This week, it was the testimony of the prosecutions expert witness at Roy Bennetts ongoing treason trial that reduced me to tears of mirth. Not much to laugh about there you might think but Perekayi Mutsetse turned out to be an IT expert whose knowledge of computer technology was so slight as to be laughable. He had absolutely no clue what was meant by a hacker, he had never heard the term he told the court. You mean to tell this court that you have never heard of the hackers who have for years hacked into the Pentagon website? Mutsetse was asked by the defence counsel. In response the hapless expert asked What is the Pentagon? In fact, so great was the mans ignorance that the judge was forced to remind Mutstese that it was actually his job as a witness to answer the questions not ask them! As he left the witness box, this expert had the temerity to address the learned judge with the following words, Ndinotendai nokutambisa nguva yangu or Thanks for wasting my time a remark which should certainly have earned him a stern reprimand at least but the docile judge let it pass without a word. It transpires that the man was in fact nothing more than a cable layer and not the Provincial Engineer with Africom as the prosecution had claimed!
Today, tears of mirth have been replaced by indignation as I hear that the AG intends to call another expert to show that the emails in question between Roy Bennett and Peter Hitchman are genuine evidence of a plot to commit sabotage as the prosecution claims. This is not prosecution, it is persecution claimed Bennetts defence counsel – but then we all knew that from the start of this ridiculous farce of a trial. Once again the trial is deferred while the judge goes away to think about, or be told by his masters, what to do next. The fact is that the state will go to any lengths to get a conviction against Roy Bennett. What seemed at first laughable is now revealed for what it is, a contemptible misuse of the courts aided by an ambitious and self-serving Attorney General and a docile judge. The aim is to put Robert Mugabes opponents behind bars; Bennetts trial has nothing to do with justice and truth but everything to do with locking up your opponents. The time-honoured dictum of innocent until proven guilty has no meaning for the likes of AG Johannes Tomana, his task is to please his master, Robert Mugabe.
While this battle was being waged in the High Court, out on the streets hundreds of banner-waving Zanu PF youths accompanied by the police were marching to the US Embassy ostensibly to voice their rage at the continuing sanctions. In reality, their target was Morgan Tsvangirai and the MDC. Rumours that they had been fed liquor and mbange may or may not be true but their highly inflammatory comments about the MDC Prime Minister certainly suggest that they are the forerunners in what promises to be a violent onslaught on the former opposition party in the run-up to elections. A photographer attempting to capture the Youth march on film was kidnapped and held for two hours by the marchers. What possible reason could they have to confiscate Manyeres film unless they did not want the country and the world to see the highly personal and insulting anti-Tsvangirai messages written on their banners?
Out in the rural areas there are reports of torture bases being set up at various centres around the country, another reminder that Mugabe and Zanu PF have not changed their ways despite being in a Government of National Unity. Door-to door visits in Epworth by Zanu PF thugs to track down MDC supporters is more evidence of the use of violence as a political weapon. One hopeful sign occurred this week, however. At a meeting in Masvingo addressed by Zanu PF bigwigs, the crowd responded to the usual slogans of Pasina MDC, Pasina Tsvangirai with outspoken complaints, questioning why such slogans were necessary when the country now has a Unity government. Perhaps people are beginning to see through Zanu PFs hypocrisy and greed at last.
And on the subject of greed, the diamond saga goes on. One look at the board members of the company mining the diamonds reveals what a bunch of crooks they are. There is an Israeli diamond smuggler who has served time in an Angolan prison, a white former mercenary in Sierra Leone and a man wanted in Thailand for diamond fraud. Who was it who said you could tell the calibre of a man by the company he keeps!
So while Zimbabwe struggles on in near darkness and even courts are operating by candlelight, Robert Mugabe and his cohorts continue to plunder the countrys mineral wealth. We learn this week that it was the power company Zesa which provided Mugabe with the millions he needed to buy the war vets loyalty back in 1997, just before the land invasions began in earnest. Speaking of land invasions, I had another moment of mirth when I read this week that Stan Mudenge the Minister of Higher Education, is attempting to push the war vets off his stolen farm. Anyone on that farm is there illegally because I own Chikore Farm declared Mudenge. No doubt the Honourable Minister can prove ownership of his stolen farm with the necessary Title Deeds? With the Indigenisation Law coming into force on March 1st, some fierce ownership battles lie ahead I suspect. No laughing matter there.
Yours in the (continuing) struggle PH. aka Pauline Henson author of Case Closed published in Zimbabwe by Mambo Press, Going Home and Countdown political detective stories set in Zimbabwe and available from www.lulu.com
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