”If South Africa wants to send me back to Zimbabwe it would be a death sentence,” former Zimbabwean opposition MP Roy Bennett told the Mail & Guardian Online in Johannesburg on Tuesday.
Bennett fled to South Africa in March after being implicated in an arms find in Mutare, eastern Zimbabwe. His asylum application was rejected by the South African Department of Home Affairs and he is now waiting to appeal against the department’s decision.
He said he fears for his life in South Africa because the Zimbabwean government ”will go to any lengths” to get what they want — this after South African authorities turned down his request for asylum.
He told the M&G Online: ”I’ve heard of cases where political activists have been kidnapped and taken back to Zimbabwe [when they’ve fled the country].”
In March, Zimbabwean authorities found an arms cache in Mutare. They then linked Bennett to the cache.
Bennett denied being involved in the arms cache and said: ”This whole arms thing was fabricated … it was pretty obvious that their prime target was me. All the people that were arrested were forced into making statements implicating me.”
He believes the refusal of the South African government to grant asylum is ”obviously because they’re ill-informed and don’t understand the situation in Zimbabwe. I was shocked when I saw their response.”
If South Africa still denies Bennett asylum after his appeal, he said, ”it would then feel to me that there is no justice … and they are simply ignoring the truth. Obviously it would be very disappointing.”
His asylum application was rejected by the Department of Home Affairs on the grounds that he did not face persecution in Zimbabwe.
An extract from his letter of rejection states: ”There is really no evidence indicating that you’re [sic] questioning or prosecution by the authorities would amount to persecution. Surely the courts in Zimbabwe are impartial and are able to assert the rights of individuals. [Opposition Movement for Democratic Change leader] Morgan Tsvangirai’s recent trial is the case in point; on October 2005 he was acquitted of treason.
”Therefore, objectively, on the fact apparently prevailing there is no real risk of you being persecuted should you go back to your country of nationality.”
Nkosana Sibuyi, spokesperson of the Department of Home Affairs, told the M&G Online on Tuesday that Bennett’s application for asylum could have been accepted if he were to be persecuted upon his return to Zimbabwe.
”Whether or not he will be persecuted when he returns [to Zimbabwe], that we don’t know. The department does not deal with diplomatic relations. The Department of Foreign Affairs does that,” he said.
The second-highest number of refugees seeking asylum in South Africa comes from Zimbabwe, said Sibuyi. ”They’re number two on our list.”
Bennett also went on to say: ”The threat of abduction, [being] taken back to Zimbabwe, the threat of execution, the threat of it looking like a robbery, those are the threats my family and myself face here in South Africa.”
He said his family is very sad that they have left Zimbabwe, and his daughter often asks him: ”Can’t you sneak me home? I just want to go home for two weeks. Is there any way you can get me into the country? I just want to see my friends.”
”It’s very difficult for her. Very difficult,” said Bennett.
He added: ”If you look at how the regime deals with opposition leaders, they try to destroy you stage by stage and try to get you to withdraw from participating in opposition politics. The first stage was to dispossess me of everything that I own. The second stage was to arrest me, to torture me and to beat me. The third stage was to imprison me.
”They were hoping that I would come out of imprisonment and become quiet and understand that they were serious in what they were doing.
”But, instead, when I came out of prison I felt more committed and became more active than I’ve ever been before. So I think they realised that I’m more of a threat and they’ll stop at no lengths to get rid of me.”
Bennett was sentenced in 2004 to a year’s imprisonment by the country’s Parliament for pushing Minister of Justice Patrick Chinamasa to the floor after the minister accused Bennett’s ancestors of being thieves.
Bennett feels the South African government has done nothing substantial to help the people of Zimbabwe.
”If anything, they’ve helped to perpetuate the regime by having quiet diplomacy and not speaking out on the truth of the real situation in Zimbabwe. Of the corruption, of the total breakdown of the rule of law, of the institutionalised theft and violence — they remain quiet about it. Yet, looking at their struggle and where they came from, if anybody should appreciate more what it is to live under a totalitarian rule and corruption and institutionalised force, the South African government should be more aware of it than anybody.”
The South African government needs to recognise the MDC as the official opposition, he continued. ”We can’t be pushed aside; we are the legitimate opposition in Zimbabwe.”
Bennett said it’s only a matter of time before the people in Zimbabwe react to their plight.
”They live in despair, have no hope and are totally demoralised. As the situation gets tougher, so the people become more desperate. In every totalitarian rule in the world, when inflation levels hit the levels of inflation in Zimbabwe, the people react. There is huge frustration with the government in Zimbabwe,” he said.
The country is in the throes of its worst economic crisis, with inflation having already crossed the 1 000% mark. Unemployment is said to stand at 70% and there are chronic fuel shortages.
He said MDC representatives advised him to leave the country and go into exile. ”I’d be no good to people sitting in a prison cell or dead. The decision was made for me; it was not my decision.
”I personally saw the [Zimbabwean] minister of state security on television saying that he’ll even eliminate these people [involved in the arms cache]. So, it’s a very real threat. I know the lengths that they’ve been to before. I knew that it was a one-way ticket had I stuck around,” he said.
Bennett feels sadness, rather than anger, towards the Zimbabwean government. ”I had to walk away for the fourth time in my life from everything I own. I think the truth needs to be known about what is happening in Zimbabwe and about the travesty of justice. There’s a travesty of governance.”
He said he will only consider returning to Zimbabwe once Mugabe has stepped down.
Bennett will remain in Johannesburg while his appeal is heard. — Sapa