Biti slams Mugabe’s politics of patronage

via Biti slams Mugabe’s politics of patronage 02 November 2014

PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe is the single biggest form of economic sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe and the sole reason why the nation is failing to progress, MDC Renewal Team leader Tendai Biti has said.

Biti told his fledgling party’s provincial council in Masvingo on Saturday that his new party was there to ensure that the suffering comes to an end.

“Mugabe introduced and exposed this country to the politics of discrimination for a very long time. This is the reason why there is uneven development, with people perishing in the Masvingo-Beitbridge road because someone regards the people of Masvingo as fourth class citizens and those from Matabeleland as fifth class citizens,” Biti said.

“That will end because this country has enough resources to cater for all of us despite our ethnic background. We can transform it into a warm home for all of those who live in it.”

Biti, the former finance minister in the coalition government, said Mugabe had concentrated development in his Mashonaland West province to the detriment of other provinces.

“Go to Mucheke terminus, throw a stone and you will hit a graduate because 40 percent of the people have at least a tertiary qualification but they either live as airtime vendors or touts and we will ensure that ends,” he said.

Biti together with former treasurer, Elton Mangoma, broke ranks with MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai after the latter rejected their calls to step down after he suffered a humiliating loss in an election against Mugabe last year.

Biti’s group now calls itself the Renewal Team.

The former secretary general argued that his formation had among its ranks some of the best brains credited with crafting a plan that brought economic stability during the coalition government between 2009 and 2013.

“We have and will continue to assemble a competent team with some of the best brains in this country.

“We will demand constitutional reforms before any elections are held as well as the coming together of progressive forces to bring down the Mugabe dictatorship,” said Biti.

Interim Renewal Team president Sekai Holland said theirs was a mandate to recreate a generational mandate for the youths of Zimbabwe.

“We want the youths of this country to realise that they can and must ensure a secure and stable future for themselves and their children in this country. They need to fight for it but we are now creating a platform for them to demand that which is rightfully theirs; the right to be citizens in the land of their birth,” said Holland.

Holland was the leader of the Guardians Council a grouping of elderly MDC-T leaders who advised Tsvangirai before the April split.

She agreed to take over the leadership of the formation until a congress is held next year.

The Renewal Team is currently in talks with another faction of the united MDC led by Welshman Ncube with a view to uniting the two formations.

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