Tendai Biti accuses businesswoman of fabricating documents related to the Harare Airport Road project

December 20, 2022
Zimbabwe former Finance Minister Tendai Biti | Report Focus News
FILE PHOTO: Lawyer Tendai Biti, former finance minister, speaks to journalits after a two-week ban on public protests issued by the police was struck down, outside Zimbabwe's High Court in the capital Harare, September 7, 2016. REUTERS/Philimon Bulawayo/File Photo

Tendai Biti, a former finance minister, has accused Tatiana Aleshina, a businesswoman from Ukraine with a Russian passport, of forging documents that led to the construction of the incomplete Harare Airport Road being granted national project status.

Biti made the claim during his ongoing case, in which he is accused of verbally assaulting Aleshina. Aleshina is a business partner of Ken Sharpe, a property developer in Harare who also owns Augur Investments, the company that was controversially given the contract to construct the road.

Biti, who was finance minister at the time, stated that he did not sign the necessary document for the project to be granted special status, as required by law. He also claimed that Aleshina had captured state institutions, including the President’s Office and the judiciary, and was manipulating the judiciary in the case against him.

Biti stated that Aleshina’s alleged underhanded dealings in the failed land deal between the council and Augur Investments over the Harare Airport Road showed her character. The case is set to be ruled on by Magistrate Vongai Muchuchuti on January 30, 2023.