Drop Bennet from Cabinet-Mugabe
President Robert Mugabe reportedly told Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai last week to drop Roy Bennet as Deputy Agriculture Minister if he is to be freed,sources say.
Metro has also established that the key people behind Bennet’s incarceration is Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa and Security Junior Minister Didymus Mutasa who benefited from Roy Bennet & Brothers ‘s Charleswood Estate farm.
Meanwhile Police last night arrested Livingstone Chipadze, the provincial magistrate, for allowing Roy Bennett, the incarcerated MDC top official, to deposit bail money with the clerk of court.
The provincial magistrate is being charged with criminal abuse of office.
Chipadze was arrested on Thursday night and is being held at the Mutare Central Police Station.
Human rights lawyer, Trust Maanda, said the arrest was illegal and a serious blow to the administration of justice.
“It is illegal to arrest a magistrate for doing his job. If they (State) are not happy with his ruling they are supposed to appeal to a higher court instead of arresting a magistrate. It is frightening for a magistrate to be arrested because he has passed a judgment that is not popular with the State,” Maanda said on Friday.
Magistrate Chipadze is accused of improperly allowing Bennett’s lawyers to deposit bail money and complying with other bail conditions on Tuesday.
After the bail money and his passport had been deposited at the Clerk of Court on Tuesday, a warrant of Bennett’s liberty was issued. But it was immediately seized by a senior prison official, Zondai Nyatsanza, who then disappeared with it.
It was not immediately clear when Chipadze will be taken to court.
Bennett, the MDC treasurer and nominee for the post of deputy minister of agriculture, faces charges of terrorism, insurgency, sabotage or banditry. He however denies the charges, saying they are politically motivated.
Bennett was granted bail by the High Court last week, but the Attorney General’s (AG) office immediately appealed against the ruling.
The AG’s office was not granted leave to appeal prompting them to approach the Supreme Court which ruled in their favour Thursday.
There was confusion on Tuesday after it remained uncertain whether the AG’s office would file their appeal at the Supreme Court prompting Bennett’s lawyers to comply with bail conditions imposed by the High Court.
In what could be more evidence that Bennet’s case is politically motivated,Metro has established that the prosecutor involved in the Bennet and Mukoko’s cases Christopher Mutangadura is a former ZANU PF ward chairman and the president of the shadowy Zimbabwe Congress of Students Union (ZICOSU) a strongly ZANU PF aligned student grouping meant to counter the Zimbabwe National Students Union (ZINASU).
The arrest of the provincial magistrate has sparked outrage in Mutare with most people questioning the sincerity of the unity government formed by President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF and the two MDC political parties led by Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara.
Posted by Gerald Harper
on March 6, 2009. Filed under Local News,Politics.
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