COMMENT - Real Zimbabweans see through the MDC and their rhodesian handlers like Peter Godwin. They are busy in Washington DC to call for more and continued sanctions against their own country and government, even under the new government of former VP and now President Mnangagwa. Why aren't they arrested for treason the second they set foot back in Zimbabwe? They are making foreign policy in a foreign country, testifying against their own country before foreign legislators, while they are the opposition? - MrK
(YOUTUBE) USA Wanted to Lift Zimbabwe Sanctions, WATCH Tsvangirai Delegation ask for more Pressure on Zim
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(NEWZIMBABWE) MDC-T denies Trump sanctions appeal
THE opposition MDC Alliance has rubbished claims that it urged the United States (US) administration to maintain sanctions against Zimbabwe.
The allegation follows a diplomatic campaign by Alliance officials Nelson Chamisa and Tendai Biti who are in the US to canvass international support ahead of next year’s crunch elections.
MDC-T spokesperson Obert Gutu said although his party believes the new government should implement political reforms, it does not believe in using sanctions to pressure the Emmerson Mnangagwa-led Harare administration.
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(NEWZIMBABWE) Zim sanctions to remain, says US govt
THE Trump administration will maintain sanctions the United States imposed against Zimbabwe despite the change of leadership in Harare, a senior official has confirmed.
Washington imposed a raft of sanctions against Zimbabwe nearly two decades ago supposedly to force then president Robert Mugabe to change course amid allegations of gross human rights abuses and electoral fraud.
Mugabe rejected the allegations, maintaining instead that Harare was being punished for its controversial land reforms which were meant, he argued, to correct historical injustices in ownership of the key resource.
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Labels: MDC TREASON, PETER GODWIN, SANCTIONS, TENDAI BITI
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(NEWZIMBABWE) Biti complicit in RBZ grand theft: Kereke
Strategic alliance ... Former RBZ chief Gideon Gono and his defence lawyer, Tendai Biti
09/01/2014 00:00:00
by Staff Reporter
BIKITA West legislator, Munyaradzi Kereke, has claimed that opposition MDC-T secretary general, Tendai Biti, was an accomplice in criminal activities at the central bank and cannot, therefore, act as legal counsel to former governor Gideon Gono.
Kereke wants the Constitutional Court to order a probe into his allegations that Gono looted about $40 million in State funds from the central bank.
The former RBZ chief, set to become a Zanu PF senator and long considered a confidant and financial adviser to President Robert Mugabe, recently pulled a surprise by hiring Biti to defend him in a development that also cost the editor of the State-run Herald newspaper his job.
Now Kekere, once a top advisor to Gono, claims the former finance minister had his fingers deep in the national cookie jar “which makes him a suspect and witness” in the case. Kereke says he is working on legal processes to have Biti barred from representing Gono.
“I am in the process of making the necessary legal applications for Biti to recuse himself from representing the second respondent to the extent that he is a legitimate witness on some of the matters I am raising in my application as much as he is also a suspect in the criminal case,” Kereke claims.
“A point of law to note is that second respondent and former minister of finance Biti have a common criminal case which they must together answer to.”
He said Biti had personally withdrawn International Monetary Fund (MF) cash given to the government and moved the money into a privately owned bank that later collapsed.
“The underlying background to this is that then minister of finance Tendai Biti, who now acts as legal counsel for (Gono) withdrew $150 million in funds from an RBZ account held at IMF without even the knowledge of the central bank,” Kereke averred. He claimed the money seemed to “thin” progressively as it was moved from one bank to another and later abused.
“Some of the funds were later abused at the combined hands of the second respondent and the ministry of finance under the express direction of Biti. The forensic audit report on Interfin Bank as already presented to the honourable court confirms this abuse,” he said.
During campaigns ahead of the general elections last year, President Mugabe claimed that the government was failing to account for at least $500 million in IMF cash.
“We had half a billion dollars from special drawing rights but we do not know what he (minister Biti) used it for. No money went to Bulawayo including Gweru, Mutare and Harare which came later. We also want to boost agriculture and mining,” Mugabe told supporters.
Biti however rejected the charges claiming instead that he had stopped Mugabe and his lieutenants in Zanu PF from pillaging the cash.
“They wanted to loot the fund and give it to their cronies. They were used to just taking like broiler chickens that feed like there is no tomorrow,” charged the former finance minister.
“The idea behind allocating the money through banks was to stop Mugabe from parcelling the money to his friends and relatives. It went too industry, infrastructure and that is what Zimbabweans are looking for.”
Meanwhile Kereke has also hit back at Gono's accusations that he is mentally unstable, declaring he was “extremely” sound.
“Quite to the contrary, I professionally hand-held the second respondent for at least 8 years as his advisor at the RBZ writing all monetary policy statements for Zimbabwe, carrying out macro and micro-economic policy research as well as preparing virtually all speeches for the second respondent and, more telling, assisting him with at least 99.9% of submissions for the whole of “his” academic work for the doctoral studies,” Kereke said.
He added: “If I were to be a near-lunatic as is suggested by (Gono) then it would be the two of us with him given that he comfortably took advice for eight years virtually on a daily basis from the alleged mentally retarded person in me.”
Approaching the ConCourt, Kereke added, showed he was a “diligent lunatic”.
Suggestions he was mentally unstable were“… false, provocative, malicious, cold-hearted and demeaning but amply telling on (Gono’s) own very advanced state of derangement, typical of fraudsters when cornered”.
Labels: CORRUPTION, GIDEON GONO, MUNYARADZI KEREKE, RBZ, TENDAI BITI
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(NEWZIMBABWE) Biti in withering attack on ‘ailing’ Mugabe
23/01/2014 00:00:00
by Staff Reporter
Another Tendai Biti meltdown. - MrK
MDC-T secretary general, Tendai Biti, has launched a withering attack on President Robert Mugabe, insisting the veteran leader was ailing and effectively exposing his rule to a possible coup.
Speaking at a panel discussion on the government’s new ZimAsset economic blueprint held at a Harare hotel Thursday evening, Biti rebuked Mugabe and his Zanu PF party for failing to respond to the country’s mounting social and economic challenges.
“We are paralysed by a crisis of leadership; that you can have the chief executive officer of the country at 90. I know that there has been debate about the president’s health but in my respectful submission, being 90 is illness on its own,” Biti said to loud laughter from a packed gallery.
Minutes earlier, the MDC-T legislator had been the subject of both laughter and consternation from the gallery when he inadvertently fell backwards on one of the executive rocking chairs reserved for the panellists on the podium. But that did not dissuade him from his diatribe against Mugabe.
He described Zimbabwe as a “vampire state” that was never going to redress its economic woes without resolving its crisis of legitimacy as well as charming the international community for assistance.
“This is a government that is founded on vicious circles of exclusion, slogans of hatred, slogans of attrition personified in the head of state,” he continued.
“The man goes to the United Nations, the man goes, ‘shame, shame, shame, shame, shame’. You go to the Heroes’ Acre, when you read the speech, you just wonder who has been the target of this speech.”
Turning to his successor Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa, Biti said: “You have got a new minister of finance. Everyone is under attack, John Robertson, even poor Makandiwa, bankers and so forth.”
The MDC-T chief called for the immediate repeal of government’s populist indigenisation laws, stemming of the current closure of companies and commitment to funding social services if the country was to reverse its economic slide.
He accused his erstwhile colleagues in the disbanded unity government of having a “broiler chicken syndrome” which pushes them to spend uncontrollably government’s scarce financial resources on meaningless foreign trips without taking a moment to meditate on its consequences.
“The biggest problem with Zanu PF is that they don’t understand money and the economy. They are functionally illiterate. They think that money grows on trees,” Biti said.
How silly, we all know that money is borrowed from the IMF and World Bank, now don't we? - MrK
“People just believe in spending, spending, spending. It’s like a broiler chicken. The broiler just eats. It doesn’t know why it’s eating. It eats itself to death. It’s consumption for the sake of consumption.
Spending spending spending, instead of borrowing, borrowing, borrowing. - MrK
“It’s oblivious of where the food is coming from. It just eats 24 hours a day. So they have got a broiler chicken syndrome, they are oblivious kuti mari inobva kupi.”
Biti said the country’s economic crisis had become untenable, creating conditions for a coup.
“Those of you who have studied coups on the African continent you will find one common thing that is evident in those coups. Number one, there would be no leadership. It doesn’t mean there is no head of State at the state palace.
“He would be there but he is dead. He can’t offer directions to the economic problems that are affecting the country. He is indifferent. It’s almost like he is living in another country and reading about our problems on Facebook. If you have that, you have got a challenge. We have that in Zimbabwe.
“Number two - coups will occur where there is exclusion, where particular people, person, tribes or whatever feel that democratic processes are no longer working and tirikudzvinyirirwa so we have no choice but to resort to undemocratic processes.
“Thirdly where coups occur, the economy is not functioning. So we have the ingredients of serious social dislocation in this country.”
The other panellists at the discussion were former finance minister and now opposition Mavambo/Kusile/Dawn leader Dr Simba Makoni, renowned economist Godfrey Kanyenze and gender equality activist Virginia Muwanigwa.
Labels: MDC, ROBERT MUGABE, TENDAI BITI
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(SUNDAY MAIL ZW) ‘Budget spells death of old economy’
Sunday, 22 December 2013 00:00
Sunday Mail Reporter
MDC-T leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai, under pressure from some Western diplomats, is frantically trying to convince some senior party members to gang up against secretary-general Mr Tendai Biti following his decision to agree to represent the former Governor of the Reserve Bank, Dr Gideon Gono, in a constitutional case filed by Dr Munyaradzi Kereke.
About two weeks ago, Dr Kereke filed a constitutional application citing the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission as the first respondent and Dr Gono as the second respondent in a case in which he is accusing the Commission of acting unconstitutionally by allegedly failing to probe allegations of abuse of office, corruption and theft against Dr Gono.
Following the filing of the case, Dr Gono, who is the Zanu-PF Senator-elect for Buhera, last week engaged lawyer Mr Biti to fight the allegations levelled against him by Dr Kereke, a move that has not been well received by some Western diplomats who would have preferred to see the MDC-T using the former RBZ boss to tarnish the image of Zanu-PF.
The MDC-T was founded and is funded by the British government together with the US administration. As a result, Western diplomats in the country play a key role in the affairs of the MDC-T.
It is understood that the pressure from the diplomats added to Mr Tsvangirai’s fury as he already had been angered by the decision that was taken by his subordinate without first making consultations with the party’s leadership.
Reports say an infuriated Mr Tsvangirai over the past few days has been making frantic calls to some senior party members, including Mr Douglas Mwonzora, Mr Chamisa, Ms Thokozani Khupe and Mr Lovemore Moyo, trying to convince them to condemn Mr Biti’s decision to defend Dr Gono in court.
Mr Tsvangirai is said to be arguing that while legally Mr Biti as a lawyer can represent any client of his choice, from a political point of view, the move was ill-timed and ill-advised.
MDC-T spokesperson Mr Mwonzora confirmed that indeed he had discussed the issue about Mr Biti representing Dr Gono with Mr Tsvangirai after it had been reported in the Press. Party organising secretary Mr Nelson Chamisa would neither deny nor confirm the tiff, referring all questions to Mr Luke Tamborinyoka, who is Mr Tsvangirai’s spokesperson.
Added Mr Chamisa: “It is better for Luke Tamborinyoka to comment on the issue.” Although Mr Tamborinyoka was not reachable yesterday, highly placed MDC-T sources privy to the ongoing power wrangles within the party, which is still smarting from an embarrassing thrashing during the July 31 harmonised elections, insist that Mr Tsvangirai is calling for Mr Biti to be held to account.
“Soon after the news broke out that Mr Biti would be representing Gono, there was a lot of traffic from some Western diplomats calling our leader expressing reservations over the move by the secretary- general which the majority view as ill-timed and ill-advised. However, even before the calls from these diplomats, Mr Tsvangirai was already livid at the decision.
He was furious that Biti took the decision without even consulting the party leadership despite the political undertones and overtones that will be brought about by this case.
“Mr Tsvangirai was asking why Biti was creating problems for the party. Although this is a constitutional case, from our standpoint this is a political case and we can’t just be too simplistic about it, considering that Biti is our secretary-general. The least Biti could have done is to consult the leadership rather than acting as a lone ranger. He should have taken advice on the political implications of this case,” said one top MDC-T official who refused to be named for fear of victimisation.
A prominent constitutional lawyer based in Harare who refused to be named for professional reasons said: “It’s Dr Gono’s right to chose a lawyer of his choice and it’s fine for my learned friend Biti to choose any client of his and I actually wish Biti the best. He is a good lawyer.
“However, after so many years in Government and away from practice, I think Biti may be rusty and he has his work cut out because he is going to have to punch above his weight in each round.
“Remember also that my learned friend in the past handled mainly criminal cases and this constitutional case may present some challenges. The criminal court is different from the constitutional court where he is going to come before a full bench of nine judges. It’s possible that Mr Biti might opt to instruct other advocates to handle this matter for him.
“Like I told you, Mr Biti is a good lawyer, but I think on this one, he is acting like a bantamweight boxer trying to go for the heavyweight division. Let’s see how things turn out.” Another lawyer, however, said the legal fraternity in Zimbabwe was a very “thin market” where specialising in one area is not common “so Biti should be able to find his way” in handling this constitutional case.
Efforts to get a comment from Mr Biti proved fruitless as he was unreachable on cellphone. However, he told the media last week that it was his right to choose clients of his choice.
Labels: BUDGET, MDC, MORGAN TSVANGIRAI, MUNYARADZI KEREKE, TENDAI BITI
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(NEWZIMBABWE) Moyo berates The Herald over Biti-Gono story
18/12/2013 00:00:00
by Staff Reporter
INFORMATION minister Jonathan Moyo dragged the State-run Herald newspaper over the coals Wednesday, accusing the Zanu PF-leaning publication of engaging in “political mischief propelled by cowardice&rdquo.;
Zimpapers, the Herald’s parent company, promptly announced that the paper’s editor, Caesar Zvayi, had been sent home on forced leave with “immediate effect.”
Moyo, whose ministry controls Zimpapers, was reacting to a story in the paper’s Wednesday edition which claimed that top Zanu PF officials were furious with former central bank governor, Gideon Gono.
According to the report, Gono had enraged the unnamed officials by hiring opposition MDC-T secretary general and former finance minister Tendai Biti to represent him in a Constitutional Court case where he is accused of corruption by his erstwhile adviser Munyaradzi Kereke, now an MP.
Kereke claims Gono looted millions of dollars from the central bank and wants the court to compel the anti-corruption commission to launch investigations.
Said Moyo in a statement: “The Herald’s undisguised smear campaign against Gono is based on quotations from faceless and nameless sources described as “senior Zanu PF officials and “a Zanu PF Politburo member with close ties to the Zimbabwe Defence Forces”.
“One does not need to be a rocket scientist to realise not only that the faceless and nameless sources in the unfortunate story are uncreative inventions but also that it is not possible for Kereke, who is clearly the main source of the scurrilous story, to be at one and the same time rolled into “senior Zanu PF officials” and “a Zanu PF Politburo member with close ties to the Zimbabwe Defence Forces.”
The Herald also claimed that one of the Zanu PF politburo members unimpressed with Gono had close links with the Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF).
This, Moyo said, was “totally unacceptable.”
“The Herald’s opportunistic attempt to bring the Zimbabwe Defence Forces into disrepute through Kereke’s story is not just disappointing but it is also very shocking, unprofessional and totally unacceptable,” he said.
In any case, there was nothing amiss about Gono’s decision to hire Biti, Moyo added.
“It should be understood in the clearest of terms that, like any other Zimbabwean, Gono is entitled under our Constitution to choose his own lawyer,” he said.
“It is trite to mention that lawyers are trained professionals whose appearance in the courts is governed by legal rules and not by politics or similar mumbo jumbo.
“As such, the notion that there are Zanu PF lawyers and MDC lawyers is a sad commentary on our national politics whose polarisation has gone way too far.
“It might be a strategic masterstroke for Gono to have chosen Biti as his lawyer, since the move effectively means that Biti, who is mentioned as a player in the court papers, is now unavailable to Kereke as a potential witness in the Constitutional Court case in question.”
Again, personal links between MDC-T and Zanu PF officials were not new, the minister added.
“In any event, the hullaballoo over Gono’s selection of the secretary-general of MDC as his lawyer pales into insignificance when compared to the fact that there are, many marriages between Zanu PF and MDC members, some of which are quite high-profile,” he said.
“Surely, what is good for the bedroom must also be good for the court-room.”
Labels: GIDEON GONO, JONATHAN MOYO, TENDAI BITI
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(HERALD ZW) Gono, Biti ties stir hornet’s nest
December 18, 2013
GONO BITITakunda Maodza Assistant News Editor
COMMENT - I've never trusted Gideon 'Crazy Eyes' Gono. He was the one at the helm that oversaw the hyperinflation of the Zimbabwe Dollar. He is also against indigenisation, including of the banks. And now he is defending Tendai Biti? You have to wonder why there is such a relationship of trust between them. As Biti's laywer, Gono would be in a perfect position to screw up his defense. And yet Tendai Biti trusts him to represent him? - MrK
Former Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor Dr Gideon Gono has hired MDC-T secretary-general, the lawyer Mr Tendai Biti to fight allegations made by Zanu-PF legislator Dr Munyaradzi Kereke that he was involved in corrupt dealings during his tenure at the apex bank.Zanu-PF Manicaland Province has nominated Dr Gono to fill the vacant Buhera Senate seat, but his cosy relations with senior MDC-T officials is causing unease about where his allegiances lie.
The seat fell vacant following the death of Cde Kumbirai Kangai on August 24.
Mr Biti was Finance Minister from 2009 to earlier this year and worked directly with Dr Gono.
The two were initially sworn enemies, with Mr Biti calling Dr Gono a terrorist who deserved to be shot, but relations have thawed to the point where the MDC-T secretary-general is giving the former RBZ boss legal representation.
Dr Kereke’s graft allegations, involving millions of US dollars, pertain to the time when both Dr Gono and Mr Biti were in Government. Dr Kereke was for a while one of Dr Gono’s most trusted advisors at the RBZ.
Also cited in the court case, which is before the Constitutional Court, is the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission.
Dr Gono is accused of compromising the independence of the anti-graft body through cash and other inducements, all sourced from Government coffers.
Zanu-PF Manicaland provincial chairman Cde John Mvundura yesterday confirmed they had forwarded Dr Gono’s candidature for the Buhera seat to a “higher office”.
However, there is much unease within the Zanu-PF leadership about Dr Gono’s suitability.
Documents in our possession show Dr Gono hired Mr Tendai Biti on December 16, 2013 and that Mr Biti has already made representations to the Constitutional Court on the ex-RBZ chief’s behalf.
While some Zanu-PF officials say it is Dr Gono’s right to get legal representation from any lawyer, his choice of Mr Biti has made many others nervous about his loyalty to the party.
Last night, Cde Mvundura said: “We have dealt with the Dr Gono issue and forwarded our recommendations to the party hierarchy. It is now up to the leadership.”
The nomination was endorsed by the Zanu-PF Manicaland provincial co-ordination committee which met at Marymount Teachers College on December 7. It is understood that the nomination is now before the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission for confirmation.
A senior Zanu-PF official yesterday told The Herald that they were “disturbed” by Dr Gono’s behaviour.
“Dr Gono on Monday hired Biti to represent him in a fraud case in which he and the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission will appear before the Constitutional Court. What is disturbing is the fact that this is happening at a time when he (Dr Gono) wants to be Zanu-PF senator for Buhera yet his trust and faith in Biti is so overwhelming,” he said.
Another official said the “party must consider the implications of giving Gono the Buhera seat when he is wining and dining with the enemy”.
“He is determined to undermine the party and its leadership, especially now after his bid to have his term as RBZ Governor extended failed. We ought to be careful with him,” he said.
But party secretary for administration Cde Didymus Mutasa, who is said to be influential in Zanu-PF Manicaland, said there was nothing wrong with Dr Gono’s decision to work with Mr Biti.
“It is his right to look for the best lawyer. If he thinks Biti is the one he wants to pick, it is up to him. Biti practices in Zimbabwe. He practices in Zimbabwean courts and not in South Africa or England. It is up to Gono to choose who he wants to defend him,” Cde Mutasa said.
But a Zanu-PF Politburo member with close ties to the Zimbabwe Defence Forces countered: “We have been told that some people in MDC-T want to besmirch the image of the military and other security servives and they think they can get help from Gono in doing this. We sincerely hope he does not go rogue.”
What is of particular interest is how the Gono-Biti relationship has mellowed. At one point Mr Biti wanted Dr Gono arrested, and today he is helping him avoid jail.
In the early days of the inclusive Government, Mr Biti vigorously on several occasions pestered Sadc to convene an Extraordinary Summit principally to remove Dr Gono and then Attorney-General Mr Johannes Tomana from office.
So bad were their relations that on May 22, 2009 Dr Gono wrote to then Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai from MDC-T to intervene.
Read part of the letter: “As you may be aware Hon Prime Minister, the strained relations between the Hon Minister of Finance and myself are a matter of public knowledge and, need I say, concern.
“For more than a year now, the minister has uttered, publicly and privately, words and statements that are not only criminally defamatory but also seriously insulting to my person, family and indeed, to the institution that I work for. His misleading statements are also career limiting in my field of finance and economics.
Dr Gono said Mr Biti “accused me of being at the epicentre of (the) Zanu-PF terror machine, an economic saboteur, terrorist and number one Al-Qaeda who deserves to be shot by a firing squad”.
After a year in the inclusive Government, Mr Biti suddenly went mum about Dr Gono.
In 2012, there were reports that Dr Gono helped Mr Tsvangirai access some US$1,5 million to get an official residence as the Prime Minister. At the same time, it is alleged Mr Biti released another US$1 million from Treasury for the same purpose.
The alleged case of double-dipping from State coffers has never been fully made public with all parties involved denying the allegations.
And last month Mr Biti told a radio station, “Gono has the nation at heart although some people wanted to use him and they indeed used him and just dumped him. We first had challenges, but eventually we had a very good working relationship. He had the nation at heart.”
Labels: COURTS, GIDEON GONO, MDC TREASON, TENDAI BITI
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(HERALD ZW) Gono, Biti ties stir hornet’s nest
December 18, 2013
Takunda Maodza Assistant News Editor
Former Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor Dr Gideon Gono has hired MDC-T secretary-general, the lawyer Mr Tendai Biti to fight allegations made by Zanu-PF legislator Dr Munyaradzi Kereke that he was involved in corrupt dealings during his tenure at the apex bank.Zanu-PF Manicaland Province has nominated Dr Gono to fill the vacant Buhera Senate seat, but his cosy relations with senior MDC-T officials is causing unease about where his allegiances lie.
The seat fell vacant following the death of Cde Kumbirai Kangai on August 24. Mr Biti was Finance Minister from 2009 to earlier this year and worked directly with Dr Gono.
The two were initially sworn enemies, with Mr Biti calling Dr Gono a terrorist who deserved to be shot, but relations have thawed to the point where the MDC-T secretary-general is giving the former RBZ boss legal representation.
Dr Kereke’s graft allegations, involving millions of US dollars, pertain to the time when both Dr Gono and Mr Biti were in Government. Dr Kereke was for a while one of Dr Gono’s most trusted advisors at the RBZ.
Also cited in the court case, which is before the Constitutional Court, is the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission.
Dr Gono is accused of compromising the independence of the anti-graft body through cash and other inducements, all sourced from Government coffers.
Zanu-PF Manicaland provincial chairman Cde John Mvundura yesterday confirmed they had forwarded Dr Gono’s candidature for the Buhera seat to a “higher office”.
However, there is much unease within the Zanu-PF leadership about Dr Gono’s suitability.
Documents in our possession show Dr Gono hired Mr Tendai Biti on December 16, 2013 and that Mr Biti has already made representations to the Constitutional Court on the ex-RBZ chief’s behalf.
While some Zanu-PF officials say it is Dr Gono’s right to get legal representation from any lawyer, his choice of Mr Biti has made many others nervous about his loyalty to the party.
Last night, Cde Mvundura said: “We have dealt with the Dr Gono issue and forwarded our recommendations to the party hierarchy. It is now up to the leadership.”
The nomination was endorsed by the Zanu-PF Manicaland provincial co-ordination committee which met at Marymount Teachers College on December 7. It is understood that the nomination is now before the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission for confirmation.
A senior Zanu-PF official yesterday told The Herald that they were “disturbed” by Dr Gono’s behaviour.
“Dr Gono on Monday hired Biti to represent him in a fraud case in which he and the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission will appear before the Constitutional Court. What is disturbing is the fact that this is happening at a time when he (Dr Gono) wants to be Zanu-PF senator for Buhera yet his trust and faith in Biti is so overwhelming,” he said.
Another official said the “party must consider the implications of giving Gono the Buhera seat when he is wining and dining with the enemy”.
“He is determined to undermine the party and its leadership, especially now after his bid to have his term as RBZ Governor extended failed. We ought to be careful with him,” he said.
But party secretary for administration Cde Didymus Mutasa, who is said to be influential in Zanu-PF Manicaland, said there was nothing wrong with Dr Gono’s decision to work with Mr Biti.
“It is his right to look for the best lawyer. If he thinks Biti is the one he wants to pick, it is up to him. Biti practices in Zimbabwe. He practices in Zimbabwean courts and not in South Africa or England. It is up to Gono to choose who he wants to defend him,” Cde Mutasa said.
But a Zanu-PF Politburo member with close ties to the Zimbabwe Defence Forces countered: “We have been told that some people in MDC-T want to besmirch the image of the military and other security servives and they think they can get help from Gono in doing this. We sincerely hope he does not go rogue.”
What is of particular interest is how the Gono-Biti relationship has mellowed. At one point Mr Biti wanted Dr Gono arrested, and today he is helping him avoid jail.
In the early days of the inclusive Government, Mr Biti vigorously on several occasions pestered Sadc to convene an Extraordinary Summit principally to remove Dr Gono and then Attorney-General Mr Johannes Tomana from office.
So bad were their relations that on May 22, 2009 Dr Gono wrote to then Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai from MDC-T to intervene.
Read part of the letter: “As you may be aware Hon Prime Minister, the strained relations between the Hon Minister of Finance and myself are a matter of public knowledge and, need I say, concern.
“For more than a year now, the minister has uttered, publicly and privately, words and statements that are not only criminally defamatory but also seriously insulting to my person, family and indeed, to the institution that I work for. His misleading statements are also career limiting in my field of finance and economics.
Dr Gono said Mr Biti “accused me of being at the epicentre of (the) Zanu-PF terror machine, an economic saboteur, terrorist and number one Al-Qaeda who deserves to be shot by a firing squad”.
After a year in the inclusive Government, Mr Biti suddenly went mum about Dr Gono.
In 2012, there were reports that Dr Gono helped Mr Tsvangirai access some US$1,5 million to get an official residence as the Prime Minister. At the same time, it is alleged Mr Biti released another US$1 million from Treasury for the same purpose.
The alleged case of double-dipping from State coffers has never been fully made public with all parties involved denying the allegations.
And last month Mr Biti told a radio station, “Gono has the nation at heart although some people wanted to use him and they indeed used him and just dumped him. We first had challenges, but eventually we had a very good working relationship. He had the nation at heart.”
Labels: COURTS, DIDYMUS MUTASA, GIDEON GONO, MDC TREASON, MUNYARADZI KEREKE, TENDAI BITI
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(NEWZIMBABWE) Zanu PF anger as Gono hires MDC-T's Biti
18/12/2013 00:00:00
by Gilbert Nyambabvu
A DECISION by former central bank governor, Gideon Gono, to hire MDC-T’s Tendai Biti for his corruption fight has left a few nickers in a twist among the Zanu PF hierarchy with some top officials questioning his loyalty to the party.
Gono’s former charge at the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, Munyaradzi Kekere, who is now an MP, has revived allegations that the ex-governor looted millions of dollars in public funds from the apex bank.
Kereke, last week, filed an application at the Constitutional Court which seeks to force the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) to investigate the allegations against his former boss.
Among a raft of claims, Kereke alleges that Gono, long considered a confidant and financial adviser of President Robert Mugabe, took more than US$37.5 million, R1,4 million and more than £21,500 pounds in state funds which he converted to his personal use.
According to the Zanu PF-leaning Herald newspaper, Gono has hired former finance minister and MDC-T secretary general, Tendai Biti, to represent him in the case.
Gono, who left the bank in November after being at the helm for ten years, has since been recommended to become Zanu PF’s senator in Manicaland province, replacing the late Kumbirai Kangai.
Senior party officials not named by the paper told the Zanu PF Herald that they were disturbed by Gono’s links with Biti.
“Gono on Monday hired Biti to represent him in a fraud case in which he and the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission will appear before the Constitutional Court,” said one of the officials.
“What is disturbing is the fact that this is happening at a time when he (Gono) wants to be Zanu PF senator for Buhera yet his trust and faith in Biti is so overwhelming,” he said.
Another top official said Zanu PF “must consider the implications of giving Gono the Buhera seat when he is wining and dining with the enemy”.
“He is determined to undermine the party and its leadership, especially now after his bid to have his term as RBZ Governor extended failed. We ought to be careful with him,” he said.
Equally unimpressed was a politburo member said to have “links to the military”
“We have been told that some people in MDC-T want to besmirch the image of the military and other security servives and they think they can get help from Gono in doing this. We sincerely hope he does not go rogue,” the unnamed official said.
Labels: COURTS, GIDEON GONO, MDC TREASON, MUNYARADZI KEREKE, TENDAI BITI
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(NEWZIMBABWE, IOL SA, SUNDAY INDEPENDENT SA) KP report shows Biti got diamond cash
24/11/2013 00:00:00
by
Iol.co.za
SUBSTANTIAL revenue from Marange diamond fields have evidently been going into state coffers, despite claims to the contrary by former finance minister Tendai Biti of the opposition MDC-T party.
This is according to classified documents from the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS or just KP) which was set up to filter conflict diamonds (also known as blood diamonds) out of world markets.
They show that the four mines at Marange exported over $717 million worth of diamonds between November 2011 and October last year and paid 15 percent of that – just over $107m – in royalties into state coffers.
The KP research was part of the process of clearing Zimbabwe after its suspension from the KP due to reports that its forces had violently evicted informal miners from Marange.
The KP Monitoring Team comprised Abbey Chikane and Mark van Bockstael, chairman of the Working Group of Diamond Experts at the World Diamond Council in Antwerp.
The documents are not public but they are on the KP’s restricted website which is available to any of the many government, industry or civil society members of the KP. This has raised some questions about why they have not been cited before to counter the claims made by Biti.
The top MDC-T official frequently said he never saw any Marange revenues while he was finance minister in Zimbabwe’s coalition government from 2009 until this year’s elections, which Zanu PF won.
His party and many observers have often suggested that all income from Marange due to the state went directly into Zanu PF’s coffers.
In their report for the quarter February to April last year, the authors say statements by ministers about the lack of transparency in the “chain of custody” of Marange diamond production and export “have caused serious confusion regarding compliance to KP standards and minimum requirements.”
They refer to contradictory statements by Zimbabwe’s ministry of mines – then controlled by Zanu PF – and the finance ministry and agencies then controlled by Biti’s MDC.
Chikane and Van Bockstael found that both the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe and the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra), which is part of the treasury, were both directly involved in authorising diamond exports so they could be KP certified.
Zimra was involved in several steps of the process, including receiving copies of customs forms which showed that the amount paid to the producer, as noted on the KP certificate, had been received in the producer’s bank account in Zimbabwe.
Zimra also had to give clearance for the shipment of the rough diamonds near the end of the process by issuing “Release Form 21”.
Zimra “thus holds the key to all rough diamond exports from Zimbabwe,” the report says.
“Statements that Zimra is completely unaware of the exports of rough diamonds are therefore alarming as these could indicate that the KPCS-compliant export process for rough diamonds is no longer applied or not applicable in case of rough diamond shipments from Marange.”
However, Chikane and Van Bockstael’s report says further investigation showed that proper process was still being implemented for all rough diamond exports, including Marange, and that Zimra need only check its records to identify how much revenue through royalties had been generated by rough diamond exports.
Last week at the annual KP Plenary in Johannesburg, campaigners failed to persuade the KP to block rough diamond exports by rebel movements and exports by governments which exploited diamonds to fuel violence.
Labels: DIAMONDS, KIMBERLEY PROCESS, MDC CORRUPTION, TENDAI BITI
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(NEWZIMBABWE) United States debt: the ugly reality
17/10/2013 00:00:00
by Tendai Biti, MP
COMMENT - The meltdown continues... - MrK
NEWS that an agreement has been reached ending the current budget impasse in the United States would please as many as it would amuse. That a government can actually go into a shut-down or closure is a mystery that many on our shores would never understand.
That an elected Parliament can openly defy an elected President is the kind of thing that never happens in these pot hole-scarred territories of ours. What? Defy the President!!? I can see black boots from Bradley Barracks ready to march against the "imperialist sell-outs" and totemless miscreants from that cramped colonial chamber at 82 Nelson Mandela Avenue (not to be confused with 44 Nelson Mandela Avenue).
I can see MPs like Honourable Amos Chibaya or Nyasha Chikwinya or Joseph Chinotimba being off-loaded – like bags of potatoes on the back of a huge green truck – to a howling Chikurubi. I suspect Comrade Chinotimba and his unique beard would make quite a sight dangling from one of the prison cages that has been half the home of Last Maingehama and Morgan Komichi for the last several months.
I can see pork-faced MPs and their ill-dressed spouses lined up in Court A at the Harare High Court answering treason charges for defying the authority of the land. In earlier days, they would have just disappeared and their remains found at a farm in Goromonzi, arms cut to small sleeve and a wire running through them, inserted via the knowledge acquired from the Intarahamwe torture school.
But back to the puzzling issue of the American budget crises. What is at play here is that in all most all countries, including Zimbabwe, Parliament has the sole say over the Consolidated Revenue Fund or the fiscus. Put in simple terms, the people – through their elected representatives, the Members of Parliament – decide what to do with their own money, the taxes that they pay to the State. So far so good.
However, most countries of Westminster influence play lip service to the supremacy of Parliament in controlling the national pursue. In the case of Zimbabwe, the new Constitution in article 305 gives control of the Consolidated Fund to Parliament. But that control is not absolute.
In Article 305 (5) it allows the Minister of Finance to present a supplementary Budget before parliament for approval. There is nothing in the Constitution that prevents the concept of eat-now-without-authority and then seek retrospective approval from parliament. In fact legality for condonation for any unapproved expenditure is provided for by article 307(2).
More importantly, the President in terms of article 306 may authorise withdrawals from the consolidated fund to meet any unforeseen expenditure provided that such withdrawal is not more than one and one half percent of the previous principle budget.
These provisions are virtually found in every Westminster Constitution and in fact are carried over from the original Lancaster House Constitution. On the other hand, the American Constitution has the absolute position where Congress only can appropriate and Congress only has the power to borrow for and on behalf of the Government. This is so in terms of Article 1, Section 8 of the American Constitution.
What this means then is that if whatever has been appropriated by Congress for use by Government runs out, that's it, the Government must shut down. In fact the Constitution itself is clear that workers must go home, so there is nothing like voluntary service.
These Government shut downs are not new to the American economy. Between 1976 and now there have in fact been 18 shut downs. The 1995-1996 shut down under Clinton was in fact the longest, lasting for 27 days.
Bar the Federal Government, States have also shut down, for similar reasons – New Jersey in 2006 and Minnesota in 2011.
So the shut down per se, whilst of great inconvenience to workers and their families, is something that can happen and is something whose consequences can well be contained. After all, it is in reality a partial Government shut down. Besides, just like the current one, public opinion, a vicious press, and public pressure will not allow the crises to get out of hand.
At the core of the present impasse has been the immediate linkage of President Barack Obama’s health reform programme, known as Obamacare, which has seen Republicans, particularly the right wing tea-drink version of the same, viciously oppose the same.
When budget time came, they essentially tried to use the budget as a way of holding the President to ransom by insisting on certain fundamental changes to Obamacare before the same could be passed. Where I come from it is called gutter politics.
The truth of the matter however is that America has never been the same since President Obama was elected, and this group of people called tea party Republicans have crawled like slime from their red neck neighbourhoods to virtually and irrationally oppose everything that the President does or proposes.
American politics thus stands on a tether: where to from here, given the misdirected zeal of this tea tribe against the rising anger of many Americans who traditionally have always located themselves in the centre?
The debt default is another cup of tea. As stated before, Congress has the right to borrow. However, through an Act of Congress, the Second Liberty Bond of 1979, later on the Public Debts Acts of 1939 and 1941, Congress set limits or a ceiling on the amount of money that the Government can borrow.
So here is how it functions. Congress approves a budget. Separately a debt ceiling is also set, the budget is dealing with internal resources, the ceiling is dealing with external debt contraction to cover expenditure not covered by the budget.
When the debt ceiling has been reached, the President seeks retention of the status quo, a roll over or raise on the debt ceiling. The aspect of raising debt ceilings is again not new. In fact it is routine. President Reagan alone raised it 19 times, and between 1940 and now it has been raised 55 times.
So what is the deal? The issue is that America has really become a debtor nation, the world’s biggest borrower living way beyond its means. It is therefore understandable the call by sane Republicans and some Democrats that America must retrench expenditure, reduce its debt and live within its means.
American debt of around $16 trillion is, at 75% of GDP, well within Third World territory and of that 47% is held in bonds by foreigners – China, Japan Brazil Taiwan, the UK, Switzerland and Russia being the top creditors. China and Japan alone are holding over a trillion dollars each of these bonds.
Naturally, the consequences of a default would have affected the international finance system, given the global spread of US debt. More importantly it would shake the foundation of the modern credit and monetary system based on the unwritten sacrosanctity of the US-backed monetary system. No wonder many, including the Chinese, are calling for a reform of the same.
In the short term, little countries like Zimbabwe would be less affected but the nature of international finance capital, particularly in the context of the continuing global depression is that we would feel the effects, sooner rather than later.
The real worry for anyone in the Third World is the meaning of the US reversing its position as it did from being a net lender to a net borrower. A position that started in the late years of the Carter Presidency and consolidated under President Reagan.
The thing is the US, by coming a net borrower started competing worldwide for the same resources that India or little Zimbabwe needs thereby pushing up interest rates. The reversal has had a drastic effect on developmental paths of many nations. The old master Giovanni Arrighi 2002, put it more dramatically than I could: "It (the reversal) is likely that this was the single most important determinant of the contemporaneous reversal in the economic fortunes of North America, and of the bifurcation in the economic fortunes of Third World regions.
“For the redirection of capital flows to the United States reflated both effective demand and investment in North America, while deflating it in the rest of the world... at the same time enabling the United States to run large deficits in the balance of trade..."
So in fact the world has suffered the real cost of the American debt crises. But for some of us who struggled with little debts of $11 billion dollars it never ceased to amaze us how different sets of rules applied to different countries. It always appeared that the less you owed, the more dangerous you were and the more mistreated you were.
That I guess is the ugly reality of this world.
Tendai Biti was Zimbabwe's Finance Minister between February 2009 and August 2013
Labels: MDC, NEOLIBERALISM, TENDAI BITI
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(NEWZIMBABWE) Take yourselves less seriously, Zimbabweans
25/09/2013 00:00:00
by Tendai Biti, MP
AS A general rule, Zimbabweans take themselves too seriously. They are a group arrested by haughtiness, lack of humour and a permanent state of unhealthy aggression. Life, I can assure you, is too short for anyone to wear a permanent statue of burlesqueness.
Despite and in spite of the sin of July 31, this is such a beautiful world, worth every minute of life.
My heart bleeds at the high levels of road rage and anger on our roads. A slight deviation is met by a pointed finger and all kinds of foul-mouthed ranting. To put it literally, civet cats died in our mouths. Pure, undiluted skunks!
To be fair, drivers of taxis, kombi drivers as we know them, are a temptation on their on. They behave as if they come from Zvimba and harangue all of us as if they have a patent for bad driving. The trick is to watch them, let them through and get on with your life. Otherwise you will get wrinkles before you are forty.
Indeed and again to be fair, I have seen drivers in our roads who think that they are driving at the Monaco Grand Prix competing with Sebastien Vettel. I have seen drivers who think that, like America, Zimbabwe drives on the right.
But the most pernicious are those that get so inebriated that they think ghosts drive them home. Or that their car has capabilities of automatically driving them home under the fuel of an alcohol-filled breadth.
But what about the multitude of police officers that are permanently glued to our roads, pretending to be serious whilst harassing particularly taxis and any dented wreckage in the road? And my God don't we have a lot of those! Ugly, smoking jalopies that look like reincarnations from the First World War. How they are still driving, or more accurately crawling in our roads excludes one’s wisdom.
Back to police officers, we must have the highest number of police officers per capita in the world. Every way you turn there is a police officer. The air we breathe is full of cops. One is never too sure what they do though, but they are ubiquitous.
I must say that the standard of sartorial tastes has gone up in the country particularly among members of the superior sex. Maybe it is the influence of a huge Diaspora populations but this lot know how to shine and glide.
The times of petticoats that sneaked out longer than the dress, and high heeled shoes that kept breaking down in High Streets are long gone. The times of those long voodoo skirts with untidy slits or wet and smelly "perms" that Marshall Munhumumwe must have had in mind when he sang "Rudo Imoto" are now dumped in sartorial archives.
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Newspapers are a record of history. They freeze time on their pages and no wonder every historian spends time in a dust-filled archive poring over their yellow memories. If newspapers are history, then future generations will laugh at present generations who cannot laugh at themselves.
Take a few stories. NewsDay of September 24, 2013:
Man Axes friend to pieces
"In a bizarre incident that left Chivhu villagers she'll shocked ,a local man axed his long time friend to death before chopping his body to pieces and taking away the deceased s left foot after allegedly accusing the friend of failing to visit him..."
If I were the prosecutor, I would be curious to know why the man, Kimpton Shereni, took the left foot and not the nose.
This one from the Daily News of September 21, 2013, is worth a look:
Wives embroiled in conjugal row
A Mabvuku woman has dragged her husband’s wives to court for mocking her and withholding conjugal rights to him after he suffered a stroke.
Mario Gumeyo dragged her husband’s senior wives – Magaya Emerita and Zvitaike Mapiro – to court seeking a peace order for alleged verbal abuse...
"I have been staying with our husband since 2002 when they abandoned him because he suffered a stroke .They refuse to have sexual intercourse with him demanding money..."
The disputes allegedly started when Mapiro and Magaya discovered that Gumeya would quiz their husband about how good his sexual encounters with the other two were.
This is the stuff of a Shona novel.
Now check this one from the News Day of September 21, 2013:
Man Killed over $9 debt and sadza
A heated debate over a $9 debt and the preparation of sadza between colleagues, both gold panners, turned nasty when Tichaona Mwenda allegedly struck and killed his friend Pedzisai Dhenya with an iron bar accusing him of refusing to settle his debt and putting out the cooking fire.
The incident occurred at Zebra 14 Mine at around 2AM on June 19 last year.
I found this one from the Daily News of September 21, 2013, totally bemusing.
Photographer offers $20 maintenance
A man refusing to fund his children’s education reportedly told his wife they would not die from not attending school.
Misheck Matiko was brought before Harare Civil Court by his wife Catherine Mambo who sought maintenance of $400 for their five children.
Now in my 18 years of practice as a lawyer, this is the most unique defence against maintenance I have ever heard. Rather it is the most insane I have heard.
The Herald has a darker sense of humour. Take their September 18 headline: "Ex ZMDC boss in $6 m scandal". Or the one on the next page of the same newspaper edition: "Calls mount for chiefs to adopt circumcision". I am not sure how, though.
I liked the opinion piece in the Herald’s edition of September 21, 2013, by Beatrice Tonhodzayi Ngondo. It was headed: “Live within your means". Very sound advice, but no-one will listen to her.
But do not forget the small ads too. They tell a lot about the state of the nation.
Here are some delightful ones:
"Dr Munto - For all your marriage, lost lover problems, impotence due to diabetes and business boosting."
"Dr Mapeto - Traditional healer with 30 years experience, specialist in bringing back lost lover within a day and solving other problems. 100 percent guaranteed."
Or try this, I saw it in virtually all the newspapers: "For best singles, phone best professional agency on ..."
A million small ads are virtually Bohemianism personified. There are ads on private masseurs and all kinds of fetishes which some of us thought only happened in the first world.
Try the ones about people with capacity to enlarge all kinds of things which my Christian faith says I cannot reproduce in a family page such as this one. But if there is a sad story that told me that we had lost our sense of being and Africanhood but had become Godless charlatans, it was this next one.
Man uses Mugabe poster as toilet paper
A 26-year-old Masvingo man recently landed himself in trouble after he allegedly used President Robert Mugabe s campaign poster as toilet paper.
Takura Mufumisi appeared at the Masvingo Magistrate Court last week charged with violating the Electoral Act or alternatively destruction of political material.
Public Prosecutor Mukai Mutumbe told the court that on July 24 this year, Mufumusi entered Landmark Bar in the city with the intention of relieving himself in the bar toilets.
While inside, he was spotted by the informant, Osman Musengi, tearing up President Mugabe’s poster which he found inside and allegedly using it as a toilet paper.
Musengi immediately effected a citizen’s arrest on Mutumisi and took him to Masvingo Police Station.
Court papers however do not state if Mufumisi was arrested after he had already relieved himself. Magistrate Tinashe Ndokera adjourned the matter indefinitely as the State could not identify the witness.
What on earth have we become? I wrote the other day about the state of our mental capacity, but I suspect it is a worse condition.
The world owes us nothing. Lets us put the smile on our faces. Let us not die of stress from things engineered by cadavers and zombies. Lets us take the joke on us and stop behaving as if we are little demi-gods.
It is such a happy, happy world.
Tendai Biti is MP for Harare East (MDC-T) and a former Finance Minister
Labels: MDC, TENDAI BITI
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(TALKZIMBABWE) Biti loses Chatham House prize
This article was written by Our reporter on 13 September, at 05 : 10 AM
COMMENT - Chatham House, also known as the Royal Institute for International Affairs (RIIA), is the British equivalent of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). - MrK
MDC-T secretary general Tendai Biti, has failed to win the Royal Institute of International Affairs’ Chatham House Prize. Biti was nominated alongside former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Juan Manuel Santos, President, Republic of Colombia.
Despite the controversy he has caused in Zimbabwe with his brand of politics, Biti had been nominated for “stabilizing and de-politicizing the Zimbabwean economy and being instrumental in the re-engagement of Zimbabwe with the international community.”
“Tendai Biti has developed a reputation within the government of national unity for engaging constructively with all parties while driving a hard bargain on economic reform,” according to Chatham House.
Chatham House also incorrectly attributed the multi-currency policy to Biti. The policy was introduced by current Minister of Finance Patrick Chinamasa before the inclusive Government of 2008-13.
“He ended the period of hyper-inflation that had crippled the country, and his budget for 2013 has been praised for assisting the poor and empowering young people and women,” said a report on the Chatham House website, without articulating how Biti did this.
Many critics in fact accused Biti for being anti-poor in his policies by advocating neo-liberal policies which wreaked havoc to Zimbabwe’s economy in the 1980s.
Biti’s tenure as Finance Minister was heralded as the worst tenure ever. Information Minister Jonathan Moyo writing in 2010 said Biti
exhibited “obvious inexperience and lack of professional grounding in the field” of economics and had “surprisingly and unwisely adopted a non-consultative ‘I know it all’ attitude which has alienated key economic players including pivotal bureaucrats in his ministry, not to mention other stakeholders in and outside the coalition Government.”
Hillary Clinton was nominated for “her impact on US and international diplomacy and for promoting education and rights for women and girls” while President Santos was nominated “for instigating the peace process to end the conflict with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and for his leadership in realigning the regional and international response to the ‘war on drugs’.”
Labels: CHATHAM HOUSE, TENDAI BITI
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(TALKZIMBABWE) Biti swims against the current, after ‘Titanic’ sank
This article was written by Our reporter on 22 August, at 08 : 38 AM
Tendai Biti’s Facebook post on the eve of President Mugabe’s inauguration, after leaving the office of the Minister of Finance, is a sad reminder of the tenure of this man at the helm of Zimbabwe’s Treasury.
He bid farewell to an office he served as the “worst finance minister” in the history of Zimbabwe’s economy – an office once occupied by greats such as Cde Enos Nkala and Dr Benard Chidzero.
Ironically, interestingly Europeans (Euromoney, etc) dubbed him the “best finance minister of Africa”. The ironies of life!
Outgoing Zanu-PF Justice Minister and once Acting Minister of Finance Patrick Chinamasa branded Biti nothing more than a gatekeeper of Zanu-PF policies that were already underway in the finance ministry when he took over. “He is a gatekeeper for our policies,” said Chinamasa on a trip to the United Kingdom. “He is irrelevant in Zimbabwe’s political economy”.
On his Facebook profile, ‘Wananchi Biti’ is fighting tooth and nail to remain relevant. He is no longer relevant. He and his colleagues in the MDC-T thought they would beat Zanu-PF at the elections by making the economy dysfunctional. They were wrong. People saw that as proof of their incompetence.
With a whole host of other ministers who were dysfunctional and later booted out at the elections, ‘Wananchi Biti’ is already in reminiscent mode, nostalgia setting in – the jet setting, the international trips and pomp and ceremony – all niceties afforded secretaries of state are no more. The per diems and the foreign country hospitality are all gone. For them this was more important in government than delivering success and showing that they have better policies than Zanu-PF.
Zanu-PF now has a chance to show what they can do without the prophets of doom, who thrive by scaremongering tactics telling people how they will suffer under Zanu-PF, as if they do not know what Zanu-PF can do. After all the party has been in power for more than 30 years, schooled these ‘wananchis’ and made them the ‘intellectuals’ they claim to be.
Like the Chinese Communist Party, Zanu-PF has gone through changes. It has suffered setbacks, but has shown that it has capacity to bounce back; thanks to the MDC-T and its desire to see it fail. The late Josiah Tongogara once remarked that “Ian Smith was a great teacher,” because each time he struck, Zanu would regroup and learn from his tactics. The MDC-T was a great teacher for Zanu-PF. It can never be complacent anymore, never taking anything for granted.
Biti’s legacy will be all the political, not economic, statements he made and all the efforts at bringing disaster to Zimbabwe so that the MDC-T can then shine. He was part of the group that crafted sanctions, wanted to declare Zimbabwe a Highly Indebted Poor Country (HIPC), land reform reversed and indigenisation and empowerment stopped, among a host of policies.
He squandered a chance to shine as finance minister and thus sent himself into oblivion. He also squandered the chance to outshine MDC-T party leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, by showing more mettle and competence, so he sank with him.
The Biti bravado and fearlessness we saw in 2008 is gone. It has been replaced by a timid, pensive-looking individual who does not know what hit him over the last five years. Even Tsvangirai has ‘replaced’ him with a series of so-called legal and political advisers who have spelled more disaster for that party.
He has now resorted to Facebook battles. The ground battles have already been won by Zanu-PF. He is no longer commenting on real issues. All his comments are general and are simply anti-Zanu-PF, not articulating what the MDC-T can do. This has always been the source of the downfall of the MDC-T: criticizing Zanu-PF, but offering nothing in return.
Biti will look back and see how ineffective a finance minister he has been. He fought a fight, but a wrong one. He fought himself and his party.
*Comments and suggestions to info@talkzimbabwe.com
Labels: MDC, NEOLIBERALISM, TENDAI BITI
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(NEWZIMBABWE) Biti's economic policies led to MDC-T rout: Gwisai
The way forward ... The MDC-T top leadership address reporters after poll result
06/08/2013 00:00:00
by Gilbert Nyambabvu
OUTGOING finance minister Tendai Biti’s economic policies, praised in the West but unable to create jobs or improve livelihoods for the poor at home, were largely responsible for the MDC-T’s comprehensive electoral defeat, one of the party's former MPs has claimed. Biti was handed charge of the country’s economy after his MDC-T party formed a coalition government with President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF following violent but inconclusive elections in 2008.
With hyperinflation stemmed after the ditching of the Zim-dollar, the MDC-T secretary general was soon winning praise in the West for his stewardship of the economy which enjoined sustained, if modest, recovery and growth over the last four years. But there was no electoral dividend for his efforts as the MDC-T suffered a heavy defeat at the hands of Zanu PF in last week’s elections.
University lecturer and political activist, Munyaradzi Gwisai, said instead of blaming alleged rigging by Zanu PF for its woeful performance, the MDC-T might want to look at its policies in government which pleased the West while civil servants and other workers “suffered with starvation wages” and the rural poor were largely ignored.
Neo-liberal policies
Said Gwisai, who leads the local chapter of the International Socialist Organisation (ISO): “In charge of the economic and social ministries, MDC, led by Finance Minister Tendai Biti launched a fanatic IMF-inspired neoliberal offensive to kick-start the collapsed economy, which Biti dubbed – ‘We eat what we kill’.
“Its central elements included: slashing of all quasi-fiscal subsidies to the poor, wage freezes for civil servants and starvation wages for other workers; rigid adherence to the US dollar without safeguards for the poor, keeping inflation below 5%, cash-budgeting and attacking unions.
“Whilst Biti was being lauded by the West as ‘the best Finance minister in Africa’, the austerity knife was piercing deepest into the hearts of the rural poor through: GMB going for over a year without paying for maize delivered, dying cattle because of lack of dipping facilities, an end to the maize seeds, fertiliser and relief food previously given by Western NGOs and the Reserve Bank, thousands of pupils failing to write examinations, clinics without nurses even as 2000 nurses were jobless due to a job freeze and MDC Minister Madzore even trying to export them!”
Biti continuously complained that his efforts were being undermined by the alleged diversion of Marange diamond revenues from the treasury by Zanu PF but Gwisai said the senior MDC-T official was also not prudent with the use of what he managed to receive.
Diamond revenues
“Even as Biti pleaded lack of money, especially diamond money, the truth was that state monthly revenue shot from $60 million in 2009 to $250 million by 2013 and he had received a special IMF bonus of half a billion dollars,” said Gwisai.
“Whilst berating civil servants that money does not grow on trees, Biti showered MPs with $15 000 bonuses, luxury cars and endless foreign trips for ministers, Tsvangirai and Mugabe.”
Gwisai said it was not surprising that “the defining character of these elections is that the rural voters, across the country have rejected and abandoned Tsvangirai and the MDCs”.
“Mugabe and his ministers, using diamonds money and proceeds from indeginisation, dished out seeds, fertilizer, food to rural farmers, recognized informal miners, the informal sector, gave out urban housing stands and projects for youths and women,” he said.
“As agriculture recovered driven by 80,000 new tobacco farmers who in 2013 produced 164 million kg worth over $600 million, Zanu PF’s rural base soared nation-wide but especially the agriculturally-rich Mashonaland belt, just as that of Tsvangirai and MDC massively shrunk.
“On the eve of elections (local government minister Ignatius) Chombo announced a hugely popular cancellation of council debts which was denounced by MDC … Zanu PF’s 40% strong showing in the towns shows that many urban poor are following (the party).” The MDC-T has rejected the election outcome, accusing Zanu PF of carrying out a “monumental fraud”.
But Gwisai said the MDC-T’s defeat was “predictable” adding that while there may be some credence to claims of intimidation “the massive scale of the MDC’s defeat points to other and deeper reasons”.
Tsvangirai blunders
“Unlike 2008 Zanu PF came into this election as a cohesive unit around its “bhora mughedi” theme,” he said.
“Zanu PF had its most democratic primary elections ever, resulting in popular local candidates running, many of whom, small capitalists who had been on the ground sponsoring local projects.
“Tsvangirai blundered by protecting unpopular incumbents, of up to three terms but hardly visible in their constituencies. MDC wrongly assumed that the 2008 protest vote, which was driven by economic melt-down would continue. Tsvangirai’s own sex scandals and the corruption of MDC-run councils did not help.
“(Again) as Tsvangirai and his ministers were busy telling the world that they were lucky to be Mugabe’s apprentices, war veterans leader Jabulani Sibanda camped for a year in Masvingo terrorizing villagers.
“Then the MDC’s made a huge blunder in pushing forward-based polling and counting of ballots. This terribly exposed rural opposition voters to intimidation. With no protection from MDC and aware of June 2008, many rural people voted for their security.
“The massive turn out in the Referendum in Zanu PF strongholds, huge Mugabe rallies and primary elections, all showed that Zanu PF had recovered and that its June 2008 Presidential Run-Off terror machinery was still intact.”
Labels: MUNYARADZI GWISAI, NEOLIBERALISM, TENDAI BITI
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(NEWZIMBABWE) Mugabe landslide: Rural poor vote against neo-liberal austerity
07/08/2013 00:00:00
by Munyaradzi Gwisai
FOR a good part of his 33 years in power, Robert Mugabe has presided over a ruthless dictatorship; from the thousands killed in the 1980s Gukurahundi massacres and misery for millions under ESAP, Operation Murambatsvina and hyper-inflation of 2008.
COMMENT - All of these assertions are false beliefs. From the Super ZAPU destabilistion directed by Breyten Breytenbach's brother Col. Jan Breytenbach and Col. Mueller, to ESAP which is a World Bank program, to the hyperinflation caused by economic sanctions like ZDERA. And now that the elections are over, can we stop accusing people of being 'Zanu-PF apologists', and look at the facts? - MrK
Yet in the 31st July elections, endorsed by SADC and AU, the 89 year old ruler annihilated the hitherto iconic working class leader Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC-T, who beat him in March 2008. Mugabe got 61% to Tsvangirai’s 34%. Zanu PF won a 76% parliamentary majority, enough to re-write the new constitution and doing better than it did in 1980. What happened?
Wabi wedu wakawarairwa nezamu muGNU wakakangamwa vanhu. The working class is deeply pained by this tsunami, and many are tempted to go for the easy answer that MDC merely lost because of rigging. That there was intimidation, an uneven terrain and some manipulation or rigging through the voters roll may be true, but the massive scale of the MDC’s defeat points to other and deeper reasons. To recover and move forward working people need to have an honest analysis to understand such factors.
Referendum dress rehearsal
An MDC defeat had become predictable. A poll in mid 2012 sponsored by American think-tank, Freedom House, showed a dramatic fall in MDC-T support from 38% to 19%, and that of Zanu PF rising from 17% to 31%. The massive turn out in the Referendum in Zanu PF strongholds, huge Mugabe rallies and primary elections, all showed that Zanu PF had recovered and that its June 2008 Presidential Run-Off terror machinery was still intact.
Tsvangirai foolishly attacked the Vote Nos as “nhinhi” when they raised the issues of an unfair terrain, biased state media and judiciary, not realizing that Mugabe was using the Referendum as a dress rehearsal.
As Tsvangirai and his ministers were busy telling the world that they were lucky to be Mugabe’s apprentices, war veterans leader Jabulani Sibanda camped for a year in Masvingo terrorizing villagers. Then the MDC’s made a huge blunder in pushing for ward-based polling and counting of ballots. This terribly exposed rural opposition voters to intimidation. With no protection from MDC and aware of June 2008, many rural people voted for their security.
Unlike 2008 Zanu PF came into this election as a cohesive unit around its “bhora mughedi” theme. Zanu PF had its most democratic primary elections ever, resulting in popular local candidates running, many of whom, small capitalists who had been on the ground sponsoring local projects. Tsvangirai blundered by protecting unpopular incumbents, of up to three terms but hardly visible in their constituencies. MDC wrongly assumed that the 2008 protest vote, which was driven by economic melt-down would continue. Tsvangirai’s own sex scandals and the corruption of MDC-run councils did not help.
Biti’s economic policies
But there were deeper reasons for the defeat, reasons for which the MDC leadership must assume primary responsibility. Firstly, with total economic collapse in 2008, MDC saved Zanu PF from certain oblivion by agreeing to join a GNU in which the security apparatus of the dictatorship was left intact, whilst MDC was imposed with the burden of recovering the economy. This despite, Joseph Mutero’s Mutongi Gava Maenzanise’s warning to Munhu (man) that it is foolish to save a caged and hungry Ingwe – a leopard never changes its spots- tomorrow it will eat you.
The main mistake though was not just in joining such an ill-balanced GNU, but rather what MDC did once it got into government. In charge of the economic and social ministries, MDC, led by Finance Minister Tendai Biti launched a fanatic IMF-inspired neoliberal offensive to kick-start the collapsed economy, which Biti dubbed - “We eat what we hunt.” Its central elements included: slashing of all quasi-fiscal subsidies to the poor, wage freezes for civil servants and starvation wages for other workers; rigid adherence to the US dollar without safeguards for the poor, keeping inflation below 5%, cash-budgeting and attacking unions.
Whilst Biti was being lauded by the West as “the best Finance minister in Africa,” the austerity knife was piercing deepest into the hearts of the rural poor through: GMB going for over a year without paying for maize delivered, dying cattle because of lack of dipping facilities, an end to the maize seeds, fertilizer and relief food previously given by Western NGOs and the Reserve Bank, thousands of pupils failing to write examinations, clinics without nurses even as 2000 nurses were jobless due to a job freeze and MDC Minister Madzore even trying to export them!
Even as Biti pleaded lack of money, especially diamond money, the truth was that state monthly revenue shot from $60 million in 2009 to $250 million by 2013 and he had received a special IMF bonus of half a billion dollars. Whilst berating civil servants that money does not grow on trees, Biti showered MPs with $15 000 bonuses, luxury cars and endless foreign trips for ministers, Tsvangirai and Mugabe.
Whilst benefiting from these policies, Mugabe strategically brilliantly re-positioned his party left-ward, around land, indeginisation, economic empowerment and African nationalism. Such re-orientation had also saved him from the 1990s revolts. Mugabe and his ministers, using diamonds money and proceeds from indeginisation, dished out seeds, fertilizer, food to rural farmers, recognized informal miners, the informal sector, gave out urban housing stands and projects for youths and women. They vigorously courted the independent African churches, Vapostori and ran an anti-West anti-sanctions campaign.
On the eve of elections Minister Chombo announced a hugely popular cancellation of council debts which was denounced by MDC. As agriculture recovered driven by 80,000 new tobacco farmers who in 2013 produced 164 million kg worth over $600 million, Zanu PF’s rural base soared nation-wide but especially the agriculturally-rich Mashonaland belt, just as that of Tsvangirai and MDC massively shrunk.
It is therefore not surprising that the defining character of these elections is that the rural voters, across the country have rejected and abandoned Tsvangirai and the MDCs. Zanu PF’s 40% strong showing in the towns shows that many urban poor are following. As in Kenya and Zambia where rising African nationalism triumphed, and the anti-neoliberal revolts across the world, the rural poor rejected MDC as the party most closely identified with austerity and western puppetry.
In the absence of a major left radical alternative, this has meant voting for an odious repressive regime, but one that was forced to make radical nationalist concessions to the masses to survive. In our February 2001 ISO Nyanga document to the MDC National Council, we had warned that unless the party embraced land reform, renounced the neoliberal ideology fostered on it by its new western friends, and returned to its working class base, it faced annihilation from a left-ward moving regime. We were booted out.
Interestingly today veteran united MDC leader Paul Themba Nyathi, said Zanu PF had beaten them fair and square because rural people had fallen back in love with Zanu PF for some unknown reason. Coming from Matabeleland he is honest enough to admit that the main reasons for this disaster cannot be intimidation or rigging, for the people of Matabeleland even in the darkest days of death of Gukurahundi remained steadfast voting for persecuted ZAPU.
It becomes difficult to sustain rigging as the main reason when the pro-opposition western-funded local elections monitoring body ZESN, that had 7000 observers nation-wide, tells us that: “in 98% of polling stations there were no incidents of intimidation… at 98% of polling stations, no one attempted to intimidate or influence election officials during counting nor did anyone attempt to disrupt the counting process … and MDC-T agents signed the V-11 results form at 97% stations at which they were present,” which were subsequently posted outside polling stations. If there was blatant rigging why sign? No, my dear old friend Tendai, the Wananchi, as he likes to call them, meaning ordinary citizens in Swahili, are no fools. As in Kenya yesterday, today, here too, they have had their revenge.
Way Forward
Ma chefu e MDC akarara pabasa achinakirwa ne tea ku State House. The message from the elections is clear. For working people there is no future with MDC and Tsvangirai. Lacking a pro-poor ideology and strategy, it will not resurrect from this disaster. Even now, it runs to the very courts that gave it July 31. Arnold Tsunga, who won Dangamvura despite Tsvangirai ordering him not to run, correctly argues that MDC must boycott all institutions arising from these elections, including parliament, if it truly believes they were a big fraud. Zanu PF already has a two thirds majority. Participation or running to courts only legitimizes the regime. But a boycott is unlikely given that the party has no clear ideology and is now dominated by opportunists. For them its – zvangu zvanaka.
Yesterday’s workers leaders have become today’s poodles of the capitalists and bosses. Even today, against all Africa, it sings from the same hymn book as its masters in Washington and London, sucking their poisonous neoliberal juice, and hoping to precipitate economic crisis. However, unless there is global recession, economic melt-down is unlikely. Whilst probably expecting a Mugabe victory, the West are stunned by his overwhelming landslide, and for now withhold recognition to send a message to Mugabe not to dare pursue the aggressive nationalist agenda he promised in the elections.
With survival guaranteed, Mugabe will still pursue his vote-catching nationalist agenda, but will likely moderate and strike some compromise with banks, big business and the West to avert an open strike by the capitalists and West that may bring down the economy. He is likely to pursue an agriculture-mining-tourism-anchored economic growth agenda geared towards China, India, Russia and Brazil.
With an eye to 2018, Zanu PF will continue with its empowerment agenda to eat away at MDC’s still-holding urban strongholds. Without the necessary ideological, strategic and leadership overhaul, MDC cannot counter this, and will suffer gradual terminal decline. Also without a radical left alternative emerging, the danger deepens of the working classes continuing to fall into the hands of a repressive bourgeois nationalist dictatorship that only opportunistically sings their song, and with its survival guaranteed, will sooner or later, as it has done in the past, attack the poor, rural and urban, in the service of the system that it ultimately serves, that is capitalism.
The way forward for working people is to break from MDC and lay now the foundations for a new working people’s movement to continue the struggle against the regime. A movement that does not replicate MDC’s right-wing ideological bankruptcy but positions itself left of Zanu PF on an anti-capitalist, democratic and internationalist basis.
Such a movement has to be built slowly and organically from the struggles of workers and the poor, from the bottom to the top and anchored around the newly radicalizing trade unions and social movements. It cannot be built or decreed from boardrooms or mere anti-Mugabe sentiment or the same ideology as MDC. But one that will not only fight for political democracy, but also the full expropriation of mines, banks, big businesses and big farms now under new black exploiters and place these under democratic control of workers and rural farmers for the benefit of all, as part of a regional and international struggle to smash capitalism and build socialism. ALUTA!
Munyaradzi Gwisai, International Socialist Organisation and can be reached at iso.zim@gmail.com
Labels: MUNYARADZI GWISAI, NEOLIBERALISM, TENDAI BITI
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(NEWZIMBABWE) We’re drowning in dark shadows of pain: Biti
02/08/2013 00:00:00
by Tendai Biti
COMMENT - Meltdown. - MrK
WE LIVE in horrible times surrounded by horrible man. Man we have always assumed human, rational and real. They are not.
Since late Wednesday, July 31, we have been walking like zombies, drowning in dark shadows of pain and disbelief, hoping that this is just a nightmare where someone will wake us up in sweat and we will sink into prayer.
I am afraid it’s real. The unbelievable is happening. The surreal is playing. The insanity rolls on. The conductor does not pause; he waves his arms in deep satisfaction to the exquisite delivery of the orchestra. The crowds applaud at the orchestra of insanity.
They must think we are fools. To think that we cannot have a seat in Masvingo, Manicaland, and the three Mashonaland provinces. What a loquacious tragedy!
Now even those that they killed shamelessly during Gukurahundi have embraced them. Can you honestly tell the villagers of Matobo whose children were mercilessly thrown down mine shafts that they have now found peace with the devil? Go to Esigodini and ask them. Ask my friend Paul Temba Nyathi in Gwanda the same question. What a load of rubbish!
Can you tell the beautiful people of Gairezi in Nyanga North that the imposter Magadzire Nyanhongo is now their MP? Can you tell the people of Masvingo Urban that a failed businessman going by the name Daniel Shumba is now their MP?
I have said it before, water in its flow will never defy gravity. A mouse can never hunt a lion.
Spare a thought for Theresa Makoni. Can someone in Borrowdale Road show me hands and say we voted Zanu PF? Maybe you are there at Sam Levy. Please get in touch if you are out there.
Spare a thought for Sean Timba and the beautiful suburb of Mount Pleasant. I caught them in Churchill Avenue in broad daylight. Innocent, under-age souls dusted and brought to life from the back of yonder at Nyangombe in the middle of Binya road. They looked like Tolkien’s hobbits or should I say little gollums. They were holding forged voter registration slips. They froze and wet themselves when they saw us. Tired, hungry and abused – despite the structural poverty gripping them. This is how desperate we get.
The thing is we always assume the Revolutionary Party has conscience or limits. They do not. For power, they will do anything. When dealing with them always budget for the irrational, for the insane. Any assumption of sanity is wrong and naive.
They have stolen this election to the extent that they themselves are so embarrassed. I suspect they did not intend to steal this far and create such a ridiculously so incredulous a situation such that no reasonable person would ever accept the same.
But you see, once you steal, you are just a thief and you can't stop. There is no such thing as a little cheating. It reminds of the Loot Committee of 1895. When the colonialists discovered there was no little Rand this side of the Limpopo, they started looting land and cattle belonging to the local natives. It got so bad that they had to create a little committee to curtail their own avarice. The committee was known as the Loot Committee and its first chairman was Thomas Meikles. Yes that one of the Meikles empire (113 years later some things never change).
Back to the Tired Party, you must be pleased very much with your product. You must be saying to yourselves ,and your spouses we did a good job. Your children must be so pleased with you. ‘Daddy, we knocked out that Tsvangirai.’ ‘Yes son, nice job at least we can go to Beijing next week.’ ‘Thank you dad, I love you so much.’
‘But dad, why are the people not celebrating with us?’ ‘No son, the people are stupid, they have been bought. You must never be bought, at least the Chinese are better.’
Well you did a pretty damn good job didn't you? Guilt my friends is a heavy load. You can't breathe when you carry guilt. Reputations, big reputations, have been soiled in this election. Some of you we thought were decent. But we have found you out. Little, conniving, spineless people. You have fooled a lot us. But you can't fool all of us all the time. Can you?
But I am not suggesting anything. No, you did not force-march people to pretend they were now illiterate. No, no you did not fail to produce the voters roll to other political parties. No, you did not register people after July 9. No, you do not do that.
No, no you did not force chiefs, kraal heads and headman to force march people to vote at synchronised polling times. No, you did not chase people away from polling stations.
No, no Nikuv never helped you, never supplied with those fantastic pens with mutating cast ballots. No, Nikuv never helped you with doctoring the voters roll. What cheap lies!
No, you did not issue en masse fake voter registration slips to anyone. That boy Silumbu, the Daily News is crazy.
No, you did not throw away at the Sheraton unpalatable special votes against yourselves. No, no you did not cause the arrest of Morgan Komichi. I know people just create stories against you.
No, you did not print duplicate ballot papers. No you did not swap ballot boxes in certain areas. I swear NaMai Dvororo, you did not do this. No, no you are not working in collusion with or manipulating ZEC. What a horrible lie!
No, you did not transport under age unregistered voters from refugee camps and Border Gezi training camps. No, you won the election free and fair. After all, the people love you so much and are so grateful for everything you have done for us. You gave us jobs, functioning industries, hospitals and Africa’s best country.
Wananchi, poor Wananchi. You worked so hard. You won the campaign. It is so painful when some moron tells you the impossible. That one plus one equals seven. No it does not add up.
But Wananchi, we are not the victims .They are. We did not lose this election. We do not accept this result, one that is so unashamedly a farce that it is null and void, as President Tsvangirai said at his press conference on Thursday.
Wananchi, let’s remain calm and keep our eyes on the ball. They have made an opening move. They have indicated where they want to take this country. They have reflected they will stop at nothing. Very well then. Very very well.
Time will tell who is the real winner. Time does not lie, does it? It always catches us out. Yes time has all the time in the world. Only fools think they can steal from it. Or fornicate with it. No.
Now I am told they are desperately looking for some diversion from the grand theft. They are always good at that. Something to divert the people s pain.
I am also told that they want retribution. That violence will erupt against our people. That they will seek to kill, assassinate and arrest. But guys you have won the election .Get on with governance. I am also told that they also want to push us into some other government of national unity, or some variant of it.
But Wananchi, those who have won must govern on their own. Tongai Tione. Zikomo!
Tendai Biti is the MDC-T secretary general and outgoing Finance Minister
Labels: 2013 ELECTIONS (ZW), MDC, TENDAI BITI
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(TALKZIMBABWE) MDC-T should blame itself for losing
This article was written by Our reporter on 1 August, at 09 : 46 AM
The MDC-T party had a weak strategy and weak organisation right from the start. Besides, the disorganization and infighting at this election, the party concentrated on unimportant issues during their tenure in the inclusive Government as we saw with party leader, Morgan Tsvangirai’s shenanigans.
It is also now becoming glaringly clear that Secretary General of the MDC-T, Tendai Biti and party leader Tsvangirai are now two sides of the same coin, uncoordinated, suspicious of each other and not having a clear coherent strategy to beat Zanu-PF. For example, Biti announced on Al-Jazeera that he had “raped” government to get money for the election. Tsvangirai, on the other hand, was telling Violet Gonda on 1ST TV that he did not know where the money came from. How could such an incoherence occur at this crucial time?
The two were not seen in public on the same platform as a team, except in the picture where they are reading the Zanu-PF manifesto with organizing secretary Nelson Chamisa. They all looked pensive and that image was a public relations disaster, the hallmark of a disorganized group, contrasted with Team Zanu-PF. Their slogan “Bhora Musango” (Soccer ball in the Bush) based on Zanu-PF’s slogan “Bhora Mugedhi” (Soccer ball in the Soccer Gate) showed exactly what was going on in their camp. Rather than explaining their manifesto to the people, they were relaxed, reading a Zanu-PF one.
They also wasted time at the end of the campaign season, concentrating their campaign on Harare – an urban constituency where their support is higher than anywhere else. By calling for a rally at so-called “Freedom Square” the MDC-T thought they could replicate Egypt’s Tahrir Square. By campaigning till the last day, they lost crucial administrative time.
Compare this discord in the MDC-T with the strong, strategic and focussed campaign of Zanu-PF, with President Mugabe, Vice President Joice Mujuru and the rest of Team Zanu-PF Live 2013 focusing on the campaign, with sheer determination.
In the inclusive Government, they worked against the government, rather than try and outshine Zanu-PF to connect with the people. They thought by discrediting the work of the government, they would undermine Zanu-PF; but they undermined themselves because people saw their incompetence and their corruptibility. They then compared them to the original Zanu-PF government which had delivered in the 1980s and 1990s without the influence of the MDC-T, offering free education and free primary health care.
Tsvangirai wasted time on issues that had nothing to do with governing and he changed advisers many times, thus disrupting continuity in the MDC-T strategy, if they had one.
In entering into these elections, the MDC-T went in more as auditors of the Zimbabwe Election Commission (ZEC) and not as participants. Since morning of the election day, Tendai Biti was complaining, calling for many press conferences, rather than urging MDC-T supporters to go and vote. The MDC-T was busy watching how ZEC was doing its job.
They had no trust in the African Union, SADC, Chinese, and other election observers. They had their own observers, people who they could have used to encourage their supporters to vote.
They wasted time concentrating on bringing lawsuits and lobbying SADC, rather than mobilizing their support and consolidating their campaign.
The ferrying of supporters to vote is not illegal, especially where the road systems are not great – thanks to the sanctions they called for. No party would allow its supporters to walk on foot a distance of 5km to the polling station because the MDC-T would complain.
The MDC-T had the same right to ensure their supporters got to the polling stations, as long as these people were on the voters roll? Why should parties punish their supporters by not providing a conducive voting environment? Ferrying supporters to vote is not tantamount to campaigning on election day, which is illegal under the new constitution.
lnfact, it was the MDC-T that was fighting against disenfranchising the people. That means voting should have been facilitated as much as possible and besides they could still vote for the MDC-T being ferried to polling stations. How would Zanu-PF know they had voted for them? Again this is weak and un-strategic thinking by the MDC-T.
It was supposed to be ZEC’s responsibility to assist people to vote by providing them facilities like transport. The body was underfunded – thanks to Biti in his role as Finance Minister.
Now the chickens are coming home to roost. Zimbabweans have already made their choice by casting their vote.
Change, which the MDC-T wanted is coming. It’s not the change they envisaged.
*Comments and suggestions to info@talkzimbabwe.com
Labels: MDC, TENDAI BITI
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(NEWZIMBABWE, AFP) Biti slashes growth forecast ahead of polls
Economic growth forecast ... Tendai Biti speaks to reporters in Harare on Thursday
25/07/2013 00:00:00
by AFP
COMMENT - More of the same neoliberal, shock doctrine, pablum. The economy has been 'a nightmare' as growth prospects were 'slashed' from 5.0% to 3.4%, and 'we need more production', in other words, the Zimbabwean economy needs to be opened up for exploitation by giant foreign corporations, like Anglo-American De Beers, on whose behalf they want to nationalize the diamond mines, and call that 'growth'. They are a party of traitors. - MrK
WITH less than a week before elections, Finance Minister Tendai Biti slashed the country's growth forecast Thursday, citing the impact of political uncertainty surrounding the vote.
Biti said the first half of the year had been "a nightmare," as he revised 2013 growth down to 3.4 percent from an anticipated 5.0 percent.
"A decline in political situation is leading to a decline in economic situation," he said.
"We are living from hand to mouth. The fundamental challenge facing us is lack of production."
The drop is expected to be most acutely felt in the mining sector.
Growth in the sector was revised down from 17.1 percent to 5.3 percent.
Biti however reported that most of the funding for the July 31 presidential and legislative votes had been found.
The treasury has disbursed $96 million for the vote and $36 million was yet to be disbursed.
"We are ready for elections without help from anyone. We have done this without raping the economy."
The government had sought more funding from the UN, but the request was withdrawn amid a row over UN election monitors.
Zimbabweans go to the polls on July 31 to choose a successor to the shaky power-sharing government formed four years ago by President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.
But Biti questioned whether the country could afford to fund a run-off election, if there is no clear winner in the first round of voting.
"This will put unbelievable pressure on this economy," he said.
Labels: GDP, TENDAI BITI
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