Zimbabwe's Tendai Biti on The World Tonight
Ritula Shah writes:
A man in a bowler hat is an unusual sight these days but Tendai Biti isn't worried about fitting in - he has a very strong personal sense of what he sees as being right and wrong. A leading figure in Zimbabwe's MDC, in the past he has been arrested and assaulted for his opposition to Robert Mugabe.
Today Tendai Biti is Finance minister in Zimbabwe's power sharing government. It's an administration that has President Mugabe at its helm, while Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the MDC, is its Prime Minister. When I spoke to Tendai Biti for The World Tonight, he made no secret of the fact that this isn't always the most comfortable arrangement, but he argued that it's far better than the alternative - which he says is guns and violence.
As Finance Minister, Tendai Biti has a tough job on his hands. On the positive side, Zimbabwe's sky high inflation has plunged, and is hovering at or below zero, following the decision to discard the country's worthless currency. But rebuilding the shattered economy, creating jobs and investment will take time. Mr Tsvangirai has just completed an international tour which was aimed at persuading Western donor nations to start re-investing in Zimbabwe.
But though he personally was given a warm reception in Europe and the US, there was a certain wariness about dealing with the country while Robert Mugabe and ZANU-PF retain a grip on the levers of power. Instead of the billion or so dollars he hoped to raise in funding, the actual total was nearer $200m. Tendai Biti is unfazed by this - he argues that everything will take time but he believes the new Zimbabwe he envisions, will eventually rejoin the ranks of Africa's success stories.
Click below to hear the interview.
(broadcast on The World Tonight, ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Radio 4, 7 July 2009)
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