Harare — There is little doubt that Zimbabwe's three-month old inclusive Government is hamstrung in a bare-knuckles contest for power and control.

Beneath the veil and public show of harmony and agreement, is there a raging power dynamic pitting the two MDC formations and Zanu-PF?

If any doubt lingered, resolutions of the MDC-T national council meeting in Masvingo last week put paid to that facade.

To be sure, the inclusive Government appears unable to resolve the so-called outstanding issues.

What came out of Masvingo is a clear show of exasperation on the part of MDC-T in resolving these issues.

The names of Gideon Gono and Johannes Tomana have come to personify the predicament facing the inclusive Government.

More so the former.

But it is nothing surprising. Politics and banking are inseparable.

This is an age-old phenomenon.

In the case of Gideon Gono, taking over as Governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe at a time when the country was entering into the throes of the worst post-Independence political and economic crisis, could not have been without a price.

The Governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has become the centre of a controversy over the interpretation, letter and spirit of the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the three protagonists, now partners, in the inclusive Government of Zimbabwe, Zanu-PF, MDC -T and MDC-M.

The two MDC formations insist that, according to the MoU they signed with Zanu-PF, Dr. Gono's appointment as Governor of the RBZ be subject for review.

The Zanu-PF corner, on the other hand, maintains that Gono's appointment is a done deal.

Any review ought to be consistent with the country's supreme law, the constitution, which cannot be superseded by the MoU.

Therein lies the problem.

The issue then arises: how does Gono become such a problem? How does the appointment of one man become such a national question?

Can the entire political settlement that has brought such a sense of hope and relief to a hurting nation be sacrificed upon the appointment of an individual?

Is Gono such a price to pay for national healing, reform and economic revival?

How does a man of such humble beginnings, of peasant stock for that matter, attract the attention of the world's powers and powerful rulers of imperial empires even, Bretton Woods institutions and others?

Ask Gono!

The issue is simply that whenever there is a contest for power, there are bound to be victims.

This is a lesson of history. Ruler-ship is about power.

Arthur Mutambara, Zimbabwe's Deputy Prime Minister and leader of the MDC, himself a man of quantum physics and mechanics, says he is "not interested in the form of power, but in the force of power".

But then who needs a lecture on the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics?

It is, however, fact that less than 30 percent of the world economy is based on quantum physics and mechanics.

The rest of it is nature.

It is our humanly nature that we all desire power.

Even those that publicly feign humility and lack of ambition desire authority and power over others.

We all want to be significant and in control.

Therein lies the problem.

Most of the time it is not about the talents we possess.

To be sure, too much show of one's talents often leads to ruin and peril. More so in politics, as in business.

We aspire to assume the positions of our superiors, to curry favour from the King, that we can rise in stature at the court.

It is how we exercise our political skills, how we cause things to happen around us.

Analysing the case of Gideon Gono vis-à-vis the Zimbabwean question requires sombreness and perspective.

It should not be clouded in the jealous and envy that feeds politics and business.

This is critical for Zimbabwe to move forward and to define a new national ethos.

Gideon Gono is a self-made man in every sense.

He is also adept at getting himself noticed.

As they say, for you to be anything in this life, to be promoted at work, to be elevated in position in social life, the church, club, political party, in whatever endeavour, you have got to be able to attract attention to yourself.

Stand out. Make oneself noticed.

Gono did this in spectacular fashion. Love him or hate him, you cannot help but notice him.

He started off in his working career with lowly positions.

Gono rose to national prominence and significance by honing excellent skills in finance and banking that he earned him the reputation of "Mr. Turnaround".

The work he did to transform the then tottering and ailing Commercial Bank of Zimbabwe to what it is today -- a juggernaut in Zimbabwe's banking arena -- earned him the position of Central Bank Governor. This was to prove to be a daunting and exacting task in the face of domestic political crisis, international isolation, US and EU financial sanctions and restrictions.

Much of the criticism on Gono has had to do with perceived departure from orthodoxy.

The numerous, almost novel, and creative initiatives he took over the years he has presided on the RBZ to keep the Zimbabwean economy afloat, have earned him immense and sustained criticism, mainly from the MDC formations, for engaging in "quasi-fiscal activities".

He is said to have overstepped his mandate.

But is that all he did that he may become the centre of national debate and discourse?

Not so!

There is little or no equivocation that Zimbabwe's political and economic condition since 2001 could not have been remedied without innovation and creative thinking - what Gono terms "out of the box thinking".

Upon assumption of office in 2003, Gono rightly identified hyperinflation as the nation's number one enemy. He was right.

The man immediately rolled up his sleeves and sought to reduce the levels to a single digit.

Through his original thinking, Gono posted interesting results and the rate of inflation began to decline. This threw cold water on certain political interests and manouvres that sought to prosper and thrive on the back of a national economic crisis.

Under the weight of crippling US and EU financial sanctions and restrictions, Gono's efforts began to suffer slow down and reversal.

But he did not give up.

The greater the challenge grew, the more energised he appeared.

His quarterly monetary policy review statements underlined his defiance of the odds.

His initiatives to turn around the performance of agriculture with facilities such as ASPEF, Farm Mechanisation, inputs procurement, to name a few, and in other areas like mining, in social programmes (Bacossi) proved his mettle.

Thus, as a result, Gono found himself thrust into the vortex.

He became the face of economic resistance to formidable international and local pressure to unseat the Government of President Mugabe under pursuit of a British and US-inspired regime change agenda.

To be exact, that the country was able to survive the unrelenting barrage of economic and political pressure calculated to achieve malaise and social upheaval, is due to a large and great extent to the innovative interventions of the RBZ under Gono's guidance and leadership.

Attacks on Gono's person began to mount from within and without.

Even in the then ruling party circles, jealousy and envy began to mount with whispers and murmuring that the Governor had assumed too much power, effectively rendering himself de facto Prime Minister.

His wings had to be clipped.

Meanwhile for the political opposition, the MDC-T and the MDC, Gono had become fair game.

Attacks on him were to be without scruples.

In the run-up to the March 2008 presidential and general elections in Zimbabwe, Gono's nemesis and current boss as Minister of Finance, Tendai Biti, the powerful MDC-T secretary general went overboard. He disparaged and branded Gono outrageously as an "economic saboteur, terrorist and number one Al-Qaeda who deserves to be shot by a firing squad".

Biti figured that Gono was at the "epicentre of the Zanu-PF terror machine".

These accusations are not however simply hate speech or politicking on the campaign trail.

They have stuck on Gono and affected his family.

More than that they form the basis of current demands by MDC-T and MDC that Gono must go for the economy to thrive.

To industrialist and entrepreneur, Aguy Georgias, "nothing could be further from the truth".

Georgias, the Trinity Engineering boss, who is also a senator and Deputy Minister of Works in the inclusive Government and an indefatigable campaigner against the sanctions on Zimbabwe, sees no merit on the attacks on Gono.

Says Georgias: "I am a part of the inclusive Government. For me to engage in an attack on any member of the same Government is not only self-deprecating but also unwise in the extreme.

"What the nation expects is to see us chart a new way forward in as amiable a manner as is possible.

"All our differences can be resolved amicably, without acrimony and vindictiveness. The attacks on Dr Gono are illogical and sickening.

"Our focus now ought not to be on drawing swords against one another. "We have STERP to direct our energies at. In my reading there is complementary resonance, if not congruency in Gono's monetary policy statements and STERP to the point where one wonders where the differences are coming from?"

Senator Georgias is of the view that "whatever the Governor did or initiated, to my mind was inspired by a desire to achieve our collective survival against such a ferocious and vicious attack by the big powers".

"If we do nothing to remove and end the senseless and improper attacks on President Mugabe, for example, the 'bad-boy' stigmatisation of Zimbabwe will stick with us for a long time to come. We have to actively pursue, as a nation, perception improvement strategies through a media and publicity campaign," he contends.

It however appears that known political interests will continue to pursue Gono.

The Governor has thus been caught up in a beneath-the-surface contest for power for only trying hard to do the right thing for his country and nation.

In retrospect, we all fell over each other's feet to celebrate the rather startling and iconic achievements of the Governor through, as scholar and writer Ken Mufuka put it, "original thinking".

It is, therefore, crystal clear to all fair-minded and right thinking Zimbabweans that the pursuit and sustained attack and persecution of Dr Gono by his detractors is less influenced by objectivity as by self-interest, ambition, ego and political interest of "significant others".