News / National
Biti claims that he cannot see
26 Nov 2018 at 22:18hrs | Views
Harare East MP Tendai Biti told the Kgalema Motlanthe Commission of Inquiry that he can not see.
Said Biti, "A dubious nexus is being made between my pronouncement on July 31 (that Nelson Chamisa had won the election based on MDC data from polling station) and the protests of August 1.
"They said I was driving a green Discovery in the company of one Jim Kunaka. It's a joke Cde Chairperson. I hardly know Jim Kunaka physically. I know him as a notorious leader of the Chipangano group that killed our people in Mbare.
"They said I was driving a green car but I don't drive, because I can't see. With great respect, it's a lot of rubbish.
"For the record I did not participate in any acts of violence with anyone, let alone Jim Kunaka. For the record I did not incite anyone, whether on July 31 or August 1 to engage in violence."
Biti said they genuinely believe Chamisa won election.
"We genuinely thought we had won the elections. How could we disturb our own party? (By organising August 1 protests).
"I must underscore our belief that Nelson Chamisa won this election. Mr Mnangagwa was declared winner, but even as I sit here I don't know the result. Was it 50.8, 50.6 or 50.4 all of which were withdrawn by ZEC?
"We prima facie demonstrated that ZEC result was wrong, and onus was on them to give us the proper result."
August 1 demo not an MDC event
Biti
said, "In the history of the MDC, we have never carried out a
demonstration in which we have not complied with POSA, which is to say
where we have not complied with the law, because we have nothing to hide because we are not a guerilla movement or a rebel movement.
"We have had demonstrations with crowds so large police would not have handled it if they elected to become violent.
"Anything that's outside the law is not ours. And our organisation is full of lawyers. We religiously believe in the law.
"Anything outside the law is not ours, and no-one should give us the paternity of it."
"We have been a very peaceful organisation that believes in democratic change. We have been in the trenches for a long time, peacefully, constitutionally, without any violence, without the things that were witnessed on August 1.
"We have demonstrated before, and the police were able to control us. No-one was shot, no-one was killed."
"The path to democracy oftentimes becomes long and painful. It's easy to resort to violence. But we have remained steadfast in the pursuit of peaceful means, of a peaceful path to democracy," Tendai Biti.
We refused seduction of becoming a rebel movement
Biti said, "We have refused the temptation, the seduction of the easy route to become a guerilla or rebel movement."
On question about protesters chanting MDC slogans or wearing party T-Shirts:
"We did not as MDC sanction a protest on August 1. That people were chanting slogans, well, I can also do a Zanu-PF slogan, 'Pamberi neZanu-PF'. The fact of the matter is that we believed we won this election and there was no way that we were going to stop our coronation."
Said Biti, "A dubious nexus is being made between my pronouncement on July 31 (that Nelson Chamisa had won the election based on MDC data from polling station) and the protests of August 1.
"They said I was driving a green Discovery in the company of one Jim Kunaka. It's a joke Cde Chairperson. I hardly know Jim Kunaka physically. I know him as a notorious leader of the Chipangano group that killed our people in Mbare.
"They said I was driving a green car but I don't drive, because I can't see. With great respect, it's a lot of rubbish.
"For the record I did not participate in any acts of violence with anyone, let alone Jim Kunaka. For the record I did not incite anyone, whether on July 31 or August 1 to engage in violence."
Biti said they genuinely believe Chamisa won election.
"We genuinely thought we had won the elections. How could we disturb our own party? (By organising August 1 protests).
"I must underscore our belief that Nelson Chamisa won this election. Mr Mnangagwa was declared winner, but even as I sit here I don't know the result. Was it 50.8, 50.6 or 50.4 all of which were withdrawn by ZEC?
"We prima facie demonstrated that ZEC result was wrong, and onus was on them to give us the proper result."
August 1 demo not an MDC event
"We have had demonstrations with crowds so large police would not have handled it if they elected to become violent.
"Anything that's outside the law is not ours. And our organisation is full of lawyers. We religiously believe in the law.
"Anything outside the law is not ours, and no-one should give us the paternity of it."
"We have been a very peaceful organisation that believes in democratic change. We have been in the trenches for a long time, peacefully, constitutionally, without any violence, without the things that were witnessed on August 1.
"We have demonstrated before, and the police were able to control us. No-one was shot, no-one was killed."
"The path to democracy oftentimes becomes long and painful. It's easy to resort to violence. But we have remained steadfast in the pursuit of peaceful means, of a peaceful path to democracy," Tendai Biti.
We refused seduction of becoming a rebel movement
Biti said, "We have refused the temptation, the seduction of the easy route to become a guerilla or rebel movement."
On question about protesters chanting MDC slogans or wearing party T-Shirts:
"We did not as MDC sanction a protest on August 1. That people were chanting slogans, well, I can also do a Zanu-PF slogan, 'Pamberi neZanu-PF'. The fact of the matter is that we believed we won this election and there was no way that we were going to stop our coronation."
Source - zimlive
