THE MDC was caught-up in a policy muddle last night over how the party responds to the indictment of Roy Bennett on terrorism charges.
An official in the Prime Minister’s office told the AFP news agency on Thursday that Morgan Tsvangirai had “suspended the council of ministers meeting and any government appointments until the Bennett issue is resolved,” but hours later, this was denied by Tsvangirai’s official spokesman, James Maridadi.
Maridadi said it was untrue Tsvangirai had “cancelled” the council of ministers’ meeting to protest Bennett’s detention on Wednesday, insisting he “merely postponed it”.
Maridadi said: “The Prime Minister will not protest against himself -- he is the head of government and will not protest against himself, I do not see that happening.
“He had another pressing engagement that could not wait but the ministers’ council meeting could wait."
The contradicting statements betrayed intense debate in the MDC over how to respond to Bennett’s latest incarceration – with radicals in the party calling for a complete withdrawal from a power sharing government formed in February, while others supported a partial disengagement with President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF party.
An extra-ordinary meeting of the MDC’s national council was called for Friday “to spotlight on outstanding issues in the power sharing agreement, especially the indictment of Roy Bennett,” said spokesman Nelson Chamisa.
Attempts by Tsvangirai to meet Mugabe and his chief negotiator, Patrick Chinamasa, drew a blank this week. A senior Zanu PF official told New Zimbabwe.com there was “no need to meet over Bennett”, accusing the MDC of interfering with the judiciary.
“They (MDC) want to intimidate the judiciary, politicise it, interfere with it and undermine the rule of law,” the official said.
Many in the MDC are thought to favour a partial disengagement from the government, which would include a boycott of cabinet meetings chaired by President Robert Mugabe.
But this position drew fire from a leading critic of President Mugabe and MDC ally, who dismissed it as “senseless”.
“It doesn’t make sense. It has no meaning,” said Lovemore Madhuku, chairman of the Constitutional Assembly pressure group. “If you are still in government, that is engaging Zanu PF because that government is an inclusive government. There is no concept of running a ministry which is different from being in government.”
He added: “This is all part of the thinking that the Zimbabwean public and everyone else is still so gullible to keep hearing these antics. They (MDC) must make up their minds, either they are in government or they are completely out of it. There is no concept of a half-way house.”
Predictably, the MDC was getting no sympathy from Zanu PF, with lawmaker Jonathan Moyo accusing the party of being “childish”.
“The notion that the rule of law is what the MDC says it is has become repugnant. The time has come for them and their western creators to understand and respect the fact that the rule of law is what the court says it is,” Moyo said.
President Mugabe, who has refused to swear-in Bennett as Deputy Agriculture Minister – a position given to him by Tsvangirai -- until he is cleared of terrorism charges, is said to be quietly seething at what he sees as an attempt by the MDC to interfere with the courts.
Moyo said: “Even people from mars know that Roy Bennett was waiting for his day in court. Now that day has come, and suddenly you have the MDC running scared. Do they know something we don’t?
“There are up to 10 black MDC MPs who have been in and out of court, but we haven’t heard threats of pulling out of the government. So why should a whole country be held at ransom by one white man?”
A bail hearing is set to be held for Bennett on Friday.