Former Harare East Member of Parliament, Tendai Biti, has announced that he is temporarily stepping away from politics, despite earlier reports indicating that he was expected to assume the role of Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) president in rotation with the current leader, Welshman Ncube and Lynette Karenyi Kore.
Speaking on HSTV’s #FreeTalk show recently, Biti, said he had withdrawn from politics to focus on other spaces but will remain driven to attain democratic change in Zimbabwe. He said (via NewsDay):
Everyone has a constitutional right to control his own affairs, at the present moment and time as Tendai Biti, I have taken a time out in certain spaces and political spaces.
Following Nelson Chamisa’s announcement that he had quit CCC, Jacob Mafume, who claims to be CCC’s spokesperson, announced that they had held a meeting which agreed to make Biti, Ncube and Kore rotational leaders.
However, Biti said he was not aware of the meeting referred to by Mafume. He said:
I am not sure of the meeting you are referring to, I am not aware of the meeting that made me a rotational president.
Biti also denied accusations that he had betrayed “the struggle” and was working with ZANU PF to undermine the opposition.
The accusations arose after he failed to condemn Sengezo Tshabangu, who recalled several CCC legislators and councillors after the general elections held in August 2023. Biti said:
As an individual, I occupy spaces, I am a lawyer, and I am doing what I have been doing in the courts, with my strategic litigation.
I am busy writing, I think we are going to produce a book before the end of the year on unpacking liberation movements and so forth.
But as an individual I am also entitled to rest, to have a sabbatical, and so forth. So I am in that mode of complete, I don’t want to say isolation, complete time out if you like, but I still remain driven, by the fact that we must have democratic change in Zimbabwe.
The former Finance Minister urged Zimbabweans to collectively stand up for their rights and stop the entrenchment of authoritarian rule and corruption by the ruling party. He said:
I don’t see agency and urgency, we have normalised the abnormal. We accept madness; they come up with a new currency it’s business as usual.
They come up with a mad budget it’s business as usual. They distribute vehicles like confetti, it’s business as usual. They speak of a third term, it’s business as usual. It’s not good enough so I don’t see urgency, I don’t see agency.
Collectively, I don’t want to speak about political parties or individuals, I want to speak about our collective responsibility as citizens, we must provide the agency and the urgency.
Biti, however, promised to make a comeback before 2028 when Zimbabwean is scheduled to hold its next general elections.
