Former Finance minister Tendai Biti says Zimbabweans must unite to defend the constitution in the wake of a push by a Zanu PF faction to extend President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s rule beyond 2028.
Mnangagwa has on more than five occasions stated that he does not want to stay in power beyond his second and final term, but his loyalists insist that there is no going back on the campaign.
Our correspondent Everson Mushava (EM) spoke to Biti (TB) in a wide ranging interview over the state of the country’s politics and economy. Below are excerpts from the interview.
EM: As a way of introduction, last year you announced that you were taking a sabbatical from politics and I know you have played a critical role in Zimbabwe politics, economy and so forth. Obviously, people are naturally interested to know what is now taking your time.
TB: I am very busy as a lawyer, extremely busy. I also do farming, so that also keeps me busy. And then, I have various international engagements.
The other thing that has been keeping me busy is the government’s current attempts to amend the constitution.
It is something that we can’t ignore. So I have been engaging a lot of people on how we can defend the constitution. So that is taking up a lot of my time.
EM: You have mention attempts to amend the constitution in order to extend Mnangagwa’s rule.
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The reasons given by those supporting the move is that he has performed exceptionally well and deserves more time to accomplish some of the projects he initiated. What is your comment on that?
TB: Mnangagwa’s leadership, since he came to power seven years ago, has been an absolute disaster.
He has made people regret the removal of (Robert) Mugabe. If president Mugabe was to resurrect right now like a Lazarus, millions of people would follow him in the streets and hail him. And that is a failure of Mnangagwa’s rule.
Mnangagwa missed an opportunity of resetting Zimbabwe, of placing Zimbabwe on a new consensus of inclusion, of putting Zimbabwe first.
He had that opportunity in 2017 of bringing everyone on board, the church, the trade unions and so forth.
He missed the opportunity of being the president of every Zimbabwean.
He missed the opportunity to renegotiate a new consensus in the international community, a new beginning, with the international community.
He missed the opportunity of a new paradigm shift, charting a new trajectory for the country.
EM: How did he miss the opportunity?
TB: He reinforced the old consensus, based on coercion, violence, repression, abuse of the rule of law.
Unlike Mugabe; he has anchored his rule firmly on corruption and extraction.
He has reduced the State House to a phantom, a ghost ouse where racketeers, mafia and zvigananda go in there without any appointment. The likes of Wicknell Chivhayo, Scott Sakupwanya, Kudakwashe Tagwirei and others.
EM: While addressing editors recently Mnangagwa said he had no connections wih Wicknell Chivayo, whom he described simply as a philanthropist.
Since then two pictures have been released by Chivhayo and in one of them he was leaning on the president’s shoulder. What is your take on those pictures.
TB: I don’t want to talk about an individual. We have got not only Chivayo. Most of them have been given tenders.
So I don’t want to talk about a particular individual. All I can say is that, as I have already said, that under the second republic, a symbiotic relationship has been created with cartels, with runners, with racketeers, with criminals.
Those criminals have invaded the State House. They go there without appointment, openly and brazenly. And that is bringing the state into disrepute.
That is bringing the republic into disrepute. That is bringing Zimbabwe into disrepute.
The office of the president is the highest office in the land. The State House is the state palace.
It's a symbol of all of us. That is most unfortunate and that is unacceptable.
The house of presidents must be associated with dignity, decorum, and prosperity.
It is essential because it is the president, the country’s chief executive officer, whose role constitutionally is to protect Zimbabwe.
EM: How would you compare Mugabe and Mnangagwa’s rule?
TB: Both run the country for the interest of the few and for Zanu PF. Mugabe had a social base, he had elasticity, a conscience.
I sat in the Cabinet and many times he would say: but where are our people?
But the biggest difference between Mugabe and Mnangagwa’s regime has been levels of unmitigated corruption, of extraction.
The level of racketeering is shocking. You know, the checks and balances in the system have collapsed.
George Guvamatanga and Mthuli Ncube have reduced the Ministry of Finance to a crime scene, without tenders, without parliamentary approval, without budgetary approval, Mugabe wouldn’t have allowed that.
Mnangagwa has reduced the country to some crude ethnic expression.
And it's amazing that, in less than 10 years from 2017, he has become so unpopular that he now makes Mugabe look like an angel.
Mugabe was not an angel at all, that is why he managed to unite Zimbabweans in their derision of him.
EM: It seems from what you are saying that Mnangagwa has many failures. What do you consider to be his greatest failure?
TB: Corruption.
EM: Maybe to deal with the corruption, a lot of people simply say he is corrupt but have failed to produce the necessary evidence to prove he is corrupt.
TB: The Transparency International corruption index shows that we are way worse than even under the worst of Mugabe.
There is everything wrong with the Mutapa Fund. There is everything wrong with the attempt to privatise title deeds.
There is everything wrong with a durawall that costs US$14 million at State House.
There is everything wrong with the way mines are being acquired of gold, lithium and so forth.
The second republic is presiding over unprecedented corruption that has taken place in this country since 1923.
I have been speaking about these things for a long time, particularly in the last few weeks.
Mutapa Fund has got 40 or so State -owned enterprises under it. That includes billion-dollar companies such as Zesa, the National Railways of Zimbabwe, NetOne, TailOne, Agribank, POSB.
So, you take the shares of those companies and house them in what is essentially an asset management company, in terms of a law that says these assets can be sold without parliamentary scrutiny, without compliance with the country’s procurement laws, without any due diligence.
So you cannot reduce them to a private fund that you sell your assets at any time, and these are public funds.
At one stage, 63% of the GDP was controlled by parastatals like GMB, Dairy Marketing Board, Cotton Marketing Board, NRZ, but the Mutapa Fund is so opaque, it's corruption in its highest form.
We went to war to fight over land, you understand?
And the issue about land was that white people had taken it and privatised it.
So, the national grievance was not the colour of the people who owned land but the fact that land had been taken and privatised.
And blacks were being told that you can’t own this land. So what he is seeking to do is reversing the land reform programme.
The arguments about securitisation don't rise at all because, along with a long lease, a 99-year lease can be made securitable.
All you need is an Act of Parliament.
The people who were given title deeds on December 3 at Precabe Farm are the fat cats that own huge tracts of land under the A1 scheme.
There is no title deed for a Model 2 plot measuring six hectares. It is for huge Model A farms measuring 2000 hectares, 4000ha.
So this is about looting and reversing the land reform programme. Mugabe turned in his grave. Joshua Nkomo is turning in his grave.
EM: Maybe in a common language, because most people don't understand, what would be your comment on the Land Tenure System Implementation Commission.
TB: It is an illegal setup, because we already have a Land Commission established in terms of the constitution.
And the constitution says the Land Commission must be consulted before any land is dispossessed. So, you cannot do anything without the land commission.
And the constitution also says before you privatise, an Act of Parliament must deal with how you are going to alienate value.
Value needs to be addressed, because you got this land for free, now you want to make a killing out of it.
The Act of Parliament needs to deal with limitations of who you can sell the land to.
Can I end up having five or six farms because I can afford it?
But if you want to loot, then you do what they are doing, and give title deeds without any restriction or limitation.
The constitution is also clear in that all the title deeds of the land that was acquired were canceled.
So, which title deeds have they been giving out? Not only is this unconstitutional, but a reversal of the land reform programme, driven by nothing else but gree
EM: There have been claims by some sections of Zanu PF that it is possible to extend Mnangagwa’s rule to 2030 without going for a referendum. Legally, is that possible?
TB: It is not possible. (Zanu PF Harare provincial chairman) Godwills Masimirembwa is not a lawyer. He is not a practicing lawyer. He was struckoff so he can't give a legal opinion to anyone.
The constitution is very clear: Any extension of time for any office requires a referendum.
So when you are extending the time for Parliament that requires two referendums: to allow for the extension, and to allow the incumbents to benefit from that extension.
So, you cannot disguise the 2030 agenda by purportedly extending the term of office.
The absurdity of this is that if you can extend to 2030, for two years, what stops you from extending to 2040? Because in your argument, it is just an extension.
If your argument is correct that you don’t need a referendum what stops you from saying you can't extend to 2040 or to 2060?
What makes you argue that you can't extend the natural life of Emmerson Mnangagwa? It’s absurd.
So you cannot escape constitutional responsibility and constitutional timelines on the disingenuous, dishonest, mendacious argument.
You can extend the term of office of Parliament without the need of a referendum. It’s impossible to do what they are trying to do.
EM: You said you were working with partners to try to stop the mutilation of the constitution and try to stop the extension of Mnangagwa’s term.
TB: At the moment, I am in conversation with Zimbabweans across all political divides about these attempts to mutilate the constitution.
I have been in meetings where this issue has been discussed.
So, I think it's very important that we form a platform to defend the constitution.
We had the National Constitutional Assembly before and now it's gone, I think it's important to find a room for constitutional defenders, so we need a forum to defend the constitution.
So I hope Zimbabweans can come together to form this forum of platform in defense of the constitution and I hope all constitutional defenders can join hands to fight in this important battle.
