Mugabe Already Moving Against Opposition Day After Government Sworn In

It didn't take long for the thug Robert Mugabe to begin going after the political opposition. A day after taking office under a power sharing agreement, the number three person in the opposition party, Roy Bennett, was arrested by security forces and held under suspicion of plotting against Mugabe.

Authorities picked up Mr. Bennett, the treasurer general of the Movement for Democratic Change and the nominee to become deputy agriculture minister, at a small airport in Harare, likely in connection with accusations dating back years that linked him to a plot to destabilize Mr. Mugabe’s government — accusations he has denied.

Mr. Bennett was about to board a charter flight to Johannesburg, where he has lived in exile in recent years, for a celebration of his 52nd birthday on Monday, his wife Heather said in a telephone interview. He had planned to fly back to Harare to be sworn in on Wednesday along with the other deputy ministers appointed by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change.

“I spoke to him just an hour ago,” Mrs. Bennett said Friday afternoon. “Obviously, he’s been worried the whole time he’s been in Zimbabwe, but Morgan had said to him it would be fine to fly out.”

Mugabe was never going to give up power willingly and the opposition led by Tsvangirai had no choice but to deal with Mugabe and allow him to hold on to power. That means that the MDC will continue to be harassed by Mugabe's thugs. Meanwhile, the Zimbabwean people continue to suffer the ill-effects of Mugabe's social and economic policies that have brought the nation to ruin.