‘World Bank assistance must not entrench undemocratic Zanu PF’ says Biti – True but add MDC, given it’s duplicity




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Tendai Biti has reported written to the World Bank asking them to make sure any financial assistance they give to Zimbabwe benefit the people and not the ruling elite.

“Even in these unprecedented times, any support from the World Bank Group must contribute towards our shared goal of better health and economic opportunity for the people of Zimbabwe. Any assistance must not be allowed to further enrich or entrench the very people who have destroyed our economy and democracy,” wrote Biti, according to The Herald.

“We have painfully learned, time and again, that the Government will abuse public resources for their own goals rather than for the benefit of Zimbabweans.

“The only way that we can advance our shared goals to respond to the current crisis is to include robust measures for transparency and accountability in any assistance package.”

No man or woman would deny the criminal waste of the nation’s resources by the ruling elite to feed their insatiable hunger for power and wealth.

Indeed, the WB itself knows only too well how gross mismanagement and rampant corruption have all but totally destroyed Zimbabwe’s once upon a time booming economy. The WB has given Zimbabwe US$7 million in financial assistance to help the country fight the corona virus pandemic. This is but a fraction of what other nation have received precisely because donors are fearful the money will looted!

One American senator has written to the WB demanding that any bank assistance to Zimbabwe must “impose very strict benchmarks and transparency and accountability processes”!

What is worth noting here is Tendai Biti’s duplicity. If he was really interested in the common goal of saving the ordinary people of Zimbabwe, the economy and democracy then why has he not implemented even one democratic reform in all the 20 years he and his MDC friends have been on the political stage?

During the 2008 to 2013 GNU, MDC had the majority in parliament and in the cabinet in which he was the Minister of Finance. He was aware of the rampant corruption and complained “of a parallel government”; the Joint Operation Command, a junta comprising of the top brass in the security services headed by Mugabe and Mnangagwa; “complete with it own source of funding”. Other than complain about it on this one occasion, he did nothing to stamp out corruption.

Worst of all, MDC failed to implement even one democratic reform in five years of the GNU and yet that was the primary task of the GNU!

If Tendai Biti and his MDC friends cared about good governance then they should have not participated in the 2013 much less 2018 elections when it was clear, with no reforms in place, Zanu PF was going to blatantly rig the process. They participated out of greed; they knew Zanu PF would give away a few seats to entice the opposition and these were what they were after.

Tendai Biti and company have sold-out the common cause of free, fair and credible elections for a few gravy-train seats!

Ever since the rigged 2018 elections Tendai Biti and Nelson Chamisa have piled the pressure on (no doubt the letter to WB is part of it) Mnangagwa to share power. They are asking for the formation of National Transition Authority, a 2008 GNU in all but name, in which MDC leaders will be allocated cabinet positions. Biti has been itching to get his 2008 Minister of Finance post back.

“Any assistance must not be allowed to further enrich or entrench the very people who have destroyed our economy and democracy!” Very true! But it is not just Zanu PF thugs who have destroyed Zimbabwe’s economy and democracy and are holding the nation to ransom; MDC sell-outs like Tendai Biti are in it too!