News / National
'Zimbabwe may face rebellion,' says Biti
08 Apr 2014 at 10:49hrs | Views
Zimbabwe may face a rebellion because of lack of vision and leadership, an opposition leader has warned.
MDC secretary-general Tendai Biti warned in a wide-ranging interview with the Daily News last week that failure by ruling leaders to act on the issues that are affecting the 14 million citizens reeling from an ill-performing economy and failure by opposition to exert any form of influence because of its own internal challenges, could give rise to rebellion, including even by the military.
"Now the effect of our fragile economy on the backdrop of a country where democracy itself is in intensive care, where opposition itself has its own challenges, where the ruling party itself is tearing each other to pieces, is that we face the day of real invasion of parties, a real possibility of a military coup d'état," Biti said.
"But the sum totality of this is lack of leadership, lack of vision and lack of love."
The former finance minister said the economy was in a deep trench of stagnation and deflation, an unfortunate situation which he claimed could last for 30 years as there was absolutely no economic activity on the ground.
He said that although many countries such as Argentina had gone through similar episodes in their history, none of them were a fragile state as is the case in Zimbabwe.
"Zimbabwe is a fragile state, GDP (Gross Domestic Product) is very low, poverty levels are high and its per capita income is less than $300," Biti said.
He said Zimbabwe was going to die from this comatose state because there was no economic activity.
Biti said the economy could only be revived through credit lines because it was not capable of generating financial resources required, adding the goodwill of others would also come in handy and give the economy a jump start needed to revive industry.
Biti said there was need to ensure transparency in all sectors to ensure that every cent generated was remitted into the country's coffers.
To achieve the ideal of getting the country out of the economic malaise, there was need to have dedicated people working together for the common good.
"To get out of this comatose requires urgent surgery by expert surgeons, by dedicated surgeons, by super physicians in the form of your government. But that's the problem if the chief physician is 90 years and the actual technical expert is a farmer from Headlands, so these things are beyond them from what is required," Biti added.
"We are going to require post operation maintenance and care. It is beyond these parties that are afflicted by asinine factual factional fanaticism that is unprecedented.
"We see deputy ministers attacking ministers and Parliament has become a civil war for two main factions and opposition with its own problems is now an innocent bystander in boxing matches taking place in the two main factions fighting for dear life."
MDC secretary-general Tendai Biti warned in a wide-ranging interview with the Daily News last week that failure by ruling leaders to act on the issues that are affecting the 14 million citizens reeling from an ill-performing economy and failure by opposition to exert any form of influence because of its own internal challenges, could give rise to rebellion, including even by the military.
"Now the effect of our fragile economy on the backdrop of a country where democracy itself is in intensive care, where opposition itself has its own challenges, where the ruling party itself is tearing each other to pieces, is that we face the day of real invasion of parties, a real possibility of a military coup d'état," Biti said.
"But the sum totality of this is lack of leadership, lack of vision and lack of love."
The former finance minister said the economy was in a deep trench of stagnation and deflation, an unfortunate situation which he claimed could last for 30 years as there was absolutely no economic activity on the ground.
He said that although many countries such as Argentina had gone through similar episodes in their history, none of them were a fragile state as is the case in Zimbabwe.
"Zimbabwe is a fragile state, GDP (Gross Domestic Product) is very low, poverty levels are high and its per capita income is less than $300," Biti said.
Biti said the economy could only be revived through credit lines because it was not capable of generating financial resources required, adding the goodwill of others would also come in handy and give the economy a jump start needed to revive industry.
Biti said there was need to ensure transparency in all sectors to ensure that every cent generated was remitted into the country's coffers.
To achieve the ideal of getting the country out of the economic malaise, there was need to have dedicated people working together for the common good.
"To get out of this comatose requires urgent surgery by expert surgeons, by dedicated surgeons, by super physicians in the form of your government. But that's the problem if the chief physician is 90 years and the actual technical expert is a farmer from Headlands, so these things are beyond them from what is required," Biti added.
"We are going to require post operation maintenance and care. It is beyond these parties that are afflicted by asinine factual factional fanaticism that is unprecedented.
"We see deputy ministers attacking ministers and Parliament has become a civil war for two main factions and opposition with its own problems is now an innocent bystander in boxing matches taking place in the two main factions fighting for dear life."
Source - dailynews
