News / National
Knives out for Tendai Biti
13 Feb 2014 at 11:03hrs | Views
As the leadership chaos in the MDC-T threatens to tip the opposition party over, the United States (US) branch of the labour-backed movement has demanded that the party's secretary-general Tendai Biti be suspended.
In a letter written on January 27 to party chairman Lovemore Moyo and signed by the US branch chairperson Den Moyo and secretary-general Andrew Chiponda, the wing cited Biti's acceptance to be former Reserve Bank Governor (RBZ) Gideon Gono's legal counsel as the major reason.
Biti has agreed to act as Gono's legal counsel in a case in which the ex-RBZ governor is being accused of abuse of office and fraud by his former advisor Munyaradzi Kereke.
Kereke approached the Constitutional Court in a bid to force the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission to investigate Gono.
The US branch, in its letter said Biti was culpable in Gono's alleged crimes.
"As a consequence of these developments, Gono has now approached Honourable Biti to represent him in defending the charges, and to prevent a full investigation of these alleged crimes by the Anti-Corruption Commission," the branch said.
"While we strongly believe that Honourable Biti remains innocent until fully investigated and exonerated or found guilty, it is our considered view that his decision to represent Gono compromises the integrity of the party, while establishing prima facie violations of the provisions of the Real Change Code of Conduct."
The US branch quoted Article 3 of the MDC-T constitution.
"Of particular importance are Articles 3.1.2 to 3.1.5 of the Real Change Code as read with 4.1.2; 4.1.3 and 2.1(a) being Annexure C to the Code which primarily deal with conflict of interest and bringing the name of the party into disrepute or ridicule," reads the letter.
"The MDC should not lose sight of the fact that Honourable Biti has already been implicated in unethical, immoral or improper and criminal conduct in papers filed before court in the Gono matter."
The letter added: "Munyaradzi Kereke implicates Honourable Biti in "gross irregularities" in respect of $150 million which was withdrawn by him from the SDR account held in the books of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe…"
This case is reportedly being investigated under case CID HQ ER 03/2011 and is said to be frustrated by Gono's refusal to co-operate with the police regarding the allegations against Honourable Biti."
Biti could not be reached for comment at the time of going to print last night.
Two weeks ago, the ex-Finance minister provided a break-down of how he used the $260m received from the IMF between 2009 and 2012 which he said went towards capital projects.
"There is no way that I would have stolen under Zanu PF and walked scot-free; they would have locked me up at the first opportunity. I will sue Kereke when the time comes," said Biti.
"The IMF executive board allocated to Zimbabwe SDR 328,4 billion ($505m) of which $411,9 m was under the general SDR allocation of 28 August 2009," said Biti. "A special allocation of $93,1m was escrowed pending the clearance of the outstanding arrears to the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility Trust Fund (PRGF-TF) amounting to $141m." The MDC-T secretary -general explained that he had only withdrawn $260m of the $500m allocated to Zimbabwe.
"The first tranche of $50m was expended towards procurement of agricultural inputs for the 200/10 summer cropping season," he said.
"The second tranche of $100m drawn on February 23, 2010 was disbursed towards infrastructure projects ($80,5m) as well as support to industry through lines of credit under the Zimbabwe Economic and Trade Revival Facility (ZETREF) ($19,54m)."
He added that the last tranche of $110m drawn on February 24 2012 was also channelled towards infrastructure projects, lines of credit and agriculture support.
Some of the companies and state institutions that benefited, according to Biti, included the Zimbabwe Power Company $10m while support to industry reached $19,5m. Marondera Town Council, Harare and Joshua Nkomo International Airports, Parirenyatwa and Mpilo hospitals, Agriculture and Tokwe Mukosi and Mtshabezi pipeline received a combined $17m.
Meanwhile, MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai has summoned party district chairpersons from across the country to discuss various issues, including leadership renewal.
Determined to crush dissent within the main opposition political party, Tsvangirai has reportedly summoned some 210 party leaders at the grassroots level attend a no holds barred indaba in Harare on Saturday.
The meeting is expected to endorse him as the party-preferred candidate for the 2018 presidential election.
The meeting comes amid calls from some sections of the party for Tsvangirai to step down from the party leadership to pave way for renewal of the MDC-T following his drubbing by Zanu PF leader President Robert Mugabe in the July 31 polls.
In a letter written on January 27 to party chairman Lovemore Moyo and signed by the US branch chairperson Den Moyo and secretary-general Andrew Chiponda, the wing cited Biti's acceptance to be former Reserve Bank Governor (RBZ) Gideon Gono's legal counsel as the major reason.
Biti has agreed to act as Gono's legal counsel in a case in which the ex-RBZ governor is being accused of abuse of office and fraud by his former advisor Munyaradzi Kereke.
Kereke approached the Constitutional Court in a bid to force the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission to investigate Gono.
The US branch, in its letter said Biti was culpable in Gono's alleged crimes.
"As a consequence of these developments, Gono has now approached Honourable Biti to represent him in defending the charges, and to prevent a full investigation of these alleged crimes by the Anti-Corruption Commission," the branch said.
"While we strongly believe that Honourable Biti remains innocent until fully investigated and exonerated or found guilty, it is our considered view that his decision to represent Gono compromises the integrity of the party, while establishing prima facie violations of the provisions of the Real Change Code of Conduct."
The US branch quoted Article 3 of the MDC-T constitution.
"Of particular importance are Articles 3.1.2 to 3.1.5 of the Real Change Code as read with 4.1.2; 4.1.3 and 2.1(a) being Annexure C to the Code which primarily deal with conflict of interest and bringing the name of the party into disrepute or ridicule," reads the letter.
"The MDC should not lose sight of the fact that Honourable Biti has already been implicated in unethical, immoral or improper and criminal conduct in papers filed before court in the Gono matter."
The letter added: "Munyaradzi Kereke implicates Honourable Biti in "gross irregularities" in respect of $150 million which was withdrawn by him from the SDR account held in the books of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe…"
This case is reportedly being investigated under case CID HQ ER 03/2011 and is said to be frustrated by Gono's refusal to co-operate with the police regarding the allegations against Honourable Biti."
Two weeks ago, the ex-Finance minister provided a break-down of how he used the $260m received from the IMF between 2009 and 2012 which he said went towards capital projects.
"There is no way that I would have stolen under Zanu PF and walked scot-free; they would have locked me up at the first opportunity. I will sue Kereke when the time comes," said Biti.
"The IMF executive board allocated to Zimbabwe SDR 328,4 billion ($505m) of which $411,9 m was under the general SDR allocation of 28 August 2009," said Biti. "A special allocation of $93,1m was escrowed pending the clearance of the outstanding arrears to the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility Trust Fund (PRGF-TF) amounting to $141m." The MDC-T secretary -general explained that he had only withdrawn $260m of the $500m allocated to Zimbabwe.
"The first tranche of $50m was expended towards procurement of agricultural inputs for the 200/10 summer cropping season," he said.
"The second tranche of $100m drawn on February 23, 2010 was disbursed towards infrastructure projects ($80,5m) as well as support to industry through lines of credit under the Zimbabwe Economic and Trade Revival Facility (ZETREF) ($19,54m)."
He added that the last tranche of $110m drawn on February 24 2012 was also channelled towards infrastructure projects, lines of credit and agriculture support.
Some of the companies and state institutions that benefited, according to Biti, included the Zimbabwe Power Company $10m while support to industry reached $19,5m. Marondera Town Council, Harare and Joshua Nkomo International Airports, Parirenyatwa and Mpilo hospitals, Agriculture and Tokwe Mukosi and Mtshabezi pipeline received a combined $17m.
Meanwhile, MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai has summoned party district chairpersons from across the country to discuss various issues, including leadership renewal.
Determined to crush dissent within the main opposition political party, Tsvangirai has reportedly summoned some 210 party leaders at the grassroots level attend a no holds barred indaba in Harare on Saturday.
The meeting is expected to endorse him as the party-preferred candidate for the 2018 presidential election.
The meeting comes amid calls from some sections of the party for Tsvangirai to step down from the party leadership to pave way for renewal of the MDC-T following his drubbing by Zanu PF leader President Robert Mugabe in the July 31 polls.
Source - zimmail
