MDC secretary-general Tendai Biti told a news conference at the MDC’s Harvest House HQ Saturday that his party will have to raise the money amid reports the party is facing an intense cash flow crisis. The flood of cash from diamonds into the Zanu PF coffers is enabling it to outspend the MDC in pre-election skirmishes ahead of a crucial election that could happen this year. Biti, who is also Finance minister, said on the sidelines of the news conference that not a cent has flowed into Treasury from four diamond auctions, suggesting the cash flew into Zanu PF coffers.
Biti told the news confence: “We expect that this MDC cogress will cost about US$5million. We dont have this money and we have to fundraise this money from our members and our friends in Zimbabwe.” The appeal of Biti to donors exposes the pressure on the MDC to match Zanu PF spending. The MDC is said to be hamstrung by a serious funding shortfall, struggling to bankroll its newsletters, whose staff have gone for extended periods without payment. Biti appealed for fresh funds to bankroll the party and the congress.
The MDC secretary general said the forthcoming congress will be elective, “that means our structures will have the democratic right of electing various people in various positions.” Biti faces an uphill task as he raises cash at the same time trying to
placate an angry working class heartbroken with the MDC’s lofty promises for change and better life. Biti appealed to angry workers to be “patient”. Sources say the biggest MDC donor has reportedly drastically cut back or withheld funding in some instances to the party.
Political analysts say the MDC cannot afford to emulate the Zanu PF budget, whose spending plan is buoyed by surreptitious funds flowing into the party’s chest through the back door from army officials guarding the diamond mines. “In terms of funding, this confirms what we’ve known for a long time the MDC are the underdogs in this,” said political commentator Ronald Shumba. “They have good intentions, but they are hamstrung with their small political muscle, a low budget that can’t match Zanu PF’s Chiadzwa money, and an increasingly confident Zanu PF.”
He highlighted the worker anger expressed in statements by union leaders such as Raymond Majongwe insinuating the Prime Minister and the MDC have failed the workers, a reason he said has precipitated the ongoing strike by civil servants that hads put pressure on the labour backed MDC. Shumba said: “It’s frightening that day by day the unions’ stranglehold on the MDC is tightening. Civil servants are facing misery, and at the same time the MDC donors are reportedly demanding they do more to force Mugabe to prise open more reforms before cash can flow. And sadly, Mugabe is digging in.”
Biti told reporters that the minister of Public Service was dealing with the workers threat to down tools on Monday, angry at Biti for
giving them ‘a paltry’ 24 percent salary increase, against a demand for 160 percent salary increase Shumba said: “When you see the secretary general calling a pressa to appeal for congress funds, that shows you how serious the crisis is and what’s at stake.”
Tsvangirai, who returned to work from his annual leave last week, echoed Biti’s message at his arrival party at his Strathaven home on Wednesday, hearkening back to the message in 2008, that the MDC’s campaign was never about putting him in Munhumutapa Building but about building a movement for change that will build the lot of Zimbabweans. Biti said Tsvangirai has described 2011 as “a year of elevation.”
Biti has been singled out for criticism by the striking workers for failing to honour the MDC promise to improve their lives. But Biti
said the damage wrought on the economy would take decades to resolve, and there were serious structural problems that have seriously haerrmohaged the economy. “The entrance of the MDC in government has stopped the economic bleeding,” Biti told the news conference. “The stabilisation achieved in this country has been a mere stopping of the bleeding, but it’s going to take years before this country can attain the levels of GDP figures that it had in the early years. And all the decay that you are seeing in the conditions of service for civil servants, the status of our electricity generation where we can’t pump more than 700 kilowatts of electricity against a demand of at least 2500 kilowatts is a reflection of this decay. So what we appeal to Zimbabweans is patience because the damage that was done by those before is structural, is serious and it will take many years to reverse.”
Post published in: News