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TENDAI BITI PROFILE - Tendai Biti is one of President Mugabe's most vocal critics Tendai Biti, a stout, football-loving (Arsenal fan), a lawyer fond of wearing a bowler hat, is to be Zimbabwe's next finance minister.

Tendai Biti was born on the 6th of August 1966 and raised in the dusty working class suburb of Dzivarasekwa in Harare. Tendai is the Secretary-General of the MDC and was elected to that post on the party’s Congress held in March 2006.

He attended Goromonzi High School and the local University of Zimbabwe, where he graduated from the Law School. At the University of Zimbabwe he was a student leader and led the famous 1987 &1988 anti-government and anti- corruption protests that formed the basis and nucleus of the present day student movement.

Biti was the Secretary for Economic Affairs, prior to the March 2006 Congress, he was one of the brains behind RESTART, the MDC economic blueprint that silenced even government critics. For two weeks, police barred and disrupted the national and provincial launches of the MDC’s RESTART blueprint, seen by many as the only practical solution to Zimbabwe’s economic malaise.

Biti has also led the MDC’s International Relations and Land Portfolios. He led the MDC diplomatic offensive, which led to regional and international understanding of the Zimbabwe crisis as that of governance. He also led the development of the comprehensive MDC policy on land, which remains he mainstay of the party’s programmes.

During the last seven years in Parliament, he has distinguished himself as a polished lawyer and articulator of various pertinent issues from economics to legal and justice matters affecting the nation. He has distinguished himself as one of the leading lawyers in Zimbabwe with special expertise in Human Rights, Labour and Constitutional Law.

From the moment he entered the legal profession, Biti has impressed his colleagues with the courage and energy with which he expressed publicly his concerns on issues of human rights in Zimbabwe. In addition, he has co-founded some of the leading human rights organizations that have dominated Civic Society. These include the National Constitutional Assembly, The Zimbabwe Lawyers For Human Rights and the MDC.

Biti was first elected Member of Parliament for Harare East in 2000 and was re-elected in 2005. In his political life Biti has suffered persecution from the regime. He has been arrested and tortured by the country’s police and notorious state agents on numerous occasions. Most recently in March 2007 he was arrested and brutally tortured alongside MDC President Morgan Tsvangirai, other political and civic leaders for leading a public meeting in defiance of a government ban of all political gatherings in Zimbabwe.

In recent years, as secretary-general of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change and chief negotiator of the power-sharing deal with Zanu-PF, he has proven himself an able politician.

But he is not a diplomat. Just days before being named and after a judge suspended his treason trial, he referred to President Robert Mugabe - who is to head the unity government which Mr Biti is to join - as a 'dictator'.

'He's a very good foil to [MDC leader] Morgan Tsvangirai's reticence; he speaks his mind,' says Zimbabwean filmmaker and journalist Farai Sevenzo.

He's got a strong exhibitionist streak in him as evidenced by his insistence on wearing a bowler hat

Filmmaker Farai Sevenzo This no-nonsense attitude is perhaps something Zimbabwe's economy needs - given the alarming statistics: 90% unemployment and world-record hyperinflation.

At 44, compared to the old Zanu-PF stalwarts, Mr Biti is very much the modern politician.

He was a former union leader at the University of Zimbabwe, when clashes between stone-throwing students and riot police were just about the only public sign of dissatisfaction with Mr Mugabe's rule.

He then went on to become a lawyer with one of Harare's best-known firms, Honey and Blackenberg.

The brash young lawyer was a founder member of the MDC - becoming a member of parliament in 2000 - and represents the plush constituency of Harare East, where he has a large house.

In his election posters last year, he wore his trade-mark bowler hat.

'He's got a strong exhibitionist streak in him as evidenced by his insistence on wearing a bowler hat,' says Mr Sevenzo.

'Of course it lends much fodder to his critics, who say he's a tool of the West - still in his colonial hat.'

Arsenal

However, Mr Biti has been quick to rebuff such criticism and has lost no energy in pointing out the ills of Mr Mugabe's rule.

He has been involved in starting other civic organisations such as Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights and the National Constitutional Assembly, which has been campaigning for a new constitution.

He's been a radical and I think we now expect him to become a conservative

MP Jonathan Moyo

Like all MDC activists, he needs to have a strong streak of bravery - he was been arrested and assaulted for his opposition to Mr Mugabe.

When he was released on bail after being charged with treason last year, Mr Biti said that prison reflected 'the collapse of the state'.

'People are dying there; people have no food; people have no blankets, so it's a depressing place… It wasn't easy, but we have to continue fighting,' he said.

His exuberance and dedication is not just for politics.

He is a passionate Arsenal football fan, who watches many games live on TV in Zimbabwe and has also attended matches in London.

According to Mr Sevenzo, the MDC politician is extremely charming, 'at home in the bar, in front of a football match or in the High Court'.

This adaptability and his resilience may also be key to his success in the finance ministry.

'I have heard there's something about economics and finance that turns a radical into a conservative,' says Jonathan Moyo, an independent MP and a former information minister.

'He's been a radical and I think we now expect him to become a conservative.'

Mr Moyo warns that the skills of getting a party organised to win an election are different from getting a government to implement an economic turnaround.

'He's lucky - it's in the context of an inclusive government - so there will be less bickering and more support for him, if he puts his attention to the task at hand,' says Mr Moyo.

Seen by many as the real brains behind the MDC, however, Mr Biti is likely to be a dangerous opponent for anyone getting in his way.

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