Zimbabwe has freed from jail an outspoken white opposition lawmaker, Roy Bennett, who was serving a one-year jail sentence for shoving a minister to the ground, his lawyer said.
”He has been released. He was freed some 20 minutes ago,” said lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa, told AFP.
Bennett, then one of three white Zimbabweans who held seats in the last Parliament, served nine of the 12-month prison term, handed down by Parliament in October after he pushed Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa during a debate which touched on the land issue in Zimbabwe.
Prisoners in Zimbabwe are entitled to a one third remission of their jail term on condition of good behaviour.
Bennett, a commercial farmer and a member of the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party, pushed Chinamasa to the floor, after the minister accused Bennett’s ancestors of being ”thieves”.
A month ago, Bennett went before the country’s appeals court, the Supreme Court, to challenge the sentence and the validity of the special parliamentary committee which heard his case, saying it was dominated by ruling Zanu-PF deputies and was therefore biased against him.
During the hearing, a state lawyer Rumbidzai Gatsi initially conceded that the sentence imposed on Bennett was excesive, but later withdrew her statement.
Bennett was barred from contesting the March 31 elections. His wife Heather ran in his stead, but lost the seat to a ruling Zanu-PF candidate.
SA mission in Zim is ‘too small’
South Africa’s’ high commission in Zimbabwe is too small and as a result is unable to keep the South African government briefed on developments in the country, said Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Aziz Pahad in Pretoria on Tuesday.
”Our mission has been reporting, but given the … smallness of our mission we couldn’t fully get an understanding of what is really going on,” he said during an international affairs and peace and security briefing.
He said South Africa will wait for a United Nations report on the latest alleged bout of human rights abuses committed by the Zimbabwean government before taking ”bilateral” action.
Pahad was responding to questions on the destruction of squatter camps by the Zimbabwean government that has left tens of thousands homeless.
Admitting that 95% of information passing through the Foreign Affairs offices in Pretoria pertained to the instability in Zimbabwe, Pahad said they had also read all the articles on the internet but would have to wait for the United Nations report
before taking a decision.
Zimbabwe police have for the past five weeks reportedly used bulldozers and sledgehammers to demolish shacks and other unauthorised homes, destroy shop stalls and market areas and detain tens of thousands of people in what the government has described as a campaign to rid the country of squalor and crime.
Amid mounting criticism from the United States and Britain, United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan appointed an envoy who arrived in Zimbabwe on Sunday to assess the humanitarian impact of Operation Murambatsvina, which means ”Drive out Rubbish” and is linked Operation Restore Order.
UN envoy Anna Kajumulo Tibaijuka held meetings with the head of UN agencies in Harare and was expected to meet with President Robert Mugabe before touring settlements that were razed during the campaign.
Pahad said however his office was not left totally in the dark.
”We have come to understand what the concerns are or at least appreciate what the people are all talking about, but we have not been able to move successfully forward on this issue,” he said.
Responding to questions of whether South Africa shared the views made by an African Union spokesperson that the current situation in Zimbabwe was an internal matter, Pahad said his office was trying to find the person responsible for the statement.
”We are trying to ascertain the source of the comment by the AU’s spokesperson. However, we welcome the visit to Zimbabwe by the UN secretary general’s special envoy and will await her report before we can take any decisions on the matter,” he said.
He said he looked forward to the UN’s report that should be available within a few days. – Sapa