South Africa has refused asylum to white Zimbabwean opposition politician Roy Bennett who fled his country two months ago amid fears for his life, the home affairs department said on Friday.
Bennett, a former member of parliament for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), had requested asylum in South Africa on the grounds that he was the victim of political persecution.
He fled Zimbabwe in March after police sought to question him over the discovery of an arms cache that security agents claimed was to be used to overthrow President Robert Mugabe's government.
"His application for asylum was not approved," home affairs spokesperson Nkosana Sibuyi said.
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Bennett is appealing the decision, said Jacob van Garderen of South Africa's Lawyers for Human Rights, who is helping Bennett make his case.
A rights organisation representing Zimbabweans living abroad criticised the decision and expressed concern that Bennett could be tortured if sent back to Zimbabwe.
"The South African government's stance regarding the self-evident case of Roy Bennett is not only callous, but also smacks of the hypocrisy that characterises the government of President Mbeki's approach to the Zimbabwean crisis," said Gabriel Shumba, director of the Zimbabwe Exiles Forum (ZEF).
"ZEF strongly urges the South African government to review its decision, especially because the decision is blind to international, continental and even South African laws for international protection," Shumba said in a statement.
The home affairs department noted that Bennett had the right to appeal the decision. "I obviously cannot comment on what the Zimbabwean government will do to him," said Sibuyi.
The asylum request from Bennett, a vocal Mugabe opponent, came as South Africa was struggling to keep afloat its diplomatic efforts to steer Zimbabwe out of economic and political crisis.
A senior member of the opposition MDC, Bennett served eight months in prison for shoving Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa to the floor during a rowdy exchange over land reform in parliament.
Bennett lost his large coffee plantation in eastern Zimbabwe during Mugabe's land reform programme, launched in 2000, which saw nearly 4 000 of the 4 500 white farmers evicted from their land which was given to landless black people.
Following his release from prison in June of last year, Bennett returned to opposition politics and was elected treasurer in March of one faction of the split MDC led by Morgan Tsvangirai.
His latest problems arose after the discovery last month of a huge arms cache, in which a white ex-soldier Mike Peter Hitschmann was identified as being implicated.
State authorities said Hitschmann, whom they described as a member of a shadowy organisation called the Zimbabwe Freedom Movement (ZFM), was involved in stashing arms at various locations in the country.
State media reports said a Kalashnikov 47 assault rifle, seven Uzi machine guns, four FN rifles, 11 shotguns, six CZ pistols, four revolvers, 15 tear gas canisters and several thousand rounds of ammunition had been found at Hitschmann's home.
The MDC has denied any links to Hitschmann and claims he is a member of the police reserves. - Sapa-AFP
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