SW Radio Africa news - The Independent Voice of Zimbabwe
A benefits fraud case uncovered in the United Kingdom is the latest drama involving the family of Zimbabwe’s first president, the late Canaan Banana, who himself left a legacy of scandal matched by no other public official. According to Newsday newspaper his son, Michael Banana, is being investigated for fraud by the Stockport Council in Greater Manchester, where he is accused of receiving cash for a council house while living elsewhere with his wife Caroline, who he claimed to have split up with. It is alleged that Caroline herself is a benefits cheat, despite winning £95,000 on a television game show. Michael appeared with her on the programme and pictures of them together on holiday were found on Facebook by investigators. Newsday said the Stockport Council “is now pursuing him for a housing benefit overpayment of £2,485, which he is appealing against. They say unless he pays up they will take him to court.” The Banana family has known scandal since the days when their father Canaan Sodindo, was exposed as a sexual predator who abused several of his own male staff. He was known to love listening to music by Dolly Parton during his sexual exploits. These sexual misdeeds were first exposed by a former aide, Jefta Dube, during the course of his own trial in 1997. He had shot to death a fellow police officer for teasing him as the “wife of Banana.” Dube alleged that he had been drugged and sodomized and turned into a sex slave while working for Banana. Dennis Benton from the London based Zimbabwe Vigil pressure group said although he did not know the details of Michael Banana’s case it was no surprise to hear that he had been granted asylum and was receiving benefits in the UK.“We have been on the streets for over 11 years and we see many of these people coming and going to Zimbabwe regularly and we know that they have connections to ZANU-PF,” Benton told SW Radio Africa Wednesday.“ZANU PF is now very active in this country and they make no bones about it. It’s rather disturbing to people who work with authentic refugees to find that our name is being besmirched by these chancers,” Benton said. He added: “Zimbabwe’s education system has gone down the drain and anyone with money and influence seeks to send their children abroad. And it’s not specifically a Zimbabwean question. Even Chinese rulers send their children to the West.” Zimbabweans are now questioning how Michael “Thabo” Banana and his wife secured asylum status in the UK. and qualified for benefits. Some reports say there was a pre-existing agreement allowing the Banana family to migrate. Many Zimbabweans remember when Canaan Banana, who was also a Methodist minister, was arrested and charged with sodomy in 1997. He was sentenced to ten years in prison but he fled to South Africa while out on bail. Banana later went back to Zimbabwe and served six months in an open prison before he died of cancer in 2003. He was not given hero status like other ZANU PF officials and has remained an embarrassment for Robert Mugabe, who is a notorious gay basher. A law was passed in 1982 forbidding jokes about the name Banana.