MDC-T is clearly desperate to have security sector reforms tabled at the forthcoming Sadc Summit and, what better way to bring it to the table than to have a quivering minister, who enters the summit venue casting furtive glances over his shoulders for fear of snipers or petrol-bombers, a super minister who happens to be a loquacious negotiator.
The Herald
By Caesar Zvayi
‘‘I CAN see the fingerprints of the state (in the attack), the military to be precise. Zanu-PF has no capacity to do that, it's the work of the military,'' a ‘quivering' Tendai Biti - MDC-T secretary general and finance minister in the Inclusive Government - told The Daily News (June 7, 2011), 48 hours after an amateurish petrol bomb was thrown at the bottom, not over the top of his house's security wall.
Is this the same Zanu-PF that is full of war veterans who brought the Smith regime to its knees after a 14-year bush war that Biti says has no capacity to make a decent petrol bomb let alone know where to throw it if they want to?
And, are these the same security forces whose fearsome reputation got former British military chief, Lord Charles Guthrie, to warn his blundering premier Tony Blair against considering an impudent military adventure in Zimbabwe saying it would be suicidal to pit British troops against ‘‘the tried and tested veterans of the Congo,'' after the latter contemplated a military invasion of Zimbabwe, that Biti says would do such an amateurish job on his wall?
Are these the same troops that were formed after the amalgamation of three warring military wings - Zanla, Zipra and the Rhodesian Front - that he claims do not even have the sense to know that a petrol bomb is lobbed over the wall towards a window so that when it explodes the curtains and other items can easily catch fire?
Would you believe for a minute that security forces that fought a gruelling 14-year bush war and have been in numerous campaigns on the continent and abroad would throw a poorly-made petrol bomb at the bottom of a security wall and not over it?
And, why would trained servicemen have to resort to petrol bombs when they have the armoury at their disposal that is replete with all manner of bombs that would have reduced Biti's house to a heap of rubble and sent the ‘super minister' himself to his maker if they really wanted to get him? Forces with a sophisticated intelligence network that would have known that Biti was not even at home?
This ‘super minister', sorry super victim, and soon to be super quitter must respect our security forces, not insult them like that.
If they had a mission to terminate him, he would not be grandstanding fear on the pages of the local private and Western media today for the benefit of converts ahead of this week's Sadc Extraordinary Summit.
The bottom line is, given Biti's attempts to link the "bombing" of his security wall to the security forces, it's evident the ‘bombing' was the MDC-T's childish attempt to bolster its calls for security sector reforms, calls that have been rebuffed by both Zanu-PF and the facilitators themselves with the former saying there is no need for such reforms while the later said security sector reform was never part of the GPA.
Interesting things happened regarding the "bombing" on Biti's security wall, an attack that was reported to the media first before the police who were only "privileged" with a report a good 17 hours after private media hacks had splashed the story on the ubiquitous online websites.
Issues around the bombing have centred on the lack of or absence of VIP security details at Biti's house, which was later found to be common to other ministers including those from Zanu- PF.
So much was made about the bombing with the super victim saying the bombing can't be handiwork of ordinary Zanu-PF activists but state security forces.
MDC-T is clearly desperate to have security sector reforms tabled at the forthcoming Sadc Summit and, what better way to bring it to the table than to have a quivering minister, who enters the summit venue casting furtive glances over his shoulders for fear of snipers or petrol-bombers, a super minister who happens to be a loquacious negotiator.
Biti and his party, must give us a break.
If they are pushing an agenda that is not inimical to the national interest, then they have nothing to fear from the security forces who have ably defended this nation for all of 31 years and got the British to rethink the impudent adventures they have embarked on in other parts of the world.
It is the MDC-T itself which needs reform so that it becomes a truly Zimbabwean, home-grown political party not a neo-colonial project full of askaris at the beck and call of Western forces.
If the MDC-T does reform, I have no doubt should they win the elections they will get recognition from and be defended by the likes of Constantine Chiwenga, Perrance Shiri, Paradzai Zimondi, Augustine Chihuri and Happtyton Bonyongwe.
This talk of resignation from a "super minister" who has been nothing more than a dwarfish thief in giant robes as far as crafting fiscal policies is concerned will not cost anyone a night's sleep, maybe only his wife may miss the status.
Biti's announcement that he wants out of the Inclusive Government was supposed to create a ‘crisis' ahead of the Sadc Summit, or send the country off kilter that is.
I wish poor Biti heard the cheers that rocked the Salary Services Bureau at Mukwati Building and other offices crawling with impoverished civil servants countrywide when they heard the news of his threat to quit.
His was more like the threat issued by a long-divorced woman threatening to walk out on an indifferent husband.
No one will stop him; in fact Biti might get a much-needed shove to hasten his departure from the New Government Complex.
I challenge him to make good his threat so that Government programmes can be implemented smoothly without him holding onto SDRs as if they are his long-lost lover.
The Inclusive Government will subsist, and Biti will no doubt make Tsvangirai's day since Morgan was itching to have Biti out of Government before donors reminded him who was the boss and who butters his bread.
Biti being the lawyer he is, should know that his departure fom Government would be a none event.
In fact, even if the whole of the MDC-T was to leave Government, the Inclusive Government would still subsist because only Zanu-PF has the mandate to form a Government by virtue of holding the Presidency.
The Inclusive Government would still go on between Zanu-PF and the MDC.
So, once again "super minister", you are free to become a ‘‘super quitter!''
You will be missed like a plague, it seems.
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