By Elizabeth Sitotombe
THERE was nothing surprising about Tendai Biti’s decision to abandon the opposition’s turbulent politics by taking a ‘sabbatical’.
The CCC has become nothing more than a playground for clueless political nonentities.
Indeed, the CCC has not only been drowning in a sea of confusion, but debt as well.
After being evicted from their No. 9 Hillmorton Raod offices in Mabelreign, CCC was again unceremoniously evicted from their Belvedere offices over unpaid rentals.
The CCC-run Harare City Council had to relinquish a portion of the Trafalgar offices as a refuge for the struggling opposition party.
All this at the beck and call of Harare Mayor and CCC spokesperson Jacob Mafume (pictured).
Do we smell abuse of ratepayers’ money here!
Where, indeed, have all the millions from donors gone to?
The CCC has been failing to raise funds to keep the party afloat, with the Harare provincial organising
taskforce co-ordinator, Eric Murai, and Harare provincial organising taskforce member standing
accused of squandering the little that is left in the party’s coffers.
Party veterans like Ian Makone have had to sever ties with the party for its lack of proper administration.
Makone also withdrew his property from the party offices.
But back to Biti.
The CCC deserter, who was recently convicted for assaulting a businesswoman and investor, claimed he was stepping away from the political arena to ‘explore’ other avenues of dethroning the ruling ZANU PF. According to a source close to the shenanigans, the Americans have tasked him and some CSO leaders to headhunt for an alternative leader to Chamisa (pictured) who has dismally failed to deliver on the regime change project.
Biti, who promised his supporters he would be back before the 2028 general elections, was supposed to take over as CCC president from the incumbent Welshman Ncube on what was to be a rotational basis, but his handlers would not allow him to be contaminated by the current team of losers. If the West’s plan is to hold Biti in reserve as a super-sub, then the match will be over with the hapless boy still hunched on the bench.
Biti is the trusted Trojan horse of the Brenthurst Foundation which was established in 2004 by the Oppenheimers whose objective is to effect regime change in African countries.
He is the same Biti who co-authored the book
Democracy Works with Dr Greg Mills, Jeffrey Herbst and former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo. The book will be launched in Washington, DC, where Biti will be taking his ‘sabbatical’ — or is it back to the drawing board for re-orientation Master Tendai Biti!
In 2022, under the Brenthurst Foundation, Biti led observers in the Lesotho elections.
0n March 14 2024, Biti criticised several Southern African political parties, with his main focus on the ANC of South Africa while at the ‘Daily Maverick Gathering 24’ in Cape
Town — a clear sign of meddling in other countries’ electoral processes.
With South Africa heading for elections in May this year, there appears to be a pattern to this political tomfoolery!
Kudira majecha!
Not content with being a Western quisling at home, the hapless Biti is now being roped into the bigger picture — that of unseating liberation movements in Southern Africa.
Meanwhile, the US Embassy’s ‘notice of funding opportunity’ is a playing out for what it truly is — a brazen attempt to manipulate the next generation of Zimbabweans into turning against their Government.
By targeting individuals, organisations and the youth, who make up a critical demographic of the
population, the US is sowing seeds of dissent in the hope of ultimately subverting the Government through ‘public diplomacy’.
Recently, the US Embassy in Harare issued an annual programme statement, outlining its priorities and procedures for submitting requests for funding.
“The US Embassy Harare Public Diplomacy Section of the US Department of State is pleased to announce that funding is available through its Public Diplomacy Small Grants Programme. This is an Annual Programme Statement, outlining our funding priorities, our strategic themes, and the procedures for submitting requests for funding. PD invites proposals for projects that strengthen networks between the people of the United States and the people of Zimbabwe through exchanges highlighting our shared goals and values.”
The call for proposals may seem benign, but it is a thinly veiled attempt to control the narrative and
influence public opinion. We have come to know by now that the ‘shared goals and values’ that the
US speaks of are merely a smokescreen in the US‘s ‘soft power game’.
From the recent unsanctioned visit of the four USAID workers, a scholarship scheme for university students who identify as LGBTQI and now the call for proposals — the people of Zimbabwe should see the rat stinking to kingdom come!
It is part of a bigger scheme!
The document continues: “. . . this Annual Programme statement welcomes proposals in addition to those 2024 priority NOFOs in areas that, promote democratic principles including freedom of speech and civic participation, particularly if they share best practices for citizen advocacy or explore the challenges modern media houses face in digital economy and the ethical standards needed to gain public confidence.”
What are the ethical standards needed to gain public confidence?
The US’s desire to control the information landscape to expand its sphere of influence and control the narrative is an open secret. Gullible media houses have been known to be pawns and instruments of US destabilisation and disinformation discourse in targeted countries.
In 2022, the US Embassy’s Public Diplomacy Section, in collaboration with the Information for
Development Trust (IDT), admitted to having funded an anti-China story published in The Standard.
They admitted to “…supporting the investigation…” with journalists being sponsored to “…unearth irregularities around a special mining grant that had been issued to a Chinese firm”.
Very undiplomatic of Uncle Sam!
That is why many online news outlets continue to pop up like mushrooms around the country!
Lately, the US has been putting immense pressure on developing countries to embrace homosexuality,
especially targeting the youths.
The programme further calls for the: “…deepen[ing of] US-Zimbabwean professional networks through organised workshops and rekindling alumni exchange partnerships and networks to solve new problems. Foster social inclusion of unde(r)served communities, such as disabled persons, minority ethnic groups, LGBTQI+, and then those in rural areas.”
The US’s spirited efforts to promote the LGBTQI+ culture among the youths have become evident in the Munhu-Munhu Scholarship offered by the Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (GALZ).
For the benefit of the uninitiated, the scholarship was no free lunch. Recipients were required to abandon their religious beliefs, values and to conform to a foreign ideology that is incompatible with Zimbabwe’s cultural norms and beliefs!
The US should have learnt some valuable lessons by now — that all attempts to sabotage Zimbabwe
will come to naught.
