Tendai Biti calls for rethink on Zimbabwe State

Zimbabwe's pre and post-independence politicians have failed the nation and the current generation needs to stand up and recreate the "nation state that should be Zimbabwe" former Finance minister Tendai Biti has said.

Biti told his renewal group's provincial consultative meeting in Gweru at the weekend that President Robert Mugabe and veteran opposition strongman Morgan Tsvangirai were a direct reflection of each other.

"We need to create a new narrative, a new paradigm and new conversation. Only a mad man does the same thing over and over again. The liberation movement in the form of Zanu PF has failed disastrously and 34 years after Independence Zimbabwe is a real ruin literally and metaphorically," said Biti.

The MDC-T secretary-general now fronting a section of the opposition party called "MDC Renewal" agitating for the removal of long-time leader Tsvangirai said the economy is in ruins.

"Look at the state of the economy, the infrastructure and industry. The liberation movement is therefore tired and the very fact that the average age of the Zanu PF politburo members is 67 is testimony of the tiredness. Equally the post-liberation movement in the form of the MDC has failed dismally. Like Zanu PF, the post-liberation movement is tired and exhausted. Given the failures of the two the country needs generational, institutional, operational, psychological, moral and mind-set-renewal," said the former treasury chief."The past generations have failed and Mugabe and Tsvangirai are a mirror reflection of each other and national failure."

Biti superintended over Zimbabwe's economy during the subsistence of the coalition government at the height of the country's economic and political crisis. He is credited with stabilising the economy and his mantra "we eat what we kill" resonated with the donor community and multilateral institutions.

He said the recreation of the Zimbabwean state needs to happen as a matter of urgency to alleviate the ordinary people's suffering.

"The rethink on the Zimbabwean state must happen sooner rather than later because ordinary Zimbabweans are suffering. Our standard of living of the average citizen has fallen to that of 1957. There is no service delivery, the health delivery system has collapsed and our lives have turned into a dog's breakfast that my pet Gwenhamo would not touch," said Biti.

The MDC-T secretary-general took pot-shots at the country's latest economic blue-print, the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Scio-Economic Transformation (ZimAsset), saying it is no different from the "senseless rallies by Tsvangirai".

"It is all sloganeering that does not put bread on the table. One wonders what kind of mileage Zimbabweans are supposed to draw from the rallies being held by Tsvangirai. Likewise, the ZimAsset document is the worst blueprint this country has ever produced and will not provide any impetus to our suffering people," he said.

Biti called for the securitisation of the country's minerals to fund economic revival and for the country's leaders to begin "to talk to everyone without exception" for the good of Zimbabwe.