Biti Says Transition Authority Should Run Struggling Zimbabwe
He says Zimbabwe needs a National Transitional and Technical Council with SADC and AU facilitating dialogue between political parties, civil society and citizens.
WASHINGTON — Former Finance Minister Tendai Biti on Thursday said Zimbabwe is on the downward slide, raising the need for the country to be placed under a transitional authority with regional bodies like the African Union (AU) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to facilitate national dialogue. Addressing a news conference in Harare, the expelled secretary general of the Movement for Democratic Change formation of Morgan Tsvangirai, said Zanu PF has failed to run the country’s economy resulting in what he described as an “economic lockdown”. What is now needed, according to Biti, is what he called a National Transitional and Technical Council NTTC), that will manage the affairs of the country while regional bodies such as SADC and the AU facilitate dialogue between political parties, civil society and other concerned Zimbabweans. Biti, however, noted he did not believe that Zanu PF will be interested in the NTTC and national dialogue saying the ruling party’s pre-occupation is nothing other than power. He urged President Robert Mugabe and his party to apologise to Zimbabweans for presiding over an ailing economy which is now in deflationary mode. Biti said after national dialogue has taken place and key democratic reforms implemented, only then will the MDC-T Renewal Team participate in national elections as a party. He said participating in elections without any reforms will only produce a pre-determined outcome. But Zanu PF spokesperson Rugare Gumbo told Studio 7 by phone that the MDC-T Renewal Team should wait for elections in 2018, adding the opposition offshoot is power-hungry. Gumbo said his party is working hard to ensure that it delivers on its election promises, adding that Zimbabwe’s economy is set for a major boom if the new economic blueprint, the Zimbabwe Agenda for Socio Economic Transformation (ZIMASSET) is implemented in full. On the issue of inviting SADC and the AU to facilitate national dialogue in Zimbabwe, Gumbo said nothing has happened in the country to warrant the intervention of the two blocs.