HARARE – Former finance minister Tendai Biti is temporarily quitting politics after declining a nomination to be one of three co-vice presidents of the main opposition Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) after party leader Nelson Chamisa resigned.
The 57-year-old said he wanted “complete time out” of politics but insisted that he would “remain driven” by the cause for democratic change in Zimbabwe.
“Everyone has a constitutional right of controlling his own affairs. At the present moment and time as Tendai Biti, I have taken a time out in certain spaces and political spaces,” he told NewsDay.
“As an individual I’m also entitled to rest, to have a sabbatical and so forth. So I’m 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.”
Biti, a lawyer, said he would continue with “strategic litigation” on certain human rights causes, adding that he was also writing a book to be published this year “unpacking liberation movements.”
Biti called on Zimbabweans to take charge of the fight for democracy and not subcontract their future to individuals.
He added: “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 had been named as a co-vice president of CCC pending a congress together with Welshman Ncube and Lynette Karenyi Kore after Chamisa abruptly quit the party in January saying it has been “contaminated” and “hijacked” by the ruling Zanu PF party.
The post Tendai Biti takes time out of politics, declines CCC leadership role first appeared on Zimbabwe News Now.