Zimbabwe's New Money Man

By Stanley Kwenda

On Tuesday February 10, Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader and Zimbabwe Prime Minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, announced his cabinet for the unity government with President Mugabe’s Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (Zanu PF) and the other MDC party led by Deputy Prime Minister, Arthur Mutambara.
A packed Harare hotel auditorium burst into rapturous applause when the name of Tendai Biti, MDC’s Secretary General, was called out as the country’s next Finance Minister.
Not much is known about him in the financial sector save for his pioneering role as arguably one the country’s best commercial lawyers.
“He is a brazen fellow who doesn’t mind what people say about him always willing to go against everyone when it comes to matters of principal,” said an MDC party colleague.
Many people believe he has what it takes to drive the country’s economy out of the mud. Although in essence he will face a daunting task of reviving an economy that is as good as dead.

“He has strong influence from Marxism and has a very high appreciation of modern economies and is very well read,” said Ernest Mudzengi, the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) Director.
“His high breed of ideas from both the right and left makes him the right candidate for the job as evidenced by his little patience for corruption shown through the manner he has discharged himself in his party:”

But he is obvious to the challenge that lies ahead describing his new post as the “worst job in the world.”

“It’s the worst job in the world but I have to look the job in the eye and have no doubt that I will prevail,” Biti told IPS.

“We have to quickly get the country out of the messy that Mugabe got it into. We have to sort out the supply side of the economy by making sure that the industry graduate in the first six months from zero percent capacity to 60 percent in the first six months.”

He said he will also move to put in place market structures for the country’s mining sector to make sure that local miners get internationally competitive prices.

He said he will also make sure that the capacity of the country’s agricultural sector is restored during the 2009-2010 agricultural season.

Zimbabwe has a largely agricultural based economy.

But he emphasized that all these will only be achieved through the restoration of participatory democracy in the country.

“It’s a chicken and egg situation, there is need to restore participatory democracy in the economy. We have to meet certain benchmarks of democracy without which we will not succeed,” said Biti.

Tapera Kapuya, a South African based, Zimbabwean political analyst believes that because of his background he has an opportunity to practice pragmatism.

“This is where his skills come in, he has an opportunity to be pragmatic. He will insist that the central bank stick to its functions and restore the role of the Finance Ministry which had been eroded over the years leading to the chaos in the economy,” Kapuya told IPS.

But Biti has his own weaknesses according to a university friend.

“He is short-tempered, not in touch with the grassroots, does little consultations and tend to be bookish,” the anonymous friend told IPS

However he is largely regarded as an astute politician and has a reputation for integrity.

He rose to become one of the best lawyers in town with commercial law being his speciality though he has vast knowledge in human rights, labour and constitutional matters.

Colleagues attribute this to his unwavering obsession for detail.
Biti was born on August 6 1966 and raised in the sprawling and poor working class suburb of Dzivarasekaw in Harare. He started his activism at the formative years of his university career as a student leader and went on to lead various strike actions at the University of Zimbabwe where he graduated with an LLB Degree from the University of Zimbabwe Law School in 1989.
He became the MDC secretary general in March 2006 while also representing his party as Member of Parliament for Harare East.
He authored the MDC’s economic blue print, known as RESTART, a document which explains the steps that MDC intends to take to revive the country‘s economy.
In parliament he is a very active contributor.
The MDC website describes him as a great articulator of various pertinent issues from economics to legal and justice matters.
He has also championed the formation of many human rights organisations in Zimbabwe such as the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) and NCA.
In his celebrated political career he has suffered persecution from the government in his persuit of democracy.
He has been arrested several times and tortured by state security agents but he remained in the trenches forging ahead with his fight for freedom.
This calminated in his arrest in June last year upon his return from South Africa where he had sought refuge when state security agents unleashed an orgy of violence against MDC leaders and members.
He was charged of treason, a charge stemming from a concorted document that he was accused of having authored. The document, titled The Transition Strategy, detailed how power was to be transferred from President Mugabe’s Zanu PF to Tsvangirai’s MDC. Biti had previously been charged on the same account of having uttered statements prejudicial to the state following his announcement of election results based on MDC tallies collected from postings at constituency centres after the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) had gone for more than a month without releasing election results.
He denied the charges and was finally freed last Friday in a gesture seen as part of the political negotiations towards the formation of the unity government.
“The assaults were so terrible and surreal. Like watching a movie except that no-one was part of the characters. Strangely if it were to happen again many of us would love to be in the front line again. They were hitzing us but they were the ones afraid. Our wounds will heal but the scars on their souls are permanentand they will take them to hell,“ Biti explained his experience in jail.

“He is commanding, sharp, intelligent, piercing, unyielding, untiring and inspiring,“ Human Rights Campaigner Kumbirai Mafunda told IPS.

The is another side to this man.

In many of his public pictures, he appears in a bowler hat defining his open appreciation for personal ettiquette.

His exuberance is not limited to politics only. He is a staunch English Premier soccer league side Arsenal fan.