Gideon Gono, 49, a key donor for Mugabeʼs Zanu (PF) party, has been
given a fresh five year term starting December 1 when his current term
expires.
Zimbabweans are not amused.
When Gono took office in December 2003, he promised to "turn around"
the economy in short order, confidently making inflation-lowering and
setting other targets which the country has come nowhere near to
achieving, and vowing "failure is not an option."
Five years after all the hype surrounding his appointment and all the
high hopes in his tenure by many, Gono has dramatically fallen in
public esteem.
An angry depositor in a bank queue at CABS along First Street told The
Zimbabwean: "What we need is a new central bank governor who
emphathises with the people. What Mugabe has done is totally
unacceptable to us."
Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions secretary general Wellington Chibebe
said he was shocked with the decision to renew Gono’s term given his
appalling failure.
"The cash crisis is ample evidence that the RBZ governor had failed in
his mandate to provide liquidity, so renewing his term is a shocking
decision," Chibebe said.
A depositor at ZB bank said: "It is very cruel for Mugabe to extend
Gono’s term given that he has plunged the lives of ordinary people into
the worst crisis ever."
Citing the thousands of Zimbabweans who had to spend the whole day in
the stifling heat queueing for ZD500 000 in kilometre-long queues for
cash from their bank accounts, he said there was need for a central
bank governor who takes the people seriously.
Rapid expansion of the money supply on his watch has been blamed for
contributing to Zimbabwe’s unprecednted hyperinflation – now the
highest in the world.
Daniel Ndlela, head of an economic consultancy firm said: "Zimbabweans
have to brace for more suffering "as long as we continue having this
poet" for a central banker.
"He has totally failed. If he had a bit of professionalism and dignity
he should have resigned a long time ago. If he has any decency he
should not accept this extension of his term," he said.
Gono has openly admitted that his efforts to rescue and improve the
economy of Zimbabwe have failed, arguing there were several factors
that were outside the central bank’s control, which made it difficult
to rein in inflation.
Critics and civic leaders allege that Gono has kept his job as the
governor mainly through Mugabe’s patronage. Mugabe has not only
shielded Gono from his critics, but has commended him in his activities
as governor despite the extreme deterioration of the Zimbabwean
economy. Gono had been Mugabe’s banker for a long period before
becoming governor of the RBZ.
Gono conveniently blames his appalling failures on sanctions.
He is personally banned from travelling to the US and EU member states
because of his role in propping up the edifice of the controversial
Zanu (PF) government. He was added to the EU’s list of individuals
subject to personal sanctions – a ban on travel to the EU and the
freezing of any assets there – in July 2008, following the
controversial presidential election, which Mugabe lost amidst serious
political violence.
By Chief Reporter
Post published in: News