Biti hasn’t done a runner, MDC Renewal

via Biti hasn’t done a runner, MDC Renewal – New Zimbabwe 07/04/2015

THE opposition MDC Renewal group has denied media reports that its secretary general Tendai Biti has abandoned ship and sought employment in the United States.

In the same statement, the group also “dispelled rumours” that Biti and treasurer general Elton Mangoma came to blows over the leadership of the party ahead of an expected congress later this year.

“The MDC Renewal Team seeks to dispel rumours to the effect that the secretary general Tendai Biti has since abandoned the Party, the democratic struggle that it champions and sought new opportunities in the United States of America.

“The secretary general responded to these rumours prior to his exiting the country. In dismissing these rumours, he made it categorically clear that Kasukuwere (Saviour) was not his spokesperson or the spokesperson of the MDC Renewal Team,” the group said in a statement.

Zanu PF political commissar and Water Affairs Minister Kasukuwere claimed Biti had been offered a job in America and media reports at the weekend claimed the former finance minister had accepted a position as a research fellow at an US think-tank.

But in his statement spokesperson Jacob Mafume assured “the nation that the secretary general will return and continue to be seized with the party business as mandated to him by the people at the party congress held in Bulawayo in 2011”.

He added: “In the same breath, the party wants to dispel rumours circulating in the papers that the secretary general, Tendai Biti and the treasurer general, Elton Mangoma  were in a near fist fight at the party offices during a party meeting.

“For the record, nothing of this sort occurred on the stated day and indeed at any other time. As a matter of fact, the secretary general hardly spent much time in the meeting as he was attending to Constitutional Court applications involving the 21 illegally expelled MPs.

“The sources of the story who misled the media are Zanu PF elements with the sole intention to derail the people’s hope.”

Mafume said the group remained “resolute and focused on dealing with economic challenges, social and moral decay, political disjointment and diminishing hope among the people of Zimbabwe by bringing about real solutions anchored on compassionate leadership, solidarity, transparency, accountability and fairness where all Zimbabweans will have opportunities to fulfil their ambitions in a dignified manner”.

He said the Renewal Team believed that only a coalition of democrats can help revive the country’s ailing economy.