Tendai Biti threatens to quit

MDC-T secretary-general Tendai Biti yesterday threatened to quit the MDC-T, in protest against a deepening culture of violence targeting elements opposed to leader Morgan Tsvangirai's bid to cling to power.

Speaking at a discussion at Sapes Trust in Harare yesterday, weeks after deputy treasurer-general, Elton Mangoma, was assaulted by suspected pro-Tsvangirai militants, Biti, who escaped the attack, slammed the culture of violence characterising his party.  

He said he would rather stay at home than continue with an association whose formation used violence as a political weapon.

He was lucky to escape largely unscathed when Mangoma and youth leader Promise Mkhwananzi were beaten up outside the MDC-T's HQ in Harare.

At the discussion on the future of opposition politics in Zimbabwe, Biti relived the violence at the party's headquarters last month.

"I was beaten too, but we were lucky to be escorted away in the car. Some were holed up in the 5th floor and anything could have happened to them," he said.

He denounced the recourse to violence in the party which has seen officials such as Professor Welshman Ncube, Trudy Stevenson, Toendepi Shonhe and Peter Guhu, among others, being assaulted by party members.

Apart from Mangoma, many other MDC-T officials, including treasurer-general, Roy Bennett, Eddie Cross, Ian Kay and Elias Mudzuri, have called on Tsvangirai to quit or call an early congress to facilitate a change of leadership.  They are unhappy about Tsvangirai's failure to lead MDC-T to victory against Zanu-PF in successive elections since 2000.

He is determined to stay on until the scheduled party congress in 2016 and is allegedly supporting a violent response on those opposed to his leadership. Mangoma has been the most high profile victim.

Tsvangirai's loyalists are also purging structures, like in Matabeleland North where the provincial chair was kicked out, which they deem sympathetic to his opponents.

Biti said: "We cannot arbitrate differences through violence. I would rather sit at home than belong to an organisation that believes in the use of violence as a way to resolve differences.

"If we differ, we have to find ways for discourse without using violence. If this happens now what if some of us have State power? Violence is a no-go area."

The embassies of Australia, Canada and the US – which have traditionally backed MDC-T – have also condemned the culture of violence in the opposition party.

Biti went on: "We cannot create a movement to fight for democracy when we cannot apply it to ourselves. We should be tested by the same standards and we should pass the test."

He conceded defeat to Zanu-PF in last year's elections, saying the revolutionary party had a message that resonated with the people while MDC-T failed to connect.

In apparent reference to the personality cult being built around Tsvangirai, Biti called for the "de-personalisation" of the opposition.

He proposed the formation of alliances in the opposition, which he dubbed the United Democratic Front, "based on values not opportunism for winning elections".

He said Zimbabwe's political economy had significantly changed since 1999 when the opposition tapped into the formal labour movement, with today's informal economy posing a different public mindset.