MDC Renewal officials challenge Biti to come clean

Anxiety has gripped the MDC Renewal Team as their frontman Tendai Biti is said to have left the country for the United States of America at a time there is growing uncertainty over the future of the opposition party.

According to the Standard, close sources who requested anonymity yesterday said the former Finance minister had left for the US where he was expected to be for "quite a long time".

Biti is part of the legal team representing the expelled MPs and his absence will deal a heavy blow to their case.

Senior MDC Renewal officials have since challenged the former Finance minister to come clean over the allegations.

"You cannot persuade people to leave Tsvangirai and dump them in the desert," said one of the officials.

"Because he has lost his job as an MP and chances of being a president are slim, he decides to run away from the struggle. That is a sign of selfishness. It shows that he is acting like a coward. He has lost grassroots support because he took matters for granted that after working as a successful minister of Finance everything would work in his favour."

Added the MDC Renewal official: "We have plans for Renewal and if he is leaving he should be open to us."

Last weekend Zanu-PF political commissar Saviour Kasukuwere alleged that Biti was leaving active politics for the United States.

Efforts to get a comment from Biti were fruitless. But Renewal spokesperson Jacob Mafume said Biti was going nowhere. He said Kasukuwere could not speak of Biti's behalf.