Biti spurns Tsvangirai's offer

Ex-Finance minister and leader of a break-away faction of the opposition MDC-T, Tendai Biti, has scoffed at calls by his erstwhile boss and former prime minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, to return to the party.

Biti is now part of the leadership of a pack of hawks calling for regime change within the MDC-T following a debilitating poll loss to Zanu-PF last year.

Responding to Tsvangirai's olive branch extended last week to rejoin the party, Biti on Monday said: "You do not ask a girl out in the press, and they certainly know that because they are masters at that game."

Biti lashed out at Tsvangirai, accusing the ex-premier of being caught up in a time warp because of his past achievements as the leader of what was once Zimbabwe's biggest opposition party, but now beset by internecine wrangling over leadership.

"Their (Tsvangirai group) point of reference, as with Zanu-PF, is takamborohwa, takambosungwa (we were once tortured and detained), it is in the past. Zimbabwe is where it is because of the politics of hubris, big egos, arrogance and personalisation," he said.

"Our erstwhile colleagues are suffering from a variety of afflictions, first is an over developed messianic complex in which they think they are the only ones anointed to save this country, and that is why they refer themselves as Moses in relation to the biblical prophet. There is also the feeling and belief of entitlement just because they have been arrested and tortured before."

The MDC-T, a product of another split in October 2005, broke into two early this year following a series of violent confrontations, after deputy treasurer general Elton Mangoma had written to Tsvangirai, demanding that the opposition president steps-down and allow for an elective congress.

Tsvangirai obstinately refused, but then Biti came out of the woods and threw his lot with Mangoma, torching a nasty fight before a hastily convened national council meeting contentiously suspended the party leader, and six other leaders.

A tribunal appointed by the Biti faction then sat in June and resolved to expel Tsvangirai, as well as national chairperson Lovemore Moyo from the party, weeks after a counter move had allegedly expelled Biti, Mangoma and their acolytes.

On Monday, Biti said Tsvangirai's "so called big tent is a non-event".

"We are here to tell them that the political landscape has changed, and there is need to create political champions. Create a coalition of winners, and that is what we are working on. Not to be huddled together in a leaking tent that is neither big nor small, but full of hyenas, reptiles and such other unsavory animals that were lucky to be saved by Noah's Ark," the ex-treasury chief said.

"They are also enmeshed by a crisis of winner take all mentality which in the Solomonic proverb they can only be compared to the woman who demands that they either get the baby or he is cut in half. As we said on April 26, we are building a coalition bound by values and in November we will hold a policy conference that will provide pointers and possible solutions to bring bread to Zimbabweans."

Tsvangirai last week appealed to his former trusted lieutenants to "come back home".

The renewal group has since announced it would soon transform into a party with a different value system, ethos, colours and emblem. Its first congress is set for early 2015.