Tendai Biti blasted over his remarks

THE Zimbabwe Vigil Coalition - a civil society coalition based in the United Kingdom (UK) - has blasted Finance minister Tendai Biti over his remarks at the Zimbabwe Investment Conference in London recently where he sought to woo investors to invest in Zimbabwe.

Biti reportedly said Zimbabwe had become "a safe and lucrative place to come and invest in" and was "pregnant with opportunities" adding that Zimbabwe was "unambiguously the place to be by 2015".

He was also quoted saying the country was on course to have a new constitution and legally Zimbabwe would have elections by October 29 this year.

The Vigil Coalition has, however, blamed Biti for the delay in the constitution-making process which is moving at a snail's pace.

"Obviously, the irony is that the latest meeting of the Cabinet committee appointed to deal with the constitution deadlock had to be postponed because of his absence on one of the expensive overseas visits in which he criticised his government colleagues," the coalition said.

The Vigil urged Biti to bring back the investors that were "about to pull out instead of appealing for things that the country does not need".

"If Biti wanted to justify the expense on his trip and the delay it occasioned to the never-ending constitution-making process, he should have gone to Germany to apologise for the seizure of German property in Zimbabwe in contravention of a bilateral protection agreement," the Vigil said in the statement.

"He might have got the Germans to withdraw their threat to boycott the tourism jamboree planned for the Victoria Falls in August."

The minister is alleged to have said his ministry was working on a new diamond law that would enable a new agency to be created and ensure transparency in the contentious diamond mining in Zimbabwe.

Biti is reported to have invited British companies to consider applying for tenders in energy because "we will spend a billion US dollars in upgrading Hwange Power Station. We need a hydro power station at Batoka and some 20 mini hydro power stations in Manicaland."

The Vigil has vowed to tell all investors in Britain not to invest in Zimbabwe "until Biti says something sensible about selective indigenisation, rampant corruption and general institutional freeloading that has become the hallmark of the unity government".

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