Mnangagwa’s “Mickey Mouse List” is defamatory, inexcusable – Biti




Former Finance minister Tendai Biti
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Former Minister of Finance and leader of the People’s Democratic Party, Tendai Biti has criticised the naming and shaming of alleged looters by President Emmerson Mnangagwa as mere posturing.

Biti challenged the release of the list of alleged looters saying that the definition of “externalisation” was ambiguous and that the list itself referred to illicit financial flows which is a different matter altogether.

Writing on social media site, Twitter, Biti said,

The legal definition of externalization is a challenged one & not filling acquittals is not externalisation. Publishing a Mickey Mouse list without legal clarity is defamatory &inexcusable. Particularly if that list refers to illicit financial flows, which is a different issue.

However, it is quite clear that the mining sector remains the bedrock of illicit financial flows which are costing Africa a $ trillion annually, much more than the all foreign aid into the continent. The mining sector dominates categories one and two on #theList

Category 3 on #TheList are 90% Chinese nationals transferring money to Chinese banks. Question is, where are they getting this money given small Chinese imprint in Zim. Clear that there is rampant Chinese looting & rape of this economy

The sum of $464 m on #TheList is a paltry amount given the haemorrhage in the country from corruption & illicit financial flows. Diamonds alone were $15 b. The legitimacy & credibility of the list is undermined by those that are not there, those that we know.

This is not the first time that Biti has challenged Mnangagwa on the issue of externalisation. Biti once described Mnangagwa as “legally illiterate” for not crafting legal instruments to deal with loopholes in the law to ensure that actual perpetrators are prosecuted and convicted. Said Biti,

But you and I know that even though Mnangagwa is a lawyer, all his legal pronouncements have been legally deficient, starting with the announcement of ministers which did not take into account the provisions of Part 5 of the constitution. So even though he is a lawyer, he is legally illiterate.

…So if they try and arrest people (on externalisation charges) lawyers will have parties in town because of the lack of that clarity.

Source: Pindula