(adds Tsvangirai quotes) By Philimon Bulawayo MUTARE, Zimbabwe, Feb 18 (Reuters) - A Zimbabwe court threw out one charge on Wednesday against a senior MDC party official accused of planning terrorism in a case testing the credibility of a unity government with President Robert Mugabe. Roy Bennett, named to be deputy agriculture minister in the new administration, was arrested before ministers were sworn in last Friday on charges of illegally possessing firearms for purposes of trying to commit acts of insurgency, banditry and terrorism. He was also accused of violating the Immigration Act by trying to leave the country illegally. Lawyers for Bennett had asked the court hearing his case in the eastern city of Mutare to drop the charges. They said a court had thrown out similar charges in a related case in 2006. "There is reasonable suspicion that on the first count (of insurgency, terrorism) he committed the offence. He will be placed on remand," magistrate Livingstone Chipadza ruled on Wednesday. He dismissed the immigration charge, however. Long-time rivals Mugabe and Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai last week formed a government, with Tsvangirai taking the post of prime minister. Tsvangirai said Bennett's arrest undermined the government and efforts to stabilise the economy. "We've told Mugabe that by doing this, you are doing everything to undermine this government. But undermining this government is to undermine the stabilisation programme," Tsvangirai told MDC supporters at a dinner to mark the party's 10th anniversary. "But we're on course. We have committed ourselves to a road-map starting with negotiations, a transitional government to produce a new people-driven constitution and then free elections." Bennett recently returned to Zimbabwe from exile in South Africa after fleeing nearly three years ago because police wanted to question him over the discovery of an arms cache. The former white farmer is a founding MDC party member who was one of Mugabe's most outspoken critics. "ARREST UNDERMINES GOVERNMENT" Zimbabwe is a country in crisis because of soaring inflation, food shortages and a cholera outbreak that has killed more than 3,700 people since August. On Wednesday, striking teachers rejected foreign currency allowances offered by the government to state workers, vowing to press on with a boycott that has meant many schools have failed to open for the new year. Nurses and doctors have also walked out from state hospitals. Newly appointed Finance Minister Tendai Biti of the MDC told reporters the government had revised a plan to give all civil servants grocery vouchers and would now pay each worker $100. Biti said government had started paying soldiers in the barracks on Tuesday and would pay teachers, who make up the bulk of Zimbabwe's estimated 130,000 civil service, on Wednesday. But Tendai Chikowore, head of the Zimbabwe Teachers' Association, told Reuters the offer fell below expectations. A smaller teachers' group wants as much as $2,300 in salaries. "I don't think a flat allowance for all civil servants will be acceptable without addressing the salary issue," Chikowore said. Biti said using multiple currencies would help drive Zimbabwe's inflation down from around 231 million percent. Figures were last published in July and he said release of the data would resume in March. "Now that the country has embraced the use of multiple currencies which are relatively stable, government expects all businesses to act responsibly on pricing of goods and services in order to create confidence in the economy," Biti said. (Additional reporting by Nelson Banya in Harare) (macdonald.dzirutwe@reuters.com; +263 4 799 112)
Zimbabwean women carry their children to distribution centre for insecticide-impregnated mosquito nets in rural Gutu, 300km south-east of Harare, February 12, 2009. Rainy season floods could make it even harder to ...
