MONDAY 6.00PM:
FORMER Zimbabwean president Canaan Banana has denied allegations by three policemen, two air force officers, two secret service agents, a cook, a jobseeker and a hitchhiker that he either forced or attempted to force them to have sex with him.
Banana, 62, a former Methodist minister, was appearing in the Harare High Court on the first day of his trial on charges of sodomy, attempted sodomy and indecent assault.
According to the indictment, most of the men will claim in evidence that Banana invited them to his office in State House, required them to dance with him and then groped them. One of the men has alleged that neither punching nor threatening Banana with a firearm succeeded in deterring him; his shouting finally attracted the attention of Banana’s wife. Another says he pushed Banana into the State House swimming pool to escape, while a third had to jump out of a window.
The only complainant who can be named is a policeman, Inspector Jefta Dube, who was was jailed in February 1997 for shooting dead a colleague who called him “Banana’s gay wife”.
Advocate Chris Andersen, who is defending Banana, said many of the allegations have been “concocted” by the men.
The allegations, which first emerged in 1997, have been deeply embarassing for the government of President Robert Mugabe. In 1995 Mugabe launched an anti-gay campaign, denouncing homosexuals as “worse than dogs and pigs”.