Exposed Junta Financier in chief now implanted at the RBZ to maintain the status quo Gideon Gono aka Your GovernorNo professionally qualified and competent practitioner can accept to be toyed around with to the extent imposed Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono is accepting at present.
Only a hard core politician would accept ridicule of the nature “Your Governor” as he prefers to call himself Dr Gono has been subjected to ever since the coalition government became a reality.
Your governor has become so confused he does not even know which institution employs him or the purpose he is supposed to serve.
Having accepted a contract extension from the deposed Junta in October 2008 after the illegal regime had long capitulated its hegemony to the coalition government on 15 September 2008 Dr Gono is now in the invidious position of trying to please a three headed master at the helm of the coalition government.
And your governor is simply at loss as to how to achieve such a challenging feat yet he has no option but to hang in there and let time and events beyond his control determine his fate.
The under qualified central bank chief- widely speculated to have conferred himself a doctorate he never successfully studied for and attained at any known reputable higher learning institute- when he was handpicked to chair the University of Zimbabwe Council by President Mugabe, Gideon Gono is finding the going tough in the coalition government.
He has distinguished himself as the professional banker who succumbed to politics in dramatic fashion leaving him totally exposed as an under cooked financial expert unworthy of professional repute and trust other than for professional short circuiting and availability for political manipulation.
The central bank governor who holds the distinction of presiding over fiscal policies that wiped out national currency value to a point where it was not worth the paper on which it was printed and cheaper to use as toilet paper than a toilet paper roll on a supermarket shelf has been at the centre of acrimony that is stalling coalition government initiatives progress.
Not that he personally has any personal clout or stamina to derail government initiatives but because he has willingly accepted to be used as a gatekeeper for forces notoriously indifferent to national progress through a coalition government but warmly receptive of national regression under exclusive Zanu PF misrule.
Zimbabweans whose lifetime savings were in their majority, devalued to nothing by your governor’s warped fiscal policies want him as far away from State financial management as can possibly be achieved.
But elite Zanu PF zealots whose political relevance has been solely dependent on exploiting professional weaknesses in the central bank’s supremo desire nothing less than the extension and consolidation of the unchecked powers of your governor to sustain their personal egos through nefarious self enrichment programmes they had easily secured from the central bank at the expense of all else in the nation of nearly 13million citizens the majority of whom are refugees exiled to the diaspora by harsh economic environment in the country.
Appointed Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa who became the final Junta Acting Finance Minister and holds the distinction of being the longest serving Minister who has never won an election came out guns blazing in support of your governor at the funeral of your governor’s late brother in Buhera on 26 May 2008.
Chinamasa speaking mainly in the vernacular Shona language reportedly told mourners gathered at the Gono homestead that:
"We should not throw stones at each other. We are unnecessarily wasting time arguing with each other because of Dr Gono’s position at the central bank.
That should not pre-occupy us. If Dr Gono did anything to ensure the country succeeds he did it on our instructions.
There is no programme that he implemented at the central bank without our green light for him to implement the programme.
The signatures of all those who served as Ministers of Finance since Dr Gono took over as governor are there to confirm that he did everything with our blessings and authority.”
As if there was anyone doubting that? That is exactly the reason why Zimbabweans are in their majority clamouring for your governor’s immediate removal from the central bank.
His job is not to implement political directives by successive Ministers of Finance but rather to advise the entire Government on best practice financial management that sustain the economy through financial prudency.
By willingly implementing political directives that whittled individual and corporate savings to nothing and impoverished the nation your governor only proved that he was the wrong gatekeeper for national savings and cannot be trusted with that responsibility anymore.
Chinamasa went on to disclose the real reason why he was willing to put up his life in defence of your governor’s indefensible incompetency.
"So there is no one who can accuse Dr Gono of any impropriety without accusing those who signed authorising to act as he did.
Nobody can dismiss Gono before he has dismissed us who authorised him to act as he did.
Anyone continuing to demand that Gono be relieved of his position as the central bank chief is indirectly demanding for Zanu PF to be relieved of its participation in the coalition government which will not happen.
I want to assure Dr Gono that he is not alone in this fight. I say so because under these pressures he may feel deserted by those that hitherto assigned him the responsibilities to act as he did. This feeling of alienation can be compounded by the misfortune of the death of his brother at a time when some people are baying for his dismissal from the central bank.
I would like to personally confirm that I authorised Dr Gono to do things to save the Government during sanctions," he said.
Really? So it was Chinamasa who was advising the Reserve Bank governor to plunder and pillage our forex accounts, buy Zanu PF apologists farm implements and groceries, raid our supermarkets and steal products to sell in the black market, pay black market forex racketeers, pay Zanu PF hoodlums to kill, maim, rape, steal our property to force us to vote for Mugabe against our wishes.
Is it any wonder why we did not vote for his parliamentary candidature?
"Sanctions immobilised us to a point that our newly found partners in the coalition government are now privately conceding that our Junta regime was manned by lionhearted men and women to survive the debilitating effect they had," he added.
We agreed the GPA that sanctions must be uplifted and now we are speaking with one voice on the matter.
What is now bothering and disturbing me is that someone will stand up and demand that Dr Gono’s appointment as central bank governor is an outstanding issue without mentioning the more compelling sanctions issue. Why are you not speaking about it?
Why are you not speaking about that as an outstanding issue?
It is a big outstanding issue.The sanctions were imposed to counter land reforms, but then we have fixed the imposers because we agreed with the MDC that land reform is irreversible," he answered himself.
If the sanctions imposers have been fixed by Zanu PF agreeing with MDC that land reforms are not reversible that should do it then in respect of countering the sanctions should it not?
The issue can’t still be outstanding if it has been agreed upon. It is a fact that the agreement on the irreversibility of land reforms between Zanu PF and the MDC was not the appropriate instrument to use to compel imposers to lift the sanctions as evidenced by them remaining in force to date.
It means therefore that the diagnosis that sanctions were imposed to counter land reforms was inaccurately premised on the belief that the imposers were being urged to impose the sanctions because the MDC was opposed to land reforms and as soon as they endorsed land reform the sanctions will fall away which has not happened.
Instead the imposers are adamant that the Zimbabwe government is yet to address international concerns about selective application of the rule of law, failure to uphold fundamental human rights, lack of political tolerance in the country, media gagging and placement of trust in discredited financial managers like Dr Gono to enable it to reconsider the sanctions.
Chinamasa is not in the mould of politicians to see through these obstacles to the lifting of sanctions and for Dr Gono to respond to his support by pledging to remain in his post at the central bank in defiance of loud calls for his stepping aside reduces him to the unprofessional level that Chinamasa is reputed for.
And who was there to echo Chinamasa’s support for Gono? The military commanders without any known knowledge of financial management were there handy to give professional support for the embattled governor who was humbled by the outpourings of the militant professional support for his unprofessional financial misconduct.
Said Air Vice Marshal Henry Muchena, representing military service chiefs at the burial;
"Despite the loss of a brother and misguided calls from those demanding for you to go, Dr Gono should know that the Zimbabwe Defence Forces were solidly behind you.
Gideon has not baulked at the prospect of financing the land reform war which we are finalising and will shortly be moving onto the economic war.
We request those that are not part of the land reform struggle to stand aside and watch and grumble in silence while we and Gideon prosecute the war to its logical conclusion.
If you try to interfere by removing some of our fighters we will defend them.
Let us and Gideon Gono fight on so that we will leave you the freed land where you can shout your obscenities from without hindrance.
We have vowed on the graves of our departed liberators that the struggle would continue until the country was totally free and will not depart from those vows.
Our only plea to Zimbabweans is that those without the stomach for the struggle must desist from acting as detractors of the fighters. When we took up arms against the colonists there were many who refused to join us and likewise when we invaded commercial farms. It is not a crime for anyone to refuse to join us in the next stage of the struggle.
But when a person educated to become a lawyer without paying a single cent other than riding on the blood and sweat of those liberators who perished at Chimoio stands up to demand Gono’s dismissal we are bound to question his parentage and motives.
We kindly beg you the politicians and your learned children who benefited from the spilt blood to leave State institutions alone as they execute their mandates.
When you are politicking we do not interfere. When we prosecute our mandates from the people we now hear toddlers speaking evil about our independence as a nation. Leave Gideon Gono alone as he works for the people.
If you try to separate him from the struggle we will be left with no option but to deny you the opportunity when we should not be insubordinate to your commands."
Clearly Dr Gono is a military project at the central bank whose sole purpose is to finance clandestine military activities outside government policy and he is comfortable with that.
His mandates come from the people through the military commanders and not through the people’s elected representatives in the legislature and the executive.
If Air Vice Marshal Henry Muchena was not openly declaring a treasonous military coup financed and coordinated by Dr Gono, which the coalition government executive is incapable of suppressing, he would by now have been arrested together with Dr Gono to answer how he envisaged refusing government orders for the termination of Dr Gono’s contract to be effected.
For Dr Gono and Justice Minister to be associated with this kind of militancy against the coalition government and the Head of State and coalition government Principals to remain silent and inactive against such blatant threat of military impunity indicates how far we are from democratising the state.
Unless these loose cannons in the military are brought in check it is highly unlikely that the coalition government will succeed in declared efforts to democratise the state governance within the agreed 2 year period.
But the threat is not new in any respect. The late army Commander General Zvinavashe made it in 2001 in a live national television broadcast and it has been repeated at various fora by Brigadier Chedondo, General Chiwenga, Retired Brigadier Zimondi, Air Marshall Perence Shiri and Emmerson Mnangagwa and Patrick Chinamasa to name but a few vocal Zanu PF and militant detractors of democratic governance.
Now they have been joined by Mashonaland Central governor Advocate Dinha who had this to say to the nation;
“People of Mashonaland Central unreservedly support you Dr Gono.
We are aware that some of the ring leading sellouts now baying for your head were at the forefront of benefiting from your programmes at the central bank.
We saw them at Bak Storage in front of queues to receive free tractors from the central bank.
They are shameless Zanu PF members who must be reminded that comradeship extents to supporting colleagues in trying times.
Let’s be all-weather friends.
Especially those from our party Zanu PF. We as a party benefited immensely from the Reserve Bank. But today we are wallowing in luxury and forming unholy alliances with people outside our party with the sole intention of backstab the very person we benefited from.”
Need we say more?
Gono was not appointed to serve the nation but to maintain the Zanu PF benefits flowing to the selected privileged party members and sustain the party’s the military projects which are not in any way ordinary people friendly.
And Trevor Manhanga himself an immense beneficiary of Zanu PF patronage agrees and adds that the only way to realise national healing is to allow Dr Gono to continue his unchecked reign at the central bank.
What a load of rubbish?
And for Dr Gono to then respond and assure the nation that “calls for his departure were not causing him sleepless nights,” confirms his insensitivity and unsuitability for the job at the central bank that he occupies.
More critically it is an issue that JOMIC must take up with the principals and forthwith refer to SADC for immediate arbitration as it is evidence that the letter and spirit of the GPA is under threat from a group of militia led and financed by Dr Gono using credit lines opened for the country’s economic turnaround.
If such decisive action is not taken now, it will rear its ugly head at the planned elections with disastrous consequences to the critical objective of returning the country to democratic governance.
Pity Dr Gono it never rains does it. Now you have allowed yourself to be exposed as the Junta’s favourite successor to Mugabe and sharper blades will be waiting for your exposed backside.
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