Tendai Biti interview: I respect what Tsvangirai did

MDC-T secretary general and former Finance minister Tendai Biti has been evading the media since orchestrating a boardroom coup that claimed to have ‘suspended’ party president Morgan Tsvangirai in late April.

Zimbabwe Mail Senior Reporter Richard Chidza (RC) caught up with Biti (TB) to find out his thoughts on the opposition leadership wrangle, and the country’s economic situation in general.

Below are excerpts;

RC: What is the nature of leadership fights in the MDC-T?

TB: The developments in the MDC are natural, the party is a voluntary organisation where people exercised their right of association and assembly when they came together in 1999. If and when contradictions develop, just like in marriages, if people come to a conclusion that the relationship has irretrievably broken down, you exercise your right to freedom of dissociation.

There are two camps in the MDC, one that believes in violence, one that is competing with Zanu PF to be Zanu PF, a faction that believes in predatory politics, and another that believes in people first, one that wants to create a new narrative that is inclusive, respect the rule of law and understand that our people are suffering and need immediate solutions. So, clearly those are structural differences and under those circumstances, it is not a crime or a sin to come to the conclusion that we need to part our ways.

RC: What is the nature of your relationship with president Morgan Tsvangirai?

TB: I am a Zimbabwean and Tsvangirai is a Zimbabwean so I respect all Zimbabweans. For the record, I respect what Tsvangirai did, being at the forefront of fighting the democratic struggle. No one can take away that from him. The fact that we differ does not mean we are enemies; in fact that type of thinking has brought us to where we are. We should celebrate that diversity and I wish to take him out for dinner when I get paid, if he declines, it is his constitutional right.

RC: Do you consider yourself expelled from the MDC-T?

TB: I wrote that constitution and there is nowhere in that document where one can be summarily expelled.

RC: Do those that claim to have expelled you have locus standi to take that decision?

TB: I have just told you, no one can be expelled just like that under the MDC constitution.

RC: There has been talk of a united democratic front, how is it shaping out?

TB: I think it will be foolish as Zimbabweans to continue executing our politics in the same way we have done in the last 34 years of Zanu PF existence, where little people with big egos have fought it (Zanu PF) from different corners. Clearly, the call for a grand alliance which I have read about in the newspapers is a noble cause; it is a game changer because you are redefining the political landscape.

RC: What is your position regarding the outcome of last year’s July elections?

TB: South Africa has just held elections and that is a good example of how things should be done. All parties have access to the voters roll, the entire process is audited and the number of ballots is not a secret. Everything is done in the broad scrutiny of the media, there are observers from all-over, and anybody who wants to have a look is welcome.

There is an impartial staff of the electoral commission to such an extent that besides little shenanigan here and there everyone accepts that the elections were free and fair. Clearly, that was not the case in July 2013, on June 28 2008, March 28 2005, March 10 and 11 2002, and clearly that was not the case on June 26 2000 in Zimbabwe.

RC: Do you believe Zimbabwe is in crisis?

TB: There is a crisis of leadership, an economic crisis, moral crisis, confidence, political and social. It is rare in the history of mankind that you have this plethora of crises arresting one country. To have a concoction and amalgamation of all these crises at one go is most unfortunate. Clearly, we are suffering from a crisis of underproduction.

The productive sector is not producing and that means we are not generating wealth which then generates capital which is transmitted into the economy through wages. There are no surpluses being generated in the economy. The first thing is to get capital to get the economy across all sectors kicking again.

The figures that say 84% of Zimbabweans are in the informal sector underpin the nature of our crisis. We have an overwhelming crisis of underperformance which can only be resolved by a massive capital injection. We are an economy in comatose, there is no capital in the form of our own surplus, foreign direct investment and, overseas development aid.

RC: If you were asked to proffer a solution, what would that be?

TB: It is possible to creatively leverage our assets. You can leverage minerals, your commodities and in the short term, dispose of some jewels of the state. But the bottom line is that these are just short term measurers. The fact of the matter is that the resources and capital required to provide a stimulus for the local economy is way beyond what the local capacity of the economy can generate.

We need a stimulus, package of almost $4 billion immediately, and this economy does not have the capacity to generate that. Two things are clear, first is completion of the staff monitored programme that will allow Zimbabwe to access the huge amounts of resources sitting at the African Development Bank and the World Bank, and for this government to bite the bullet and genuinely engage the international community.

I also propose a Zimcodd (11) (Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt and Development) like the one in 1981,  but the success of this depends on our politics, our hygiene is dirty and ugly; no one can touch us even with gloves.

So inevitably, part of resolving the economic crisis is also resolving the predatory politics of this country, we need to resolve the challenges around contested elections, a predatory state run on the matrix of exclusion. We need to turn the vicious cycles of exclusion into virtuous circles of inclusion. So, this country basically needs a new discourse, a new paradigm or a new narrative.

RC: Government insists on the indigenisation of the financial services sector, what do you think?

TB: There is a lot of ignorance around the issue of banks; they are nothing, but buildings, without depositors’ funds they are nothing. The money they have does not belong to banks and if you nationalise, people will just pull out their money and you suddenly find yourself with empty buildings with no value. Government should simply repeal the Empowerment Act and call citizens to dialogue where we will craft a new model of empowerment.

People have been given land, but because we did not construct how people should benefit from it they have been actually disempowered. Empowerment is not premised on ownership, it should be premised on making people active economic players, creating linkages, supply side linkages, backward linkages or spatial linkages so it is much bigger than a little shareholding with no value. Which black Zimbabwean has $33 million to buy 51% of Standard Chartered Bank? We need to appreciate that no one out there cares or is concerned about the Zimbabwean state. They care about the Zimbabwean people.

RC: What could be the way forward then?

TB: There is a missing dialogue around the Zimbabwe we want. What are our fears that prevent us from arriving at the Zimbabwe we want? What are the fears of politicians, war veterans, farmers and labour? The politicians fear losing what they have gained from 34 years of Zanu PF rule.

While the war veterans fear that the legacy of the liberation struggle will be erased, that they will lose their land. Others have ‘walked’ on water before, have been revered to the point of a political demigod and cannot envisage themselves in any other capacity besides political leadership. Nations are built on addressing people’s fears. The Americans in 1774 created a state out of the fear of power and re-colonisation. Unless and until we do that, we remain this low trust-high cost society that is going everywhere, but to nowhere.

RC: Whose problem is this crisis?

TB:  It is a national problem and Zanu PF, as much it is the problem is also part of the solution. It is not the responsibility of political parties, least of all, the opposition because they are just a tiny component of the national equation,  comprising farmers, students, women, civil society, church, labour and business as well as the war veterans must be there.

It is actually national failure to delegate this task to an elite called political parties; they are the least people we should expect solutions from because they think territorially. Here, we need Nelson Mandela characters and unfortunately we do not have such characters. We have selfish little people with big egos, people who think they own the people of Zimbabwe, who believe they are owed by citizens, a catalogue of failures.

RC: Do you think the MDC-T has deviated from its founding values?

TB: Of course, long ago. That is why there are differences; the MDC-T is now a Frankenstein monster, it is not recognisable and that is why those who believe in protecting those original values took the decision on April 26.

RC: Tsvangirai’s suspension and the letter from the Speaker of Parliament, where do these events leave the MDC-T?

TB: I have said in a voluntary association when there are contradictions, people act with their hearts and their soul, and they will do what is right according to their conscience, and that is what has happened. The Zimbabwe Mail