29 November 2008
MDC-T says President Robert Mugabe's decision to re-appoint Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor Gideon Gono runs against the spirit of the power-sharing agreement signed by Zimbabwe's political parties on September 15.
Gono will tomorrow start his new five-year term that expires in 2013.
He will however not have an easy start to his new term. The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) wants workers to flood banks on Wednesday and demand their money.
The ZCTU, which has given Gono several ultimatums to lift the cash withdrawal limits, says workers will demand to withdraw more than the permitted $500 000 a day from their banks.
It's not just the workers who are disappointed by Gono's appointment: ordinary people, businesspeople, economists and political parties have roundly condemned it.
Elton Mangoma, the deputy MDC secretary for economic affairs said Gono's re-appointed was against the spirit of the September 15 power-sharing agreement between the MDC formations and Zanu PF.
The MDC has been given the Ministry of Finance, which will directly supervise the RBZ chief under a unity government.
"We are disappointed because this is something that should have been done together with the MDC in the spirit of the July Memorandum of Understanding and the September inter-party agreement," he said. "Those two documents are clear that Mugabe should not make any unilateral executive appointments and what he has done shows his unwillingness to honour them."
Mangoma said Gono represented failure and by extending his term, Mugabe had prolonged the suffering of Zimbabweans who were failing to withdraw their cash.
Accepting his re-appointment on Wednesday, Gono pledged to stop the central bank's widely condemned quasi-fiscal operations by returning it to its core business.
But exiled Zimbabwean businessman, Mutumwa Mawere said he feared Zimbabweans would endure another five years of "political manipulation" by Gono.
"During his term, he has successfully been able to divert attention from the core source of the political and economic crisis by manufacturing enemies of the state," Mawere said. "His tenure witnessed the centralisation of executive power and the emergence of the RBZ as the super state."
Mawere said Gono was preoccupied with blaming others for the collapse of the economy yet he was to blame for most of the damage.
Economists who accused the governor of posturing said promises by Gono to turn over a new leaf were not new. "Those promises are an old song," said an economist who requested anonymity.
"We should take them with caution if not completely dismiss them as those of a man too happy to escape unemployment.
"He has made those promises in the past but failed to honour them. . .We do not have any good reason why we should believe him now."
The economists said Gono had a bad track record, which was unlikely to improve, given the unchanged political environment.
They said his first term was marred by haphazard policy implementation and inconsistency.
"He is likely to continue with his old ways because there is no change at the top in the first place," said economic analyst, John Robertson. "We were expecting change much higher up following the March elections."
Robertson said it appeared Gono still did not understand the source of the country's economic problems as he continues to claim Zimbabwe was under an economic embargo.
Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) president Kumbirai Katsande said Gono faced a tall order given that the economic situation continued to deteriorate.
"Our view is that during trying times, we have to call on contributions from all key stakeholders and authorities to improve our conditions," he said.
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Events in Zimbabwe never cease to amaze me and indeed the world over. Failures in progressive countries acknowledge by resigning because staying longer is a waste of scarce resources and indeed creates untold inefficiency. The current scenario in Zimbabwe now needs international muscle to wrestle and correct what has been created by inefficient bureaucrats. Gono like those people who appointed him do not have the slightest clue of how to run a country’s finances. In other words they are a just a bunch of clueless people so divorced from reality that to them running a country is like funfair indeed… [Read Full Text]