Ministers must resign: Biti

MDC-T Renewal team frontman Tendai Biti has described the current Zanu PF government as the worst since 1980, urging ministers to resign enmasse for failing to rescue the economy.

MDC-T Renewal team frontman Tendai Biti has described the current Zanu PF government as the worst since 1980, urging ministers to resign enmasse for failing to rescue the economy. TATENDA CHITAGU OWN CORRESPONDENT

Speaking at a poorly attended meeting with students at the Charles Austin Theatre on Saturday, Biti said their MPs would pass a vote of no confidence in President Robert Mugabe at the next Parliament sitting.

“Mugabe is shameless. He is still hanging on to power. Zanu PF does not have a guilty conscience. Any normal government would resign. This is the worst government since 1980,” he said.

“Some Sadc leaders are stepping down and they chided him, but he did not get the message.”

Mozambican President Armando Guebuza bade farewell to Sadc leaders at the recently-ended heads of State summit in Victoria Falls saying it was his last. He sarcastically reminded his counterparts that Mugabe was the only Sadc leader to attend all 34 Sadc summits in perhaps a veiled message that he had overstayed.

Biti said he was not surprised by the turn of events as Mugabe could not do anything much due to his old age.

“What can you expect when the captain of a team is 90-years-old and the average age of central committee members is 69? Zanu PF is tired and exhausted. We are faced with a leadership crisis. We are an orphaned State as the government does not care.

“With unemployment at 80%, still the government does not care. Zanu PF won’t panic. Our renewal MPs should give Mugabe a vote of no confidence at our next Parliament sitting,” Biti said.

He also took a dig at former prime minister and MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai for “helping Mugabe to rig by participating in flawed elections”.

“Tsvangirai must take responsibility for giving Zimbabweans false hope. (South African President Jacob) Zuma told Tsvangirai not to participate in the polls and the MDC-T standing committee told him not to go to the polls but he said ‘the spirit has told me so’.

He helped Mugabe rig the polls,” Biti said. This was, however, a contradiction from some remarks attributed to him recently claiming that Zanu PF had won because of its “sound empowerment policy messages”.