via Place Zimbabwe under curatorship: Biti – NewsDay Zimbabwe June 6, 2014 by Everson Mushava
FORMER Finance minister and leader of the opposition MDC-T’s Renewal Team Tendai Biti yesterday said the country should be urgently placed under curatorship administered by a regional transitional technical team as the Zanu PF government had failed to rescue the free-falling economy.
Addressing journalists in Harare, Biti, who two months ago was “fired” as MDC-T secretary-general, said Zanu PF could not be “trusted to solve the problems they authored”.
“You cannot expect the same mindset that created the problems to solve them,” Biti said.
“A transitional technical team should be set to revive the country’s economy. If you look at the country’s per-capita income, we are now as way back as 1958. The government owes us an apology. What make us angry is when government pretends as if things are not bad.”
He said the country should once again be under Sadc curatorship that encompasses the full extent of the country’s economic crisis.
Biti said the 2008 hyperinflation era was better than the current deflation. He said Zanu PF had reduced the country to a trading nation, with the ratio of exports to imports now at 1: 8 as local industry was collapsing at an alarming rate.
Zimbabwe is currently suffering a serious cash crisis that has seen most companies either retrenching workers or closing down. Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa has been traversing the world with a begging bowl for budgetary support, but has come back empty-handed.
Chinamasa said the country needed $27 billion to fund the government’s economic blueprint, Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation (ZimAsset).
Biti, however, said the country urgently needed a $3 billion rescue package and Zanu PF should swallow its pride and convene an international conference underwritten by world monetary institutions in order to get international funding.
Government, Biti said, should restore the social contract and negotiate with labour and immediately repeal the indigenisation laws because no amount of amendments would make them any better.
He said government should clear its external debt which now stands at $11 billion and negotiate unconditional economic ties with all continents.
“Government’s desperation is seen when it increases fees for everything. First, it was hospital bills and now toll fees. This is becoming a robber economy. The effect is that people will flee the country. From a robber state, we have become a debtor economy. From January until now, the country has borrowed $600 million to finance recurrent expenditure,” Biti said.
COMMENTS
Am I the only one fed up to me teeth with this zanu stooge?
Biti is one of the most deceitful people to ever grace the political scene. We all thought Moyo was that. Now there are two. He done a good job during his tenure as Finance Minister…Or did he? Was he allowed to operate whilst others in the opposition were suppressed? Was there some greater plan even then? Did some in Zanu see that Tswangirayi was getting too influential with the populace? Why were the other opposition Ministers unable to make an impact? WAS HE A TROJAN HORSE?
Judging by the fact that no one has voiced their support for you it only means that YES you are the only.
Say what?
Ngoto Zimbwa You not the only one. I too am but it is good he keeps digging himself deeper into a hole.
Spot on Doc but this Sipho guy is obviously from somewhere else.
Judging by the fact that no one has voiced their support for you it only means that YES you are the only one!!
“Problems cannot be solved at the same level of thinking that they were created at.” Albert Einstein
What ?? The sadcc clowns to care take our failed economy ?? I’m falling over with laughter
Perhaps they should ask Britain if they could take over running the economy, they might even send a governor. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Biti u sound rabid. Finding ZANU pf is like pouring money into the sea. They have failed completely. ZANU pf has a bunch of idiots who can’t think. If you still have hope with ZANU it’s up to the Zimboz to risk dying like useless chickens otherwise Zimboz this is the time you need to offload uneccessary breed of people in your country that have brought permanent suffering.
“ZANU pf has a bunch of idiots who can’t think… ”
Nothing can be further from the truth. They can think. They only just don’t think of the rest of us but themselves. They have done everything right for their own interests. This just makes them bad national leaders.
Idiots, maybe. They have taken people for granted. It’s a gamble. See how far you can stretch the people before popular uprising to force you out. So far, that has also worked well for them. Their only objective simply need to be too continue looting and secretly transferring that wealth offshore for as long as possible without revolt. That gamble too has paid off.
So no. They are not fools. They are also not dimwits. Hate then or love them, but that they are cunning and successful at it remains true.
Guys,let’s stop opinion and comment assasinations on these only available platforms.Damage has been done and continues to be done in front of all of us everyday.Are we saint therefore today,after yesterday’s damage?NO!!Zimbabwe no longer needs causal outcries only at this juncture,but people who will separate the problems from the people as one writer once said.Let’s suspend causal effects,brainstorm solutions positively in our platforms.This will put the bad and good in one discourse and make all feel as part of the solution.Imagine telling Zanu Pf that we don’t have a problem with them but the problem is the sun shining direct into our eyes from that position they made us sit on.They won’t feel attacked personnaly nor being cornered,but being engaged for an input respectively on the problem substantively.Let’s put the recovery of our country first even when it takes marching along with the criminal to discovering where he buried the corpse.
huh!
Mugabe and Zanu PF DO NOT have any answers but they will insist they have and that they are the only ones competent to lead. This is the heart of our problem, this is the very essence of why Mugabe rigged last year’s elections and all the others before it! We have allowed Mugabe to rule for 34 years now and all he has ever done is made the bad situation worse.
If we are serious about getting out of this mess then we must finally stand up to Mugabe and his thugs and tell them in no uncertain terms that they have failed and they must go.
“Imagine telling Zanu Pf that we don’t have a problem with them but the problem is the sun shining direct into our eyes from that position they made us sit on,” you say. “They won’t feel attacked personally nor being cornered, but being engaged for an input respectively on the problem substantively.” That is just another form of appeasement!
The right of all to a meaningful free vote is the very foundation of democracy and good governance those who have accepted the corrupted visions of tyrants like Mugabe where the vote is only granted as long as it does not result in regime change have paid dearly for their folly. If elections are held on condition that they do not result in change of regime then there is real no point in holding the elections.
The way out of this mess is that we must put an end to pointless elections; the 2013 elections were completely pointless because Mugabe and Zanu PF blatantly rig the vote. We need the elections held afresh, period! there is no sun shining in my eyes about the rigged elections and there is no negotiating with people who committed high treason either!
why has Civil society or ZHRL not being consulted- Imbisa where are you?
Seriously guys. We are being run by a bunch of zealots… who’s only aim lays in enrichment of thyself… For as long as we.are afraid of this zanu devil.. families will.continue to be destroyed livelihoods lost….moral fabric white washed. When oooh when will we rise and fight for our childrens lives; our future our heritage. When will we stop letting a few misguided giatrics destroy a lovely nation???
“Regional transitional technical team”– OH PLEASE. The situation is dire but not bad enough for an occupational team. Yes, something needs to be done but the solution has to be internal, homegrown, by Zimbabweans for Zimbabweans. Drop this nonsense that the region is going to solve our problems, please purge all external thoughts and recreate internally. Once you get this “regional transitional technical team” why not expand it to a” international transitional technical team “. What we need is a few good and honest people and a few simple and straight policies. We certainly don’t need a few foreign technocrat– after all we are the most educated African country with our sons and daughters running economies in other countries. We need an economic dictator and not a political dictator. We need less politics and more economics- we have enough politicians mudding the scene already, we have more than enough technocrats roaming the streets and the few that are working spent their day ‘vachitamba draft’. Less politics and more action on the economic front. In fact we could do better with a quarter of the politicians and will gladly pay the other three quarters free benefits for keeping their mouths shut.
@ Chirandu
We should not be too proud to ask for help; your “internal, homegrown, by Zimbabweans for Zimbabweans” is totally misplaced. We would not be in this mess if we were as smart as you say we are. We have failed and asking for outside help is a very sensible proposition!
We could do with UN help. As for SADC the prospect of Zuma’s blundering again in Zimbabwe’s affairs is unthinkable.
Very interesting comments from all and the anger is clearly there.
We need to look carefully at what is being proposed and I support the idea more than condemn it.
I agree we need an interim government but not SADC sponsored as they are the ones who have and will ensure Mugabe and crowd remain in control, we need a UN team in place or even better a commonwealth states team who will facilitate the honouring of our constitution. We should go back to the Lancaster house agreement as a starting point, (resettlement funding and all)and build from there. That way we can learn from and avoid our mistakes.
US$3 billion is nowhere near enough to get our country going again and it is only the western countries who will lend us anything what is required – more like 25 billion – but much of this has to come in indirect aid ie establishing businesses and creating employment and exports.
That is why I support the initiative, it gives a starting point but one we must have a say and participation in.
This should also be done in conjunction with a truth and reconciliation commission so those who have abused their powers and committed murder should face the music, thus sending a clear message to any future ‘ chefs ‘ that they will not be above the laws and people.
@ Moyokumusha
Mention any money and the interim administration will be swamped by the corrupt and greed whose misrule landed us in this mess in the first place. They are like bug-beetles close the front door and they will try the back door, close that and they will try the window, chimney, every-which-way.
The interim administration will need to implement the reforms and prepare for fresh elections – they will not $3 billion dollars for that only their thinking caps!
Yes Moyo.. Lets give it a chance.. I don’t see any alternatives being offered by anyone least of all MDC-T or Zanu. ZimAsset is a non starter because of the confidence problem of Zanu doing anything on their own..Big business are the ones to watch, some are comfortable with patronage and monopolies but lets see who would come to the party and put the national economy first..They are the very people who need to pressure the politicians,all politicians to change course…
Tendai Biti is an enigma; painting done by an idiot with vast areas of splashing of paint and mad violently mixed reflecting the confusion and hurricane turbulence in the tormented mind of the creator but here and there, there are spots with the most delicate and angelic brush work reflecting the rare eye-of the storm calm moments.
Tendai Biti’s political career, as is the case with the rest of the MDC leaders, will al-ways be dominated by the criminal waste of time, money and cruel betrayal of the people when the whole MDC leadership chose to wine and dine with Mugabe and completely forgot why they were in the GNU. There is simply no excuse why they failed to implement the democratic reforms necessary for free and fair elections other that they are corrupt and are breathtakingly incompetent.
Tendai Biti, the enigma he is, has always shown the glimpse of genius.
“You cannot expect the same mind-set that created the problems to solve them,” said Tendai Biti. That is one of those rare moments of genius; sadly the eye of the storm passed only too quickly!
Tendai Biti, Tsvangirai and the rest of the MDC leaders are now an integral part of the “mind-set that created” this political mess – specifically allowing Mugabe back into power with all his dictatorial powers intact when they should have dismantled the dictatorship when they had the chance to do so during five years of the GNU. Tendai Biti should take his own advice and accept that he cannot be part of the solution no more than Mugabe and Zanu PF can be.
If we allowed the same mind-set who landed the nation into this mess; Mugabe and Zanu PF, and wasted the many opportunities for us to get out of the mess, Tendai Biti and Morgan Tsvangirai and their competing MDC factions; to play a part in defining the way out then we will never ever get out of this mess because they are only interested in yet another fudge!
Those who think Tsvangirai is such a semi-god he can’t be challenged, have lessons to learn. Mirai muone. Nguva yaSave yakatopfuura, chero ivo vanozviziva. siyanai naBiti. This is about Zimbabwe.
Ndangariro You are lost. Its about getting rid of Zanu.
Have the ordinary man in the street being consulted?
I hear talk about interim or transitional govt. But none of you explain how that can even be discussed by those with the reigns of power, who have yet to admit anything wrong has happened. If indeed the economic demise is our trump card, then guys we are in for a very long long wait.
I however have been saying this and many of you are not taking me for serious. My solution to this stalemate is that Mugabe, Chihure, Chiwengwa and Zimhondi will take us serious only when people-not MDC or Zanu PF, are rising up. The day this judge’s home gets ransacked, the day when a police vehicle gets burned, the day when certain areas become no go zones for this partisan police, the day when a police station gets raided and prisoners freed, that day, with these very few incidences, will wake Mugabe up and even the international community will begin to take us seriously.
Right now we are not ready. I say so coz if a zanoid violent youth squad can be scrambled so quickly to go and burn down Madzibaba shrine in broad daylight, then these zanoid youth are yet to feel the pinch.
Even the per capita income is not known since they dont even know the size of the population. They keep coming up with quite some wild figures time after time, you never know which is which.
There are Zims all over Europe, in Canada, the US, in Australasia and in South Africa – they dont know how many those are.
In Zim itself, sometimes they claim 13 million; other times 14 million. The voters roll comes up with funny numbers of those registered to vote as 6 million. Bulawayo is said to have 100 000 people – geez man; such a big city. God help us!!