Former Finance Minister Tendai Biti has launched a stinging attack on controversial business tycoon Kudakwashe Tagwirei, accusing him of looting and collapsing Zimbabwe's economy.
Biti insists that Tagwirei must be prevented from ascending to the country's top job, citing his role in destroying Zimbabwe's local currency in 2019 as just one example of his economic sabotage.
The beleaguered businessman was recently ousted from a Zanu-PF Central Committee meeting after his co-option into the party's key structure was foiled. Party spokesman Christopher Mutsvangwa later vowed to fight Tagwirei's rise into the party's most senior and influential ranks.
Biti, echoing Mutsvangwa's sentiments that Tagwirei is buying his way up the party structure, was blunt about the need to thwart Tagwirei's presidential ambitions.
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Biti accused Tagwirei of single-handedly collapsing Zimbabwe's local currency in 2019 after being issued treasury bills worth US$360 million.
He alleges Tagwirei then flooded the market with this cash, causing the RTGS currency to plummet. This, Biti argues, is a prime example of how Tagwirei has undermined the nation's financial stability through illicit means.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa had once described the local currency as the strongest in the region, although his government later devalued it and announced the introduction of the ZiG currency last April.
Tagwirei, who owns numerous companies, some under his well-known Sakunda Holdings, is also accused of netting millions of dollars through his Fossil company, which constructed the Trabablas Interchange in Harare at US$114 million, more than double the regional market prices.
Speaking to a local online news publication (263Chat) on Monday, Biti took a swipe at Tagwirei, branding him a criminal and unfit to become Zimbabwe's President in future.
"It is crazy to think that this criminal actually has ambitions to be the next President of the Republic of Zimbabwe," Biti said.
"It can't happen and should not happen. It should not be allowed to happen," he added.
Biti also challenged Zanu-PF, calling it a laughing stock for allowing its values to be disregarded due to greed for money and top-of-the-range vehicles.
"I feel pity for Zanu-PF. Zanu-PF is being reduced to a commodity that can be bought by a few trinkets. A few motor vehicles, a few GD6s, what kind of country have we become?" Biti queried.
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This comes after Tagwirei himself doled out some top-of-the-range vehicles to Zanu-PF's Harare Provincial leadership in his bid to be co-opted into the party's Central Committee, a move that has come crashing down like a deck of cards.
Biti said thousands of liberation struggle war heroes are turning in their graves, believing they would not have gone to war had they known the current state of Zanu-PF, which people with money are hijacking.
