Harare East legislator Tendai Biti has described his recall from parliament as unfortunate considering the role he played to hold public officials to account.
In an interview with 263Chat soon after taking oath at Parliament building in Harare, the lawmaker who was chairperson of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Public Finance before being recalled bemoaned the time lost after the recalls.
“It is regrettable that we have wasted two years, we have been out for two years and you are aware of the fantastic work that we were doing in the public accounts committee. The role of Parliament is to hold institutions and executive to account, so regrettably that work was interrupted but we are back and we will see what committees they will allocate us particularly our new party the Citizens Coalition for Change.
“It’s a pity that democracy was interrupted but fortunately democracy had the last laugh, democracy was vindicated, the people fought back and people were restored in their original position to finish the mandate that they had. In the end democracy wins but it has been a very costly process over US$80 million has been spent on these by-elections.
“I can assure you that this is a country that cannot afford US$80 million which could have gone to text books, drugs, potholes and could have gone to water that is not available in some places such as Tafara and Mabvuku but we are where we are, the question is what is the way forward and the way forward is to make Parliament more vibrant again, to make Parliament more accountable once more and more representative to the aspirations of citizens out there,” said Biti.
Biti is one of the twenty eight legislators who won in the March 26 by-elections that came as a result of mostly recalls from the MDC-T and PDP whilst other seats were vacant as a result of death.
