‘Sharpest thorn’ in ex-leader’s side mourned

HARARE, Zimbabwe — He was called the “sharpest thorn” in Robert Mugabe’s side. Zimbabwe on Friday mourned Roy Bennett, a white founding member of the main opposition party who died Thursday with his wife, Heather, in a helicopter crash in the United States.

With his fluent Shona, earthy manner and passion for political change in the southern African nation, Bennett won a devoted following among black Zimbabweans. He was known as “Pachedu,” meaning “one of us” in Shona.

His death comes as Zimbabwe sees dramatic change. Mugabe shocked the world by resigning in November after 37 years in power, under pressure from the military and ruling party.

Now President Emmerson Mnangagwa seeks to leave his mentor Mugabe’s shadow, open the once-prosperous nation to the world after years of sanctions over human rights abuses and secure his legacy in what he vows will be free and fair elections in a few months’ time.

Bennett until the end remained a vocal critic of Mugabe, who had led Zimbabwe since its independence in 1980 and oversaw a country whose glow of optimism faded under allegations of mismanagement, rigged elections and harsh treatment of perceived dissent.

The opposition leader’s death was a “huge and tragic loss,” said Obert Gutu, spokesman for Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change opposition party. Tendai Biti, a prominent opposition leader and a former finance minister, called it “a blow to our struggle.”

Bennett had won a parliamentary seat in a rural constituency despite being white, angering Mugabe and his ruling ZANU-PF party. He surprised many with the win at a time when the ruling party had a stranglehold on rural areas and had gone on a demonization campaign of the country’s white minority.

But well before joining politics, Bennett was already a hugely popular figure in the Chimanimani area of eastern Zimbabwe. He often filled in where the government failed to provide, using his own resources to repair roads and other local infrastructure and pay school fees for underprivileged children.