Tendai Biti has reported written to the World
Bank asking them to make sure any financial assistance they give to Zimbabwe benefit
the people and not the ruling elite.
"Even in these unprecedented times, any
support from the World Bank Group must contribute towards our shared goal of
better health and economic opportunity for the people of Zimbabwe. Any
assistance must not be allowed to further enrich or entrench the very people
who have destroyed our economy and democracy," wrote Biti, according to The
Herald.
"We have painfully learned, time and
again, that the Government will abuse public resources for their own goals rather
than for the benefit of Zimbabweans.
"The only way that we can advance our
shared goals to respond to the current crisis is to include robust measures for
transparency and accountability in any assistance package.”
No man or woman would deny the criminal waste
of the nation’s resources by the ruling elite to feed their insatiable hunger
for power and wealth.
Indeed, the WB itself knows only too well how
gross mismanagement and rampant corruption have all but totally destroyed
Zimbabwe’s once upon a time booming economy. The WB has given Zimbabwe US$7
million in financial assistance to help the country fight the corona virus
pandemic. This is but a fraction of what other nation have received precisely
because donors are fearful the money will looted!
One American senator has written to the WB
demanding that any bank assistance to Zimbabwe must “impose very strict
benchmarks and transparency and accountability processes”!
What is worth noting here is Tendai Biti’s duplicity.
If he was really interested in the common goal of saving the ordinary people of
Zimbabwe, the economy and democracy then why has he not implemented even one
democratic reform in all the 20 years he and his MDC friends have been on the
political stage?
During the 2008 to 2013 GNU, MDC had the
majority in parliament and in the cabinet in which he was the Minister of
Finance. He was aware of the rampant corruption and complained “of a parallel
government”; the Joint Operation Command, a junta comprising of the top brass
in the security services headed by Mugabe and Mnangagwa; “complete with it own
source of funding”. Other than complain about it on this one occasion, he did
nothing to stamp out corruption.
Worst of all, MDC failed to implement even one democratic
reform in five years of the GNU and yet that was the primary task of the GNU!
If Tendai Biti and his MDC friends cared about
good governance then they should have not participated in the 2013 much less
2018 elections when it was clear, with no reforms in place, Zanu PF was going
to blatantly rig the process. They participated out of greed; they knew Zanu PF
would give away a few seats to entice the opposition and these were what they
were after.
Tendai Biti and company have sold-out the
common cause of free, fair and credible elections for a few gravy-train seats!
Ever since the rigged 2018 elections Tendai
Biti and Nelson Chamisa have piled the pressure on (no doubt the letter to WB is
part of it) Mnangagwa to share power. They are asking for the formation of
National Transition Authority, a 2008 GNU in all but name, in which MDC leaders
will be allocated cabinet positions. Biti has been itching to get his 2008
Minister of Finance post back.
“Any assistance must not be allowed to further
enrich or entrench the very people who have destroyed our economy and democracy!”
Very true! But it is not just Zanu PF thugs who have destroyed Zimbabwe’s economy
and democracy and are holding the nation to ransom; MDC sell-outs like Tendai
Biti are in it too!
12 comments:
@ Tendai Biti
“This is part of a steady and hastening trend towards failure in Zimbabwe. This event should remind the international community – along with the Southern African region — that ZANU-PF is not a reformist government, which several of the invertebrate among them prefer to believe. Nor should they ease up pressure on Harare to adhere to democratic standards,” you said.
Just when exactly have you had your “road to Damascus moment” for you to now finally admit “Zanu PF is not a reformist government”. You and your fellow MDC leaders believed otherwise, especially during the 2008 to 2013 GNU when you failed to get even one reform implemented. Not one!
I do not need to remind you that it was SADC leaders who managed to force Mugabe to sign the 2008 Global Political Agreement in which the dictator agreed to the implementation of the raft of democratic reforms designed to dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship. It was then left to you, Mr Tendai Biti, and your fellow MDC leaders to implement the reforms. You failed to get even one reform implemented because you sold-out.
Mugabe bribed you and your fellow MDC leaders with generous salaries, ministerial limos, a US$4 million mansion for Tsvangirai, etc. And in return, you lot throw the reforms out of the window.
SADC leaders did their best to remind the MDC leaders to implement the reforms but their advice fell on deaf ears. These are the same leaders you are now calling “invertebrates”, political slugs. What chutzpah!
Army spokesman, Mngwisi, says the Army was not involved in the takeover of MDC HQ.
This is not the first time the Army has done something and then deny doing it. We have an army within an army, a government within a government, a Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde! Anyone who says we can ever get a good and accountable government from this regime in naïve. To exorcise Mr Hyde we must implement the democratic reform!
GOVERNMENT has moved to cancel all its contracts with controversial Swiss medicine supplier Drax International.
The company, fronted by dodgy businessman Delish Nguwaya, was awarded contracts to supply medicines and surgical sundries worth US$60 million without going to tender.
Drax has also been linked to Collins, son of President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
In a letter to National Pharmaceutical Company (NatPharm) managing director, Flora Sifeku, permanent secretary in the Finance Ministry George Guvamatanga said the cancellation is with immediate effect
"This extraordinary crisis will require an exceptional response, but it is equally important not to lose sight of the historical behaviour of countries like Zimbabwe where the Government has used, and continues to use, State resources and international aid to suppress its population and enrich the ruling elite,” wrote US Senator Risch to WB regarding its rescue package to Zimbabwe.
"I was relieved to hear that the $7 million grant for Zimbabwe will be managed and implemented by the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) and the Dutch Catholic Organisation for Relief and Development Aid (Cordaid) but concerns remain that the funding this grant provides for desperately needed responses will fall into the wrong hands directly or indirectly.
The Senator’s fears have already been realised! It is a great tragedy that Zimbabwe should find itself still stuck with a corrupt and incompetent government no one can trust to do business with. The US$7 million was a fraction of what other nations, with competent and accountable government, have received.
"Look, I am sending you out as sheep among wolves. So be as shrewd as snakes and harmless as doves,” said Jesus Christ to his followers.
It is a message that has rung true in Zimbabwe and by failing to pay heed, we have paid dearly for it. For we, ordinary Zimbabweans are indeed sheep among wolves, our political leaders.
It took at least 20 years after independence in 1980 for many Zimbabweans to finally accept that Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies were not the selfless liberation heroes we wanted them to be. We wanted liberation heroes and thus refused to believe the corruption, the bullying, vote rigging and even cold-blooded murders even after seeing these things with our own eyes.
We were not shrewd enough to admit it to ourselves that Mugabe and his cronies were corrupt, incompetent and murderous thugs who never really care about freedom, justice, peace and economic prosperity for all Zimbabweans. They had joined in the liberation war as mercenaries; they fought not for a cause but for a reward and they wanted to take over from the white colonialists as the new all powerful rulers!
When the people finally accepted Mugabe and his Zanu PF thugs were corrupt and murderous tyrants they saw the need for democratic change as the only way to end the Zanu PF dictatorship. And so, for the last 20 years the people have risked life and limb to elect leaders who would implement the democratic changes the nation has been dying for.
If anyone thought after 20 years of corrupt and tyrannical rule by Zanu PF the people had learnt their lesson, they will be a lot more shrewd and careful in their selection of leaders. Wrong!
Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends have proven to be breathtakingly corrupt and incompetent. They have been on the political stage for 20 years and have failed to implement even one democratic reform. Not one!
Former US Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Chris Dell, said Tsvangirai “was a flawed and indecisive character who would be an albatross round the nation’s neck if he ever got in power”. The Ambassador was right, even as the country’s main opposition party MDC has already proven to be the milestone holding back the nation in its fight for freedom and democracy. Sadly, our people with their sheepish mentality of following leaders blindly, no questions asked, have yet to wake up to the reality that Tendai Biti and his MDC friends have long abandoning the fight for democratic change. The principle purpose of Biti’s letter to the WB is to pile the pressure so there is the National Transition Authority (NTA) and he gets his old job.
The 2008 to 2013 GNU failed to get even one reform implemented, it is naïve to think that this NTA will do any better!
Unless the Zimbabweans wake-up and become as shrewd as a snake, there is no real hope of this country even getting out of the hell-on-earth we now find ourselves stuck in. None!
@ D Mafa
"I would like to urge you to look into the issue of imposition of candidates and the use of the militia to cow people by candidates who were imposed to represent MDC in parliament. These you must recall from parliament since they did not follow the due processes of primary elections. They were imposed on the people and some with their deep pockets. The grassroots were deprived of their constitutional right to choose leaders of their choice."
So every grievance must now be settle with a "recall!"
The provision allowing parties to recall elected officials is meant to help maintain discipline in the party but now it seem it is putting elected officials in straitjackets. The new constitution was "dictated by Mugabe" Paul Mangwana has often boasted and one can see why this was indeed the case.
If the people of Zimbabwe are serious about transforming this country into a free, justice, peaceful and prosperous nation then we must have the courage to implement the democratic reforms and rewrite the constitution.
@ Mwembe
“The writer is ignorant and confused. Look at journalist Chingono when he says so and so are corrupt he proves it to the nation. Simple. You cannot persist saying MDC are corrupt without proof. Tell the nation who is corrupt in MDC. No sane person can say MDC failed to implement reforms bcoz you can never do that if you are not in control of govt that is being shallow in thinking. We all know how it was difficult for MDC in that govt where they were treated like juniors,” you said.
Do you know what the process of implementing the reforms during the GNU was? Any member of parliament could submit the proposed reforms, say to reform the Police. Parliament would then debate the proposed reforms, amend, delete and add as they saw fit. Parliament will then submit the final reforms as a bill to the State President, in this case Robert Mugabe, for his signature. Once signed it was then for parliament to implement the reform.
There was not even one reform implemented during the five years of the GNU because not even one proposed reform was submitted in parliament. Not one!
The process above required one to be an MP and the two MDC factions had more MPs that Zanu PF.
The likes of Tendai Biti was well aware of the process of submitting the proposed reform and the rest were informed of the process countless times.
MDC leaders did not implement even one reform in five years because “they were bust enjoying themselves in the GNU they forgot why they were there!” as one SADC diplomat aptly put it.
You have chosen to bury your head in the sand and deny that MDC leaders are not corrupt, incompetent and sell-out. That is your choice but that will never change the facts on the ground! The real tragedy for the country is that people like you, who have no clue what they are talking about, have the vote and are the ones keeping corrupt and incompetent leaders in power!
Next time you look in the mirror, you will see someone who is insane. I could change that if it was in my power to do so. I cannot reason with you, no reasonable person can. You are beyond the pale!
@ Mwembe
“However pple are still grateful to what MDC did in that govt. Ruined shops reopened prices were stable money at banks USD was plenty fuel across the nation plenty, hope came back to citizens. Companies reopened pple went back to work hospitals functioned properly investors trickled back civil servants got better salaries.”
No one would ever deny that the national economy recovered after the formation of the GNU; it registered a 12% growth in 2009 after a -ve 6% the year before! Two big thing contributed the most to that recover: first was the scrapping of the Z$ in November 2008 and the second was the lifting of the price control. These two were single events which were done and dusted leaving one to do other things like implementing the reforms.
Whatever economic recovery that was achieved during the GNU it could only be sustained if good governance was assured and that is why the implementing the reforms was so important. We could only secure good governance by implementing the reforms and thus making sure elections were free, fair and credible.
Once you saw the shops full of goods, plenty of fuel, etc. you were so happy you, Tendai Biti and many others switched-off completely. Zanu PF was able to rig the 2013 elections and return to power because no reforms were implemented and only when the economy has once again in decline that you woke up again but only to give foolish excuses why MDC had not implemented any reforms! God give me patience!
@ Mwembe
“Wilbert Mukori theoretically is what you are saying practically it would not until you are total power. ZANU was on record they would not REFORM THEMSELVES OUR OF POWER. Did you not hear them say that. They meant it they resisted every attempt by MDC to reform till the live span of the joined govt elapsed . So it is not correct to blame MDC when they did not complete power for something which need complete power.”
The trouble with shallow minded people like you is you argue round and round in circles because you understand of the subject matter is potato skin deep.
You have convinced yourself that “Zanu PF will never reform themselves out of power!” is a universal truth as unshakable as Sir Isaac Newton’s three laws of motion. And yet have failed to grasp that the very essence of the 2008 Global Political Agreement address that very point – the GNU was a Government of National Unity i.e. it was neither a Zanu PF nor an MDC-T government but one that included members of these two parties plus a contingent from MDC-Mutambara in which SADC was the guarantor.
So your universal truth was totally irrelevant. The GNU failed to implement even one reform because the Zanu PF members did not want the reforms, true. But what about the MDC members? The answer is they are corrupt, incompetent and they sold-out! You just cannot accept that simple reality and hence the reason you want to pretend the GNU was in all but name Zanu PF.
There was not even one reform proposal submitted during the GNU and so the argument that Zanu PF resisted reforms comes from ignorant people like you. How can Zanu PF resist something that is not there!
MDC leaders are corrupt, incompetent and sell-outs, they have failed to implement even one reform in 20 years and they will never ever deliver free, fair and credible elections. That is a well-established fact and denying it is what is holding this nation back.
@ Tendai Biti
Tendai Biti is nothing more than the boastful cock telling his harem of hens that the sun rises and sets at his command.
The WB, IMF and many other international finance houses have all reduced their financial assistance to Zimbabwe to barely a trickle at the end of Zimbabwe’s second five-year Economic Structural Adjustment Programme (ESAP) in 1999. The much hoped for economic recovery had not materialised, the country’s economy was worse than it was before the adopting of the programme.
Mugabe blamed IMF and WB for Zimbabwe’s economic woes and vowed not to repay the loan owed to the two Bretton Wood sisters. The truth is the programme has failed to revive the economy because Zanu PF did not implement the agreed reforms. As for repaying the mounting debt, Zanu PF loved borrowing but hated paying the debt, as the Chinese soon learnt for themselves.
Indeed, even during the GNU years when Tendai Biti was the Minister of Finance, the Bretton sisters kept their purse-strings drawn because nothing much changed. Corruption, for example, rampant before the GNU had continued. It was none than Tendai Biti himself who, in one of his rare senile moments, had complained about “two parallel governments each complete with its own source of funds”.
What matters here is that Biti complained about corruption but never lifted a finger to end it.
Indeed, the principle task of Tendai Biti and his fellow MDC friends in the GNU was to implement the democratic reforms to restore democracy and good governance. They failed to implement even one reforms in five years!
“However, even in these unprecedented times, any support from the World Bank Group must contribute towards our shared goal of better health and economic opportunity for the people of Zimbabwe. Any assistance must not be allowed to further enrich or entrench the very people who have destroyed our economy and democracy,” wrote Biti.
“Indeed, the regime is already using the lockdown as a pretext for further theft and repression. Any support to Zimbabwe must help in creating sustainable recovery anchored on principles of sound good governance, democracy and the rule of law not patronage, capture or corruption.
The corruption levels in Zimbabwe are disturbing.”
If the truth be told, and it must and will be told, Tendai Biti and his MDC friends have played a major in destroying democracy in Zimbabwe by failing to implement the democratic reforms when it was in their power to do so.
Since the corona virus outbreak, the WB has only given Zimbabwe US$7 million, a fraction of what it has given other nations, precisely because Zimbabwe is views as a corrupt and wasteful nation – and rightly so too.
Tendai Biti is strutting like a peacock before his naïve and gullible followers the he is the one who has forced WB to stop funding Zimbabwe. The WB knew that Zanu PF is corrupt but better still they also know that Tendai Biti and his MDC friends are just as corrupt and incompetent!
My dear brother Job Sikhala you confuse yourself and the public you’re your double talk!
“Firstly, I am a grounded democrat who will never ever buy into coups. This is the reason why I was a spectator and did not participate in the November 17, 2017 facade. I amongst many, recused myself from the deception of the time, for I knew what it was,” you said. Only to contradict yourself in the next paragraph.
“When I saw my brothers from the Security Services Chiefs in his company, I became proud because General Valerio Sibanda and Police Commissioner General Godwin Matanga and other luminaries of the liberation struggle represent the dreams of the people of Zimbabwe as the liberation struggle was fought for the liberty of its people and their happiness. Their constitutional duty is to be the people’s shield and the territorial sanctification of Zimbabwe. No one disputes their immutable value today and tomorrow to Zimbabwe. They remain the pillar of the security and safety of Zimbabweans,” you said.
The men and women you are showering with your praises are and have always been the foundation, “musimboti” as one would say in Shona, on which this ubiquitous Zanu PF dictatorship is built. All these Security Services Chiefs were either involved in the November 2017 military coup or else they were in the wrong faction and found themselves looking up the business end of the coup plotter’s gun.
One of the reasons why MDC has failed to implement even one meaningful democratic reform in 20 years of the party’s history is MDC leaders’ failure to appreciate the extend and depth of the Zanu PF dictatorship and hence the need to implement all the proposed reforms during the 2008 to 2013 GNU.
If Valerio Sibanda is still a “luminary of the liberation struggle”, then so is Mnangagwa, Chiwenga, etc. for they have remained together during the war and throughout these four decades of corrupt and tyrannical rule!
@ Nomazulu
It must be disheartening to the donors to see the palatial mansions where Zimbabwe's ruling elite live complete with the fleet of posh cars. It beggars belief that a nation that can afford such luxuries would fail to supply the bare essentials of life such as food, medicine, clean running water, etc. We, the people, have not done ourselves any great favours by allowing this sorry state of affairs to continue unchecked for 40 years and counting!
In an interview with the Zim Morning Post Chamisa said he has no time to discuss issues that are before the courts with regards to the ownership of the main opposition headquarters, the Morgan Tsvangirai House, which was invaded by the Khupe-led splinter group last week.
"My focus is not on the Harvest House, that one belongs to the people. My dispute is at the State House. We must be talking about who should be occupying the State House.
"We are in a crisis as a nation and the central issue is on the occupants of the State House. Once that is resolved then Zimbabweans will be free," Chamisa said.
This is just childish! Chamisa’s Constitution Court challenge of Mnangagwa’s victory in the July 2018 elections was about who was the right occupant of State House. Chamisa lost that fight as the Court ruled against him.
Ever since the High Court judged that Chamisa’s seizure of the MDC leadership following Tsvangirai’s death in February 2018 violated the party’s own constitution; Chamisa has been dragged into a new dispute of who owned Harvest House. The last three months have seen many dramatic events involving Chamisa and his supporters fighting Dr Khupe and her supporters over the leadership of the party. It is therefore very childish of Chamisa to now pretend there is nothing going on between him and Khupe!
This is typical Zimbabwean political leader response to a problem - bury your head in the sand and hope the problem will go away!
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