Shanty-Towns an Exhibition of Zanu (PF) Failure – Biti

By Sij Ncube

HARARE, July 15, 2015 – The mushrooming of unplanned neighbourhoods like Epworth are an indictment on the Zanu(PF) leadership, MDC Renewal Team secretary general Tendai Biti has said.

Addressing his party’s district structures meeting on Monday night, Biti said Zimbabweans have resorted to make shift settlements because Zanu(PF) has not been able to come up with a clear housing strategy since it came to power in 1980.

“If the Zanu(PF) failure was to be brought before a court of law, the Epworth case would be marked as Exhibit A, and if the people of Epworth were to rank Zanu(PF) they would award them zero percent for failing them,” he said.

He spoke as the Harare City Council continued its blitz against vendors operating in the central business district as well as the demolishing of so-called illegal structures around the capital.

On Monday council officials destroyed 11 houses in Glen Norah as shanty towns mushroom in and around Harare.  

Biti charged that the money being spent on state visits specifically by President Robert Mugabe could be used to fund a very successful housing project in Epworth “but because people who have failure as part of their DNA are running government, that kind of idea will never be entertained.”

Mugabe has been on more than 22 foreign trips since January, gobbling millions of dollars on fuel, accommodation and allowances. The Zanu(PF) leader usually travels with a huge entourage of about 100 minders.

Biti, however, said the Renewal Team envisaged launching a Holistic Programme for Economic Transformation (HOPE) which would include measures of dealing with housing problems in the cities.

 The economic blue print will be unveiled at an inaugural policy convention to be held in Harare in “a few days’ time.” Ten provinces have already met to nominate national leadership, debate key policy issues and make submissions for the party constitution.

He said the people of Zimbabwe were suffering due to the ZANUPF leadership he described as “an ancient bunch of frontmen who do not understand that the game, they are still trying to pursue is no longer applicable to the current challenges.

 ‘These people are still engrossed in the culture of entitlement and impunity oblivious of the fact that nationalism was an agenda to bring One man, One vote but now the strategy that is needed now is the one applicable in pursuing job creation, industrialisation , infrastructure development and nation building.”

Biti, who is poised to take-over the reigns at the party’s congress in October, said the Renewal Team’s party constitution would guard against the abuse of office by people “who are absorbed in the entitlement insanity, all senior positions will have term limits, and this will promote injection of new ideas in the institution