The Sunday Mail
Nobleman Runyanga
IN April 2021, the International Monetary Fund’s Catastrophe Containment and Relief Trust (CCRT) granted debt relief to the 28 poorest and most vulnerable countries hit by catastrophic natural disasters or public health disasters including the Covid-19 pandemic.
Beneficiary nations included Haiti, the Central African Republic and Togo.
As was to be expected, enemies of the people of Zimbabwe such as MDC-Alliance co-vice president, Tendai Biti, got very excited over the exclusion of Zimbabwe on the beneficiaries list.
“The official reasons (for Zimbabwe’s exclusion) are Zimbabwe’s policy slippages and debt default,” gushed Biti on Twitter.
“The real reasons are Zimbabwe’s predatory violence, abuse of the Constitution, closure of political space, lawlessness, corruption and fascism. Zanu-PF’s polices of plunder and pillage are putting a development premium on Zimbabwe,” he added.
Only selfish politicians celebrate the exclusion of their nation from global debt relief programmes as a political weapon against their opponents in their quest for power.
Only mean-spirited and mean-faced people like Biti would use the suffering of the innocent people of Zimbabwe to fight their opponents for power which, in the very unlikely event of them winning a poll, would enable them to rule the same people.
It is only hard-hearted politicians like Biti’s leader, Nelson Chamisa, who travel to European countries to entice them into spurning Zimbabwe’s engagement and re-engagement programme and boast about it to suffering Zimbabweans with celebratory chants of “Sunga one/Sunga dozen.”
These two politicians’ behaviour brings to the fore the evil nature of the MDC factions and formations’ brand of politics.
Where normal opposition political parties elsewhere in the world compete on the basis of their ideas, ideology and programmes, the MDC factions and formations fight on the basis of actively inviting and celebrating the suffering of the people they expect to vote for them during elections.
Who would forget late former MDC-T leader, Morgan Tsvangirai’s October 2001 rally at Mutare’s Sakubva Stadium where he said, “Muri kuti muri kushaya? Muchashayisisa” (You are going to suffer more)?
Who will forget him asking the South African government to close off all supplies of electricity, fuel and other essential supplies to Zimbabwe in 2002?
Who will forget him expressing his frustration with the European Union (EU) for not slapping the innocent people of Zimbabwe with sanctions for the alleged sins of their democratically elected Government in an interview with the Associated Press (AP)?
If any MDC politician has outdone all his colleagues in fighting innocent Zimbabweans from the enemies’ corner, it is Biti.
The politician has endeared himself with Western powers because of his readiness to stand with them against his own people.
When the United States of America (USA) government was crafting the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Act (ZIDERA) in 2001 to punish Zimbabweans for repossessing their land, he and David Coltart actively participated.
Each time the US government wishes to review the sanctions list, they consult him.
In view of this, it is not surprising that following Operation Restore Legacy in November 2017, Biti hand-held Chamisa, who was then a caretaker MDC-T leader in the absence of, the then ill Tsvangirai, and travelled to Washington in December 2017 to beg the then US President, Donald Trump, to keep the sanctions against Zimbabwe in place.
Former US Secretary of State for Africa, Chester Crocker, is on record as telling a US Senate hearing on ZIDERA in 2001 that “to separate the Zimbabwean people from Zanu-PF, we are going to have to make their economy scream and I hope you, Senators, have the stomach for what you have to do.”
No Western power would succeed in removing a constitutionally-elected Zimbabwean Government by squeezing its economy without the co-operation of some unpatriotic Zimbabweans.
The foremost of such Zimbabweans is Biti.
It is, therefore, not surprising that former US Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations’ sub-Committee on Africa, Jeff Flake, is on record as having said that “Tendai Biti is a friend of this committee and he’s been here a number of times….”
Western countries do not regard a Zimbabwean opposition lawyer from Murewa as a friend for nothing, unless he is facilitating their enterprise to unseat a constitutionally-chosen Zanu-PF Government from power.
It should be noted that Flake was very instrumental in pushing for the passing of ZIDERA.
Biti and Flake are, therefore, ZIDERA buddies.
Zimbabweans who know Biti and his relationship with his Western handlers were therefore not surprised by his reaction to Chamisa’s loss to President Mnangagwa in the 2018 harmonised elections.
Biti told the media that “we will mobilise for more sanctions (and) Zanu-PF won’t get a penny.”
It is in the context of this vow that when the World Bank offered Zimbabwe US$7 million to fight the Covid-19 pandemic in May 2020, Biti wrote to the international financial institution (IFI) laying conditions for the release of the funds.
He appealed to the WB to insist on transparency in intended expenditure and procurement, oversight, monitoring by the media, civil society organisations (CSOs) and Parliament as well as independent audits before releasing the funds to Government.
While these conditions seemed noble especially for accountability purposes, his political ulterior motive of ensuring that Zimbabweans did not “get a penny” from the Bretton Woods institution was not.
Thankfully, the World Bank, in its wisdom, cognisant of the fact that every village has its own mad man, went on to release the funds for the benefit of Zimbabweans anyway.
Undaunted, Biti was at it again in July this year when he invited brickbats from many progressive Zimbabweans when he criticised the IMF for reporting positively about Zimbabwe in June.
The IMF projected that Zimbabwe’s gross domestic product (GDP) would grow by 6 percent up from its earlier forecast of 3.1 percent.
The projection was based on a bumper harvest, improved power supply and an increase in manufacturing capacity utilisation and a construction boom.
As a sworn enemy of anything good about Zimbabwe, Biti was not amused.
He criticised the IMF for allegedly being naïve and being influenced by Zanu-PF.
Despite Biti’s commitment to use the suffering of the innocent people of Zimbabwe to fight President Mnangagwa, Zanu-PF and Government and Chamisa’s sabotage politics of “Sunga one/Sunga dozen,” the IFIs to which Zimbabwe is a member have refused to be dragged into the MDC Alliance faction’s silly and childish politics.
This is the reason why the IMF released to Zimbabwe nearly US$1billion equivalent of Special Drawing Rights (SDR) on August 23, 2021.
Biti would have loved to block the funds in line with his “no penny for Zanu-PF” mantra, but these funds were released to the IMF’s member countries to shore up their foreign currency reserves and cushion them from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
It should be noted that the US$650 billion worth of SDRs were released to all IMF member countries in proportion to their voting rights.
Zimbabwe’s allocation was equivalent to 0,15 percent of the total.
Other countries such as South Africa got US$2,924 billion, while smaller economies like Eritrea got US$15,2 million.
In the developed world, Sweden was allocated US$5,531 billion while the USA got US$79,546 billion.
Given this scenario, it is surprising that Biti would still wish that Zimbabwe be denied her share of the SDRs.
It is, however, very gratifying to note that the political mad man did not succeed in his evil bid to punish innocent Zimbabweans.
For many years, the MDC Alliance has been accusing President Mnangagwa, Zanu-PF and Government of failing to run Zimbabwe using the challenges being faced by Zimbabweans in various areas such as health, education among others.
Biti, who thinks that he is the best Finance Minister Zimbabwe has ever had, has been at the forefront of his faction’s habit of criticising the New Dispensation without offering any solutions.
He enjoys seeing Zimbabweans suffering and using that situation as a weapon against Zanu-PF.
Release of the US$1billion SDRs by the IMF is therefore a slap in the faces of Biti and his faction.
It shows that despite the influence that he thinks he has in the West, Zimbabwe and the world are moving on leaving him tethered in frustration to his past “glory” as a Finance Minister.
The development has put Biti in his place.
It has demonstrated to the world that he is nothing more than just a frustrated opposition politician.
When the foreign currency auction system was launched in June last year, Biti criticised it and accused the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) of running a managed rate auction.
However, the system has worked wonders by stabilising the exchange rate and, consequently, the prices of basic commodities.
The release of the SDR windfall is therefore going to consolidate the economic gains already registered by the new administration, which will improve the quality of Zimbabweans’ lives in line with President Mnangagwa’s Vision 2030.
To his chagrin.
The Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Professor Mthuli Ncube and RBZ Governor, Dr John Mangudya, issued a joint statement on the SDR funds this week confirming receipt and assuring Zimbabweans of transparency in their deployment.
“The funds will be used prudently, with utmost accountability, to support the social sectors namely health, education, and the vulnerable groups, productive sectors that include industry, agriculture and mining; infrastructure investment covering roads and housing, and foreign currency reserves and contingency fund, to support our domestic currency and macro-economic stability,” they said in the statement.
The release of the funds marks a major victory on the part of Government and Zimbabweans over self-haters and enemies of innocent Zimbabweans such as Biti and his ilk.
It demonstrates that the world is more prepared to work with President Mnangagwa’s administration than shadowy political characters like Biti.
The development will enable Zimbabwe to consolidate her economic recovery efforts, which will see anti-Zimbabwe citizens like Biti increasingly cutting a lonely figure.
When the MDC Alliance faction claims that President Mnangagwa is the cause of their suffering, as it usually does, Zimbabweans should know that their real enemy is people like Biti, who actively work to ensure that they suffer.
