White farmers sponsoring Zanu-PF says MDC-T's Roy Bennett

Exiled MDC-T treasurer-general Roy Bennett claims there is a network of white commercial farmers that have resigned themselves to sponsor Zanu-PF with money in order to keep their farms.

Bennett made the claims on Tuesday during a public lecture to Rhodes scholars at Rhodes House, Oxford, in the United Kingdom.

He said white farmers like him who snubbed Zanu-PF's cash demands were victimised, while those who supported the party financially were spared.

"There is a relatively small but very significant network of whites that work closely with Zanu PF - the message will come down from on high — 'he is one of us; leave him alone'," said Bennett.

"Among those who became 'one of us' are people who used to bust sanctions for Ian Smith during the war, while others were closely connected to South African intelligence during apartheid.

"Still others include former members of the Selous Scouts, the Rhodesian Special Forces unit that Zanu-PF charges with more wartime atrocities than anybody else. Roy Bennett, too, could have been 'one of us' if he had helped milk the cow," he said.

He also described Zanu-PF's indigenisation policy as racist.

"The official definition of an indigenous Zimbabwean is overtly racist - 'for use by non-whites only' as the apartheid government would have put it, and some of Zanu-PF's most important partners, co-sponsors of the current economic anarchy are whites," said Bennett.

Zanu-PF national spokesperson Rugare Gumbo, however, denied the allegations saying Zanu PF funded its programmes from its own projects.

"It is all nonsense. We are not a party which is sponsored by Western powers like the British, Americans, or even local farmers," said Gumbo.

"The money which we generate comes from our own sources and the whites that were allowed to remain in the country were allowed to do so on the basis of their contribution to the economy and productivity," said Gumbo.

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