Gono turns down Zanu (PF) post

Gono was last week elected in absentia as Zanu (PF) secretary for finance for the volatile Manicaland Province alongside provincial chairman, Basil Nyabadza, vice- chairperson, Dorothy Mabika, secretary for administration, Ellen Gwaradzimba, and Simanga, who becomes the political commissar.

On Monday Gono turned down the position. He said he wasn’t a Zanu (PF) politician and wanted to remain a technocrat, according to our source.

Top Zanu (PF) sources said efforts to revive the party included bringing business people and academics into the ailing party’s structures. Gono was said to have advised the provincial leadership “to look for someone else because I can’t take on the responsibility”.

Efforts to obtain comment from chairman Nyabadza were futile, but a source in the executive acknowledged Gono’s rejection.

“Yes the governor has indicated he cannot take the position at this point because of professional considerations,” he said. “We are naturally devastated with his decision. We stood to gain a lot from his wisdom.”

Gono is said to have been approached last month by Zanu (PF) administration secretary, Didymus Mutasa, with an invitation to join the party structures and he requested time to look into the issue.

Gono was expected to be hoisted into the Politburo, an inner Cabinet of Mugabe’s party.

Sources said Mutasa was behind the election of Gono, who is seen as his proteg in the province. Mutasa, who is also special minister in Mugabe’s office, has spoken out strongly against Gono’s dismissal from the RBZ as demanded by the MDC.

Gono’s term as central bank governor has spanned the economic collapse of once-prosperous Zimbabwe. A power struggle is shaping up between Gono, a close ally of President Mugabe and his personal banker, and Biti, from the MDC, who took office in the new power-sharing government in February.