Daily News Channel
One of Zimbabwe’s top opposition politicians remained in police custody Thursday as his fellow deputy ministers were being sworn in to join the new unity government led by President Robert Mugabe. Deputy Agriculture Minister-designate Roy Bennett has been in prison on charges of terrorism, banditry and sabotage since last week .
Roy Bennett, the former Zimbabwean opposition activist who was arrested Friday shortly before he was due to become a Cabinet minister, has been charged with conspiracy to commit banditry, sabotage and terrorism, his lawyer told CNN. The Movement for Democratic Change nominated Bennett to be deputy minister of agriculture in a national unity government with President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party, which has ruled the country since independence in 1980. Bennett was arrested on Friday while on his way to South Africa, where he has been living for three years
Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was sworn in as prime minister of Zimbabwe Wednesday as part of a new unity government that Zimbabweans hope will signal an end to the political and economic crises that have gripped the nation for months. The unity government is the result of a power-sharing agreement reached in September between Tsvangirai — the leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) — and President Robert Mugabe after months of squabbling about the results of elections earlier in the year