On the day the new government was formed, February 13, the MDC’s
treasurer, Roy Bennett, was arrested on trumped up charges of terrorism
and illegal possession of arms. Yesterday, a judge granted him bail –
and immediately rescinded it at the request of state prosecutors. So
much for the rule of law in Zimbabwe. Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party is also
targeting for eviction a further 100 white farmers (there are only 300
left in business) in a return to the land-grab policy that triggered
the country’s descent into economic chaos. So much for learning from
mistakes.
Morgan Tsvangirai, the MDC leader, cannot say he was not warned. This
is turning into a re-run of the 1987 Unity Accord between Zanu-PF and
Joshua Nkomo’s Zapu party, which resulted in Nkomo being outmanoeuvred
at every turn by Mugabe and reduced to no more than a political puppet.
The MDC’s policy on land tenure is that there should be security for
those who have planted crops yet, according to the Commercial Farmers’
Union, the targeted farmers have £70 million-worth of crops in the
ground. This is an early test of the MDC’s influence within the new
government. If it is unable to halt these latest planned seizures, the
power-sharing agreement will be exposed as a sham. That will have
serious consequences. Western aid is desperately needed in a country
where starvation is widespread and cholera has claimed nearly 5,000
lives. But donor countries will be reluctant to commit any resources
when all the evidence suggests it is business as usual in Mugabe’s
Zimbabwe.