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Former Finance Minister Tendai Biti has labeled businessman Wicknel Chivhayo and Mabvuku Member of Parliament, (MP) Hon Scott Sakupwanya as “thieves”.
The former CCC vice president’s claim comes after Wicknel Chivhayo has continued to display his extravaganza of opulence by awarding selected musicians and other Zanu PF supporters with cars for supporting the ruling party during the campaigning period towards the 2023 general elections.
Speaking during an exclusive interview with 263 times, Biti outlined key economic blueprints, which he said could end the country’s deep-rooted problems.
Biti said Zimbabwe should dollarize as a short-term solution to curb inflation and constrain dealers from looting. He also described Hon Scott Sakupwanya as a “fat Tsotsi,” whilst castigating Chivhayo’s car giving spree, but without necessarily mentioning his name.
He said, “why do you need the Zimbawean dollar?” You want it because you want to use it as arbitrage. The Zim dollar was used to steal billion dollars allotted on the auction floor from June of 2019, so dealers were using RTGS to steal the US dollar. If you don’t want to reward these fat Tsotsi’s, the Scott Sakupwanya’s of this world, and others who are going around donating motor vehicles, you float the USD.”
Asked about the recently launched Zimbabwean new currency, ZiG Biti said the move is a “complete disaster,” because in 2019 they argued that due to the current economic status, the country was not yet ready to have its own currency.
“I think the move to introduce a new currency, a structured currency as they are calling it, is just a complete disaster. We argued in 2019 when they introduced the RTGS dollar, that conditions for the introduction of our own currency and de dollarization simply did not exist.
“But we argued most significantly that there was simply no trust and confidence in Mthuli Ncube, in Emmerson Mnangagwa, in the government of Zimbabwe, and that without trust and without a social contract, that currency would fail,” explained Biti.
He further blamed the Minister of Finance, Mthuli Ncube, for crippling the economy, labeling his economic policies as a “complete reflection of cluelessness”.
“Mthuli is complicit in the destruction of this economy. It eludes ones wisdom that one can actually use the professor of economics in the same line with his name. What Mthuli Ncube does is a complete reflection of cluelessness, but most importantly a cruel mindset that is totally out of reach with the realities of Zimbabwe,” he said.
On quitting Zimbabwean politics, the former Harare East MP said, “I can’t quit Zimbabwean politics when people are suffering.” I have just gone on sabbatical, and it’s also important for my mental being, so I can’t quit politics, because that would be abandoning the people of Zimbabwe.”
Meanwhile, efforts to get a comment from Hon Scott Sakupwanya and Wicknell Chivhayo on what Biti alleged were fruitless, as their phone went unanswered.