We must build Zimbabwe on mistrust, Biti says

Former Finance Minister Tendai Biti says Zimbabweans must build the country on mistrust because if they put their faith in individuals, they will be let down.

According to The Chronicle, Biti told party supporters in Lobengula yesterday that the Movement for Democratic Change had failed to unseat President Robert Mugabe because they had put their trust in Morgan Tsvangirai who had in turn developed an illusion that he was powerful and therefore owned the struggle.

“We must build new Zimbabwe based on mistrust and not trust because if we put our faith in individuals and trust individuals, they’ll let us down. We used to praise Tsvangirai. All successful states are built on mistrust because when you mistrust someone it means you then build institutions that remain strong even when the leader loses the plot……….

“Our mistake was that we did politics based on personalities,” he said referring to his former boss Tsvangirai whom he tried to dislodge without success after the party’s dismal performance in the 2013 general elections.

Biti and several senior officials including deputy treasurer Elton Mangoma left the party to form the Renewal Team which ended up with 21 seats in Parliament. The entire lot was, however, expelled when Tsvangirai recalled the seats because they were elected on an MDC-T ticket but had crossed the floor.

 “He thinks he’s powerful,” Biti said referring to Tsvangirai. “It’s an illusion of power that he has. Tsvangirai wants people to say ‘yes president’ to him. This continuous reference to him as ‘president’ makes him think he has power but he has no power. We focused our attention on Tsvangirai removing Mugabe from power. We lost the struggle in that way. We personalised the struggle. The struggle then became owned by an individual. We must never make that mistake again.”

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