Call for reforms 'Zimbabwe people's agenda not MDC's'

Addressing a packed audience in a Harare hotel this week during a Zimbabwe lecture series on whether the country was ready for elections, Biti - who is also the Finance Minister - said the next election should be a formula to find a lasting solution to the Zimbabwe crisis.

Zanu-PF has been calling for elections, even without a new constitution and critical reforms - in defiance of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the African Unity (AU), the mentors of Zimbabwe's Global Political Agreement (GPA).

"The call for reforms is not new in Zimbabwe. When Zimbabwe went to elections in 1980, there was a new Lancaster Constitution which was signed in 1979 in London - those were reforms," Biti said.

Some Zanu-PF politicians were distorting the reality by telling President Robert Mugabe that if elections were held this year the Zanu-PF ruler would beat Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the MDC-T, he said.

"How can someone seriously think about investing in a presidential candidate who is 88 years old?" asked Biti.

In 2008, Tsvangirai won the election, he said, but there were problems in the transfer of power as separate structures were running the elections. "As a result, the people of Zimbabwe do not want an election that will create another unsustainable Zimbabwe. Zanu-PF benefited from this unsustainable environment, as they know that they will not win free and fair elections," Biti said .

Since the formation of the inclusive government in 2009, the MDC in government had done a lot. "We now have functional public institutions which had collapsed during Zanu-PF's rule and Zanu-PF is trying to destroy that by making the next elections ungovernable," he said.

Despite misguided Zanu-PF election calls , the MDC and Zanu-PF were negotiating a roadmap to holding free and fair elections.

This roadmap would include having a new people-driven constitution which will allow dual citizenship, limited terms of the president, devolution and a strong bill of rights, Biti said. Other changes being negotiated were having a new electoral act, and reforms of the legislature, the security sector and the media .

"There is nothing wrong with the regime-change agenda as we will beat Zanu-PF at the ballot box. When the Ian Smith regime was removed in 1980, it was regime change - and there was nothing wrong with that," he said.

"We can't allow another Robert Mugabe to emerge - and we will not allow Zanu-PF to abuse us like they have done for the past 31 years," Biti said.

Mugabe could go ahead with his threats of pulling Zanu-PF from the GPA , but the MDC would continue to attend cabinet meetings and make laws, he said.

Biti dismissed Zanu-PF's calls for empowerment as nothing but another attempt by the party to kill the economy. "There is no need for anyone to take over a commercial bank. If you want a bank, come to me - as the minister of finance - and Gideon Gono and we will give you the licence to start a bank," Biti said.

Speaking at the same event, academic and political analyst Dr Ibbo Mandaza said Zanu-PF calls for early elections were futile.

"Let's stop the election talk, it does not help us. We have the GPA, in which the SADC region has a stake. There will be no elections in Zimbabwe until the reforms have been done."Mandaza said the views of Goodson Mguni, the Zanu-PF panelist at the debate, were those of a minority. The views of Biti, however, were the views of the majority of the people of Zimbabwe.

"At the moment we should focus on improving the operations of the inclusive government, service delivery and restore national institutions. In the past, when I was in government, we had no army officers speaking on political issues - it was treasonous.

"Our national issues have been subverted. No one in the security sector retires now. The priority is not elections, but to restore the economy and be proud like any other nation," Mandaza said.

He applauded Biti for doing a "great job" of restoring the economy, which had collapsed before he became Zimbabwe's minister of finance in 2009.