Biti has boxed himself into a corner

Dear Editor,

Former finance minister Tendai Biti surprised many at his weekend rally, or leadership meeting as some people have said, when he said “This movement, the renewal movement, is in its formative stages. We are in that transition where we have to hold on to the name MDC for certain strategic reasons …But let no one, let no man or woman doubt that we are going to have our own name, our own symbols, own colour”.

Biti must have subconsciously revealed his real intention, and the parliamentarians who have followed him and had been promised they will be defended from expulsion by the mainstream MDC must be having second thoughts.

Biti all but confirmed beyond reasonable doubt that he was indeed playing tricks with Parliament when he wrote to Parliament seeking protection for the parliamentarians who are being recalled together with him for crossing the floor from the MDC-T to their yet unnamed party.

I am not a legal expert, but I would imagine that his contradictory statement may put him in contempt of parliament. He is wasting tax payers’ money through the time that the speaker of parliament and whoever else is involved in making the decision will take going through the evidence.

Or has he simply realised that, as he has been told by many, that his coup attempt is futile?

In the process, I think Tendai Biti has soiled his personal image, his professional status as a lawyer, and his political life. I will give him an award if he manages to extricate himself out of the mess he has created for himself and those who initially believed him, who should realise before it is too late that they have been taken for a ride and retrace their steps to the big tent that is preparing on onslaught on the failed Zanu PF government.

Tsvangirai is not a saint. He has his own weaknesses, but he remains a democrat to a large extent. How did Mangoma and Biti expect him to just step down without checking with the people who elected him into office? That would have been a betrayal of the people’s trust and faith in him. Mangoma and Biti were not the majority in the MDC-T, so Tsvangirai had to seek public opinion within the MDC-T before agreeing to step down.

The best Biti and Mangoma could have done was to use the period between Congress and now to galvanise the party in terms of mobilising the grassroots, gain public confidence and increase their chances of being voted for whatever posts they aspired for.

I wholeheartedly wish them good luck in their new political lives, and hope that rumour doing the rounds that they will be forming a new government with Zanu PF next year is false, but that they will fight Zanu PF with all their might.

Kennedy Kaitano, Mutare