Latest News Editor's Choice


Opinion / Columnist

Is Biti a Zanu-PF functionary?

23 Mar 2015 at 11:39hrs | Views

Zimbabwe on Sunday woke up to news that former Minister of Finance and MDC-T secretary general Tendai Biti is considering quitting politics.

This follows his recent expulsion from Parliament together with other 20 MPs who had distanced themselves from Tsvangirai's MDC-T outfit citing his fascist tendencies.

The former Harare East legislator was quoted in the The Herald saying he has played his part.

The million dollar question is what part has Biti played which now demands rest?

Surely, if it is the struggle for change in Zimbabwe then Biti is at the formative stage given that the ink has barely dried on his Unity Accord with Welshman Ncube's party.

Is Biti saying that after being a legislator for 15 years, he has amassed a lot of wealth?

But, this assumption is baseless. The former minister of finance is not holy when it comes to handling money.

Remember what he said to a ZiFM presenter when he was asked to account for the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) before the 2013 elections.

The verbal diahorrea that emanated from the learned lawyer was crass and uncouth. He stripped his dignity away for the sake of hiding his shenanigans.

The most shocking was to come when Biti announced his return to law. The struggle had hit a bedrock and he turned to his old ways rather than looking for ways to further the democratisation agenda.

Tonderai Ndira and hundreds of martyrs for democracy wanted to live a comfortable professional life, but the struggle to bring down Mugabe's dictatorship did not afford them to the luxury.

Biti did not see the betrayal of his fallen friends by re-establishing his law firm but he pursues the route to self-agrandisement. Money not the need to rescue people of Zimbabwe from poverty becomes more important to him.

As if this was not enough, Biti resumed his career by representing one of the most documented professional thieves, Gideon Gono. His onetime enemy during the inclusive government becomes his buddy, Gono's crimes against the people of Zimbabwe become fathoms to our clever lawyer.

Munyaradzi Kereke saw everything wrong with Gono's conduct but the former Secretary General did not see anything wrong with Gono stealing our billions.

The fact that the former Reserve Bank Governor is a key Zanu-PF financier and President Robert Mugabe's financial advisor did not scare Biti. He began to din and wine with the same people who authored the system he claimed to be fighting.
In a typical Zanu-PF fashion, Biti started to fight for the unconstitutional removal of Morgan Tsvangirai on the helm of the opposition. As expected, pro-Mugabe newspapers began to shower him with praises.

He was referred to as a chess player and his new enemy Tsvangirai was said to be playing draft.

Although, it is now an open secret that the former trade unionist, Tsvangirai is now far past his prime time, removing him without consulting the grassroots prove more suicidal for Biti.

Together with like-minded greedy people, Biti formed the MDC Renewal Team and joined it with Welshman Ncube's party which has long been rocked by defections.

Biti is now telling us he has played his part. Has he played a part by tricking our once vibrant cadres in the struggle such as Gorden Moyo, Settlement Chikwinya and Lucia Matibenga?

Some of these guys were very important weapons in our struggle to dismantle the Mugabe Regime.

If it is that role Biti has played, then he will be remembered as a Morris Nyathi of our generation.

Musavengana Hove is a youth activist based in Bulawayo. Email soldierjournalist@gmail.com for feedback


Source - Musavengana Hove
All articles and letters published on Bulawayo24 have been independently written by members of Bulawayo24's community. The views of users published on Bulawayo24 are therefore their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Bulawayo24. Bulawayo24 editors also reserve the right to edit or delete any and all comments received.