UTTERANCES by the leader of the MDC-T breakaway faction, Tendai Biti that President Robert Mugabe and the ruling ZANU PF party have taken Zimbabwe back to 1958 must be understood in the context of his attempt to appease his Rhodesian handlers in their attempt to reclaim control of Zimbabwe.
For Biti to claim that ZANU PF has done nothing to uplift the livelihoods of the majority for the past 34 years, five of which he was at the helm of the strategic Finance Ministry is as tragic as his warped belief that Zimbabweans enjoyed better lives in 1958 when the country was under lock and key from the Rhodesian behemoth.
“It has been a failed 34 years since Zimbabwe got its independence in 1980,” said Biti
“Our lives have gone to the era of 1958. 
“We have no electricity, we have no water. 
“We have got a national crisis and we cannot stand by and watch.
“That is why there is the renewal call.
“If there is good governance in any country then everything else flows. 
“We cannot let past mistakes of Zimbabwe to revisit us.
“That is why we are proud of renewal as an ideology and as a new way of thinking.”
As we have indicated in our previous editions, people like Biti are a manifestation of the structure of our education system and its glaring flaws.
Because here is a system that churns out graduates that are far detached from reality.
This is a system that has produced so-called ‘intellectuals’ whose attitude towards defending the values, ideals and ideas of their country is nothing, but negative.
But this is Biti for us.
The more he talks, the more he loses focus.
What did Biti do in those five years to turn around Zimbabwe’s economic fortunes except to malign the country as a ‘tiny, poor struggling nation’ a stance which earned him the Best Finance Minister in Africa accolade in 2009?
Was it not Biti who sabotaged farmers during his tenure in the so-called inclusive government?
It is on record that Biti scrapped Government’s support to agriculture in order to satisfy his bookish economic policies guided by the pro-rich Bretton Woods institutions.
Nevertheless, events took a twist for the better when the new ZANU PF, the party that Biti accuses of ‘reducing Zimbabweans to being airtime vendors’, got a resounding electoral tenure in 2013.
The Presidential Inputs Support Scheme and Government support are now in full swing and unhindered, the results will be there for all to see, a bumper harvest.
What is the difference between his technocratic approach through his advocacy for what he says is a ‘new way of thinking’ and the inclusive Government?
It’s semantics.
What Zimbabwe needs is not superlatives or chain of degrees, but only to be wise in our dealings with those who intend to invest in the country.
We do not need to forget who we are, where we have come from and where we are going if we are to make it as a nation.
That is why Biti’s utterances are not only disturbing, but unfortunate in that his ‘ideology’ of renewal is an attempt to bring to the fore Rhodesians under the guise of attracting investment.
For Biti, this is a classic case of one who was with us, but never for us.
The ideology of renewal can only be perfected by Biti himself if he cuts his ties with his Rhodesian friends.
That the country’s economy has gone on a lean spell since 2000 is undisputable, but these problems can be tracked to Biti’s contribution at that famous Troutbeck Hotel meeting in 2001 when MDC officials crafted a paper that gave birth to the United States’ sanctions law, ZDERA.
So yes it is true that the economy has been on a downward spiral, but Biti needs to look at himself in the face before laying his malicious charges on ZANU PF for its alleged failure to steer the country’s economy to dizzy heights.
Why should Zimbabweans shed a tear over the fact they are now in charge of an economy that was never in their hands as Biti wants them to do?
Why should they not be proud that gone is 1958 when they were not even allowed to walk in the same street with the Rhodies who want now ‘renewal’ using Biti as a focal point?
Those ‘beautiful’ and high sounding superlatives on Rhodesia’s industrial relations, how they ran the economy and how they gave our fathers leftovers from their high tables are nothing compared to Zimbabweans taking over the economy and presiding over land indigenous policies that are benefitting them to greater effect.
We worry not about Biti’s reckless utterances that we are now back in 1958.
Those who were born before or in 1958, Biti himself included, do not want to go to that dark age.
If anything, they dread going back to the year 1979 given the way President Mugabe has turned around their fortunes and given them freedoms and liberties in an unprecedented manner.
This attachment to Rhodesia is irritating.
It is an insult to those who fought against Rhodies.
This is what we will strive to defend and protect in our beloved country.
Never again shall we allow people like Biti to disturb our peace.
Never again shall we allow them to derail the goals and objectives of our liberation struggle.
We are now in charge of this economy and those who live in or want to take us back to the past must keep on dreaming.
Let those with ears listen.