HARARE - The High Court last Friday denied deputy agriculture minister-designate, Roy Bennett, permission to travel to South Africa saying he should have approached a bail court to have bail conditions varied to enable him to undertake the trip.Bennett had initially written to the Attorney Generals office to relax his bail conditions but the request was turned down forcing him to seek relief from the courts. The MDC-T treasurer wanted to travel to South Africa between July 17 and 25 to wind up his business in preparation to take up a full time government position.
Responding to the ruling, Bennett told Zimonline that he would keep on fighting to regain his freedom. “We have lost the case but we will keep on fighting. There is a selective application of the law in Zimbabwe,” he said. Bennett was arrested in February on terror charges. He had just returned from South Africa to join a unity government in which he was picked as one of the deputy ministers from Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC party.
One of the MDCs most popular leaders, Bennett accused of possessing of weapons for the purposes of committing banditry, insurgency and terrorism charges he denies and which Tsvangirai says are trumped up and are undermining the unity government.