via I regard Tsvangirai highly but…, says Biti – New Zimbabwe 06/10/2015
LEADER of the newly transformed People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Tendai Biti says he has respect and high regard for his former leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
Biti said this while speaking on private radio station ZiFM stereo’s current affairs programme Monday night with Ruvheneko Parirenyatwa.
The PDP president said political parties are voluntary associations bound by common visions and the moment it becomes obvious that a leader is pulling the other direction the normal thing is for others to move on.
Biti said he left the MDC-T not because of personal clashes with Tsvangirai but because of differences on principles and values.
He said the real issue was on the question of change and the refusal by some members of the MDC-T to accept the reality of renewal and transformation.
“My differences with Tsvangirai are not personal; he is someone I regard as a long standing and founding member of the MDC.
“He is someone I regard as a comrade but what I think one cannot do is to compromise principles and values.
“The minute some of us felt that in respect of values on which the original party was formed in 1999 had been dissipated or betrayed naturally the breakdown became inevitable,” said Biti.
“So, those contradictions have occurred but they are now in the past, so it’s now time to move forward and build the future of Zimbabwe”.
Biti added that both he and the MDC-T leader were genuinely seeking transformation and change in Zimbabwe.
“I have no doubt that Tsvangirai shares that vision and I have no doubt that at some stage perhaps very soon our paths will cross in the different boats that we now belong to.”
The PDP leader also said it was high time Zimbabwean politics moved from personalities to ideas and issues.
“What has killed Africa is this psychosis with big men politics, the Mzee Jomo Kenyattas, Mzee Daniel Arab Moi, Mzee Kenneth Kaunda, the founding father of Pan-Africanism Kwame Khrumah himself; they all have been obsessed with personalities and not substance and not ideas on transformation.
“And at PDP we are concerned with issues and substance.
“President Mugabe has been president of this country for the last 35 years as a big personality but in my book he is a little big man, little in the sense that what has he done for his people?
“We are a poor and struggling society where 70% of people are living the in the rural areas sharing the same water with their goats and pigs.
“…54% of our people still use the bush as a toilet; that’s little in my dictionary.”
COMMENTS
above all tsvangirai is just the main man
Funny, I also used to regard Biti highly, until I was disappointed by his lack of big picture vision and wisdom. Sharp mind, courageous and witty yes, but political astuteness…no, for the answer was not to wreck your party, the way you did, but work within while waiting for an opportune and strategic moment for leadership renewal. Now look at the mess you created. And now you blame Tsvangirai even for the loss of parliamentary seats (showing you did not see it happen when you pulled out). Is this not like common song of blaming sanctions and drought for all our ills and failures? Now you have made opposition parties a nonentity, as they just seem never to survive beyond an election. As if it was just about power!
Biti – too little too late. Finally it dawns on you there is no value in just insulting other people like Mugabe does.
This leaves me more puzzled. Learned as i assume Biti is, should know the power of negotiation and be able to calculate the value of what to compromise or not. Who else does he regard highly in the former governmeny of national unity? He sounds cunny.
Used to have high regard for Biti. But when he started his renewal moves and attempted coup, l started looking back to the days of his younger brother, Stanford’s denigration of the leadership of Tsvangirai and the pelting of other members of the party here in the UK with eggs, and high ranking officials of the party here pleading with Tendai to clip the wings of Stanford which fell on Tendai’s deaf ears. I also sought to understand more of Tendai’s character from a close friend and staunch supporter of the struggle, and these were his words: “Tendai has never been into the struggle whole heartedly. During the Welshman Ncube split, he was fence sitting, watching which side to jump to where he can end up with a big post. Realising Tsvangirai remained popular with the majority of Zimbabweans, he then came off his fence and landed with the Secretary General’s post”. I therefore added all these up and concluded that Tendai is an opportunist. The young brother here in the UK has gone quiet,when he should be campaigning for his elder brother’s with the same level of energy he used to spend denigrating Tsvangirai and pelting other members with a different view to his with eggs.
I hate opportunists from any walk of life, and Tendai Biti is one such opportunist.
biti lacks revelation
Tendai I hope you remember my kind words when you were stirring the Renewal Agenda behind the curtains and using Mangoma…my words were “A vulture is a very patient bird” & “he who raises the sword to stab will not wear the crown”. Just like Ncube I was convinced you were going to be the ultimate president of Zimbabwe. I am convinced you have lost it.
I was involved in the formation of the MDC, way back even before the first congress in Chitungwiza.
Time and time again it was stressed that we didn’t want “forever” leaders – and MT supported that.
No doubt he is disappointed because he has been thwarted by Organised Crime for so many years, but in my mind he should have stepped down and strongly supported a new leader from behind. His name will always be synonimous with the fright for Freedom in Zimbabwe, like Lech Walesa in Poland.
So, I am disappointed at the fractured MDC’s and disappointed that they cannot act in a mature way for the sake of the country, and that goes for MT, BT and all the rest
I think Biti I Lying too much.if he ha o much respect for Tsvangirai he shouldn’t have dumped him and formed a new direction like what he did , he mistrusted him, instead he should have helped Tsvangirai to topple our depotic leader
I think Biti I Lying too much.if he ha o much respect for Tsvangirai he shouldn’t have dumped him and formed a new direction like what he did , he mistrusted him, instead he should have helped Tsvangirai to topple our despotic leader