By Glyn Hunter, Mike Campbell Foundation
It all began with the dream of being back on the steps of a building in Windhoek. It took a horse called Tsedeq, a mule named Nikao, two more horses, Stardust and Johnny Depp, and a journey of about 2,000km to get there.
It took back roads, tracks through deep rural areas – on a few stages traversing lion and elephant country, walking and riding through drought-stricken districts, and the help of remarkable strangers all along the route to reach those steps.
It was the suggestion of a judge that planted the seed for this challenging journey of around 4 million steps, and it all began 23 years previously.
Ben and Tsedeq’s send-off at the entrance to Mount Carmel farm on 28 November 2023
The beginning
Ben Freeth is the executive director of the Mike Campbell Foundation, but in 2,000 he lived on his father-in-law, Mike Campbell’s Mount Carmel farm in Chegutu, Zimbabwe, with his wife and their three children.
In February 2000, a national referendum was held on the adoption of a new constitution which would have strengthened President Mugabe’s power and enabled him to confiscate white-owned farm land without compensation.
Mugabe lost the referendum and retribution was immediate. White-owned commercial farms were invaded by war-veterans and militia who perpetrated acts of shocking violence, including murder and arson, causing a total breakdown of law and order.
It was a terrifying time for the Campbell and Freeth families, as well as their workers, as they were constantly harassed and threatened by a member of Mugabe’s ruling party elite and his thugs.
Camping with Tsedeq in the bush in western Zimbabwe
Abduction
After various unsuccessful court challenges due to the judiciary being captured, Mike Campbell sought relief from the regional court of justice, the Southern African Development Community’s SADC Tribunal in Windhoek, Namibia in 2007.
However, the violence continued relentlessly and in June 2008, Mike, his wife, Angela and Ben were abducted and brutally beaten up at one of Mugabe’s youth militia camps. It was only through their own prayers, as well as those of family members and friends, that they survived this appalling ordeal.
Ben wrote in his book, Mugabe and the White African, published in 2011: “By then a huge number of people were praying for us. Miraculously, fear did not enter my head at all…. I made my peace with God and said to him, ‘If I’m going to die and be with you today, I am ready. But if you’ve still got work for me to do here, I’m ready for that too’….”
Ben walking with his borrowed mule, Nikao, along the Caprivi Strip in Namibia
“It was then that the miracle happened… I saw a leg right in front of my face… reached out and touched it and said, ‘May the Lord Jesus bless you’….”
Soon afterwards, the beatings stopped. They were then loaded into a vehicle and dumped near the town of Kadoma, between two churches. It was midnight. Remarkably, one of the abductors apologised.
However, Mike and Ben did not withdraw from the SADC Tribunal court case and on 28 November 2008, the Tribunal held that the farm invasions were illegal and racist and that Mike Campbell and the 77 additional farmers who joined the case should receive compensation.
As the court cases mounted against Mugabe, he persuaded the SADC heads of state to close down the Tribunal in 2012.
Ben and Starlight enjoying the hospitality of Duppie and Andrea du Plessis in Namibia
The “Long Ride for Justice”
To raise the profile of the need to restore the Tribunal for citizens throughout the SADC region, Ben embarked on his “Long Ride for Justice”.
On 28 November 2023, the fifteenth anniversary of the historic Tribunal judgment, Ben and his horse, Tsedeq were given a warm send-off by friends on horseback from the entrance to Mount Carmel farm. Ben and Tsedeq completed the arduous 800km trek west from the farm to Kazungula, Zimbabwe’s border with Namibia, Botswana and Zambia, on 21 December.
A welcoming party greets Ben and Johnny in Grootfontein
The second leg of the journey began at the Ngoma Bridge border post on the eastern end of Namibia’s Caprivi Strip/Zambezi Region on 2 February 2024.
With the unstinting support of strangers along the route and Namibian farming families throughout the commercial farming section, Ben was able to achieve his goal.
Horse party riding with Ben and Johnny into Windhoek
On 18 March, Ben, his horse, Johnny Depp and supporters carrying banners, walked to the steps of Windhoek’s SADC Tribunal building where they were joined by representatives of regional organisations who signed the memorandum to SADC calling for the re-opening of the Tribunal.
Then, together with one of the Namibian lawyers from the Campbell court case, Ben pinned his prayer calling for justice to the door of the Tribunal building and his “Long Ride for Justice” was finally complete.
Ben and Johnny arrive at the former seat of the SADC Tribunal on 18 March 2024
The signed memorandum to SADC calling for the reinstatement of the SADC Tribunal
Ben’s prayer taped to the door of the SADC Tribunal building
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Date published: 26/07/2024
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