End of road for Gono?

The third RBZ chief since independence in 1980, Gono will in November have served out his second and last term in accordance with the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Act, Chapter 22:15. According to the law, a governor and his or her deputies can only serve a maximum of two five-year terms.

President Robert Mugabe appointed Gono to his current post in November 2003 and renewed it on 26 November 2008. He took over from Leonard Tsumba (1993-2003) whom Mugabe accused of being too bookish. The first post-independence governor was Kombo Moyana (1983-1993).

While the RBZ Act provides that a Deputy Governor can temporarily fill his post when the President, in consultation with the Finance Minister, decides so, Gono is expected to be immediately replaced by another substantive central bank boss.

It is not clear who would take his position, but his successor is likely to be determined by how the general election goes. President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai are currently embroiled in a court battle over the election date, with the former insisting on June 29 while the premier prefers a later date to enable necessary electoral and security reforms to take place.

A prominent industrialist has predicted that Gono’s departure will make him vulnerable to prosecution following a raft of fraud allegations.

“Gono has survived being hauled before the courts because he has successfully used his position to block prosecution. But history shows that once one leaves his or her powerful position, even those that stood by him or her tend to look elsewhere, at best, or instigate prosecution and persecution, at worst,” said the high-profile business person, who declined to be named.

“Politicians cushion you for as long as you are relevant to them. The moment you are gone, their memories fade away fast and before you know it, you are fodder.”

Gono, who is Mugabe’s financial advisor and one-time banker, endeared himself to an influential clique in the top echelons of Zanu (PF), when during the peak of the country’s financial and economic woes in the 2000s, he helped them access scarce local cash and foreign currency.

He also dished out agricultural equipment to thousands of Zanu (PF) members and sympathisers under the controversial farm mechanization initiative, which is a source of allegations of corruption.

He has so far managed to avoid appearing before a parliamentary portfolio committee to respond to allegations of ill corporate governance and graft. His former advisor, Munyaradzi Kereke, last year handed the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission a lengthy dossier outlining alleged corrupt activities by the governor and other RBZ top officials.

ZACC told The Zimbabwean then that it would investigate the allegations in due course, while a group of MPs still want Gono to appear before their committee.

Kereke’s allegations against Gono and the RBZ include buying personal assets using bank money, abuse of public assets and the farm mechanisation programme as well as showering strategic office holders with gifts paid for by RBZ.

Depositors have also accused him of illegally raiding their foreign currency accounts during the economic meltdown that became pronounced in 2000 and peaked in early 2009, just before the formation of the coalition government.

Gono has been at loggerheads with the Indigenisation Minister, Saviour Kasukuwere, over the latter’s attempt to force foreign owned banks to surrender their major shareholding to locals.

The governor has bitterly attacked the manner in which foreign companies are being compelled to surrender 51 percent of their stake to black Zimbabweans, but some observers have dismissed that as an attempt to curry favour with industry and the international community ahead of his departure.

Of late, a powerful Zanu (PF) strategist and former cabinet minister, Jonathan Moyo, has used the official media to attack Gono, who presided over the worst inflation Zimbabwe and the rest of the world have witnessed since the 1930s.

When he became governor, inflation was pegged at 619.5 percent, but, by 2008, it had ballooned to 213 million percent, a figure that independent commentators say is well below the actual statistics.

Some analysts say there was not much Gono could do about this because he was operating in a debilitating macro-economic crisis, but his critics insist his quasi-fiscal policies and methods worsened the problem, citing the printing of money as one such driver.