Two months after a bloodless coup removed Robert Mugabe, the country’s dictator of nearly 4 decades, in a bizarre coincidence, moments ago New Mexico authorities said the leader of the Zimbabwe opposition, and founding Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) treasurer, Roy Bennett, has been killed in a helicopter crash.
Roy Bennett
According to the Associated Press, State Police Lt. Elizabeth Armijo confirmed Bennett’s death Thursday, a day after a helicopter carrying him and five others went down in a mountainous rural area of northern New Mexico. Details of why the 60-year-old Bennett was in the area weren’t immediately available.
Obert Gutu, spokesman for the MDC-T opposition party, said the loss of Bennett, a white man who spoke fluent Shona and drew the wrath of former President Robert Mugabe, was tragic. Gutu says Bennett’s wife, Heather, also died.
The helicopter went down about 6 p.m. Wednesday near the Colorado state line, killing five and injuring a sixth person aboard.
Bennett won a parliamentary seat in a rural constituency despite being white, angering Mugabe and his ruling ZANU-PF party. He won a devoted following of black Zimbabweans for passionately advocating political change. He was known as “Pachedu,” meaning “one of us” in Shona and was often called the sharpest thorn in Mugabe’s side.
MDC-T vice president Nelson Chamisa told TimesLIVE that the opposition has lost a gallant son who wanted to see a new Zimbabwe: “He was a true democrat and really wanted to see the push for a free Zimbabwe‚” he said.
People’s Democratic Party leader Tendai Biti took to social media to express his dismay: “What a blow to our struggle. I can’t believe I will never speak to you again‚ Badze‚” he said‚ using one of Bennett’s nicknames.
A friend in political circles‚ David Coltart‚ described the Bennett’s as “two of Zimbabwe’s greatest patriots”.
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Bennett was based in South Africa on political asylum‚ granted in 2007. During his time in exile‚ he played a role in activism for Zimbabwe‚ and particularly the MDC‚ in South Africa.
In 2006 he became the treasurer general for the mainstream faction of the MDC‚ led by Morgan Tsvangirai. He was also a spokesman in South Africa and made regular interviews on behalf of the MDC, according to the Sunday Times.
He returned to Zimbabwe in 2009‚ and Tsvangirai wanted him as deputy agriculture minister – but former President Robert Mugabe refused to swear him in. He was later rearrested for treason‚ but then released. Afterwards‚ he left Zimbabwe for South Africa and never returned.
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Separately, AP reported that Zimbabwe’s new president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, said he plans to pay billions of dollars in compensation for land improvements to white farmers who lost their property in seizures almost two decades ago and may approach international bond markets to raise funds for infrastructure to revive the country’s moribund economy.
Mnangagwa, 75, sees resolving the land issue as a key step to end the southern African nation’s isolation that saw the economy halve in size during the past 18 years of the rule of former president Robert Mugabe.
“We will continue to compensate; it is going to cost a lot of money,” Mnangagwa said Thursday in an interview at his offices in Harare, the capital. “I believe it will come to billions down the line.”
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