying of being robbed?

Every Zimbabwean counts wherever they are and it is up to the MDC leadership to court their suport and contributions to the maximum benefit of the party and consequently, the nation.

Three million is a very significant figure to be disregarded and the only loser will be the MDC because ZANU PF knows fully well that most of the people outside the country are running away from their political terror or economic mismanagement.

These are people who have had enough of ZANU PF and their only hope is the seemingly harpless MDC. The way forward for the MDC is to ensure that there is proper supervision of all its valued external structures. Proper communication that is not based or focused on individual party leaders must be established or re-established.

Those who have been fingured in the UK problems must never be allowed to be party of the investigating team because they will still interfere. There are a lot of people who were not necessarily by-standers in ZANU PF who are now already front-runners in the MDC?

That must never be allowed because these are the people who are causing havoc. Failure to effectively deal with the external structures will have far reaching consequences back in Zimbabwe for the MDC.

As for “Pachedu” or is it “Pachawo”, he could be the real rogue.

Silence Chihuri is a former Treasurer of the MDC UK and writes from Scotland. He can be contacted by email: [email protected]