On those rare occasions when Zimbabwe it to the news, I think of the courageous Roy Bennett.
Bennett is the opposition MP who was sentenced to one year’s hard labour for shoving President Robert Mugabe’s justice minister during a parliamentary session after the minister had called Bennett’s father and grandfather, thieves and murderers.
Bennett readily apologized, but without the courtesy of a court trial, was taken from his family and sent to prison by the government.
Thinner, a little worse for the wear and relieved to have survived a Zimbabwean prison to return to his beloved wife, Bennett was in Toronto last summer.
Released from gaol only a month before, Bennett had received the customary release gratuity of six Zimbabwean dollars for his “re-entry” into society. a box of matches in Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe costs Z$1,000.
In prison, he saw the return of a cellmate who had been severely beaten by guards, all for having been caught with a single match.
Bennett’s coffee ranch was confiscated by Mugabe’s dreaded ZaNU-PF. The former MP, who was media dubbed “the reluctant politician” because he had to be coaxed into candidacy for public office in 2000, has been to hell and back.
“I lost everything, but gained everything,” he told a Toronto gathering of friends at the Spoke Club.
“With lots of time to think, I learned that in life possessions are nothing compared to people.”
Most of the prisoners he left behind upon his release cannot afford lawyers to fight for their freedom. They languish, lonely in prison, subsisting on three meals of daily gruel, and their relatives, part of the starving masses in a country whose currency is so devalued by inflation that it has become virtually worthless, can’t even afford the bus fare to visit them.
Some of Bennett’s prison stories were touching. Fresh fruit and vegetables are rare in present day Zimbabwe and rarer still for political prisoners. The relatives of one of his fellow prisoners somehow got to the prison after a one-year lapse. They brought their family member three apples and one banana, which he immediately brought to an overwhelmed Bennett.
The Mugabe regime may be killing their own people with starvation and keeping prisons swelling with political prisoners who are forced to sit on their haunches or bottoms when in the presence of government officials. But in these soul-killing Zimbabwean times, the regime has not been able to kill off human hope and dignity.
“Even the prison guards would do anything to see Mugabe go,” said Bennett.
With feet held up backwards, lying face down, prisoners are punished by being beaten with rubber on their soles. Barely able to move, they soon stand painfully upward with a hope and dignity that refuse to die.
During Bennett’s time in prison, another election came and went. Wife, Heather stood in for her husband in a Mugabe election victory that that had nothing to do with the ballot box.
Incredibly, while his own people continue to suffer hunger pangs, Mugabe was invited to Rome by the United Nations to speak about world hunger.
Even the animals are victims of Mugabe’s wanton destruction.
Sickened by their task, veterinarians have had to kill off most of the pet population, as their owners can’t feed them.
and now in Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe, it’s the wholesale death of wild animals.
Game wardens report the heartbreaking reality of animals fighting each other to get to the shallow water at some of the few bores where water is left.
as the sun beats down during the year’s hottest season in africa’s most densely populated game park, water from underground bores is now available only infrequently because Zimbabwe has run out of money to fix engines pumping it to the surface.
Thirty-three buffalos died near one water hole last week from dehydration.
Despot that he is, Mugabe does have cash for luxury vehicles.
at the same location where the animals are dropping from thirst, are 10 brand new 4x4s for executives. The luxury vehicles cost far more than service and repairs needed for the engines that pump water for the wildlife.
While he was addressing a UN assembly in Rome about hunger, people back home were starving and wild animals were dying of thirst.
The only organization on earth that honours the despot of Zimbabwe is the hypocritical United Nations.
Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com
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