Tendai Biti has accused Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa of ‘stealing’ money from the central bank to fund excessive expenditure by the regime, which caused crippling cash shortages. In an in-depth interview on the Hot Seat program with journalist Violet Gonda on the economic crisis in Zimbabwe, Biti talks about what he uncovered when he was finance minister in the coalition government from 2009 – 2012. He says President Robert Mugabe takes at least US$4million per foreign trip and his entourage has deliberately made him into a ‘permanent resident of the skies’ in order to loot Zimbabwe, with their own per diems. Biti warned Zimbabwe only has one week of import cover left, talks about illicit financial flows which hurt Zimbabwe, the parallel government structures used to siphon money, and explains in some detail what needs to happen to make Zimbabwe better again.
