By Lloyd Mbiba
HARARE – Former Finance minister Tendai Biti has said he would never study for a doctorate degree because it has lost its status.
Subtly taking a dig at First Lady Grace Mugabe who has just been awarded a PhD after allegedly registering for the degree in July, Biti told a public meeting called to critique the midterm fiscal policy on Wednesday evening, that he was no longer keen to read towards a PhD.
“These are the doctors (Tapiwa) Mashakada and (Godfrey) Kanyeze, I was telling them before we came here that, ‘gentlemen, today I want to state publicly that I will never ever have a PhD for obvious reasons.’ You know what happened,” Biti said to uproarious laughter from the gallery.
Grace’s doctorate from the flagship University of Zimbabwe was in sociology and she studied the case of children’s homes in Zimbabwe, a subject that comes as no surprise, since she runs an orphanage in Mazowe, north of Harare.
Biti said “doctorates or no doctorates”, Mugabe’s Zanu PF was no longer up to task in addressing challenges blighting the national economy.
“The ruling party is tired, old and fragile,” he said.
“It is now torn apart by deep structural divisions which are now playing out in the government where we have ministers openly clashing. Zanu PF is clueless and tired and that party will never move us forward.”
The former Finance minister also rubbished the midterm fiscal policy presented by his successor Patrick Chinamasa as “unsound.”
“Minister (Patrick) Chinamasa doesn’t understand that we are in a U-shaped recession and if it’s not controlled, it will lead to a depression,” Biti said.
“To observe the signs of recession, you look at number one, the levels of inflation and during this year we have had persistent deflation and persistent decline in month-on-month inflation.
“Now, because all Zimbabweans have lived in a hyper inflation era, you think that the reduction of prices is positive, it is not positive because it is caused by that we do not have money and there is no aggregate demand, we are not spending. Because we are not spending, there is disinflation and deflation kills business.”
He said the political crisis emanating from rigged elections needs to be addressed.
“We need to deal with politics because without that, we can’t move forward —this economy is subordinated by politics,” he said. Daily News
