After a lengthy period of hibernating from the media spotlight, Gideon Gono, the former Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor resurfaced in a twitter interview with Alpha Media Holdings’ Trevor Ncube in Sandton South Africa.
In the interview, Gono shockingly claims that Zimbabwe is ridden with Necodemus politicians who practice intellectual dishonesty by admitting that the country is in crisis during the night and deny the same during the light of day.
During his golden days as RBZ governor, which he obviously misses, Gono was a very powerful and larger than life figure who like a powerful wizard dictated the country’s economic policy direction with a single swipe of his magic wand.
His latest ahistorical remarks that Zimbabwe is in a state of crisis are shocking from an insider who when he was at the helm of the RBZ witnessed firsthand the magnitude of the evil Western sponsored illegal sanctions on Zimbabwe.
His remarks smack of bitterness characteristic of one abandoned in the wilderness with no audience for his sublime mysticism and nonsense.
Having once been a powerful policy maker and close ally of former President Robert Mugabe, Gono’s sentiments carry a foul stench of bitterness perhaps because the new dispensation did not offer him any position in the country’s administration.
Gono has never been one to like President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his current views demonstrate his lack of patriotism while at the same time trying too hard to remain a relevant voice in the country’s affairs.
The past few months have witnessed the Zimbabwean Government being tried and pronounced guilty by the court of public opinion, for human rights violations, state sponsored abductions of opposition activists, and corruption by public officials among many ills.
Gono joins the league of voices captured by the regional and international media to blast President Mnangwaga and ZANU PF for obvious financial reward as has been the historical trend.
Meanwhile, President Mnangagwa has promised that opposition parties and everyone who promotes hate and disharmony in the country will not win. Instead, these bad apples which attempt to weaken our systems will simple be flushed out.
Gono thus joins the basket of bad apples who are tarnishing the image of the country when he knows firsthand what the country has endured under illegal sanctions.
The former governor is no saint, neither does he have all the answers to fix the country’s economy, a fact he admitted to, during an interview with the Zimbabwe Independent on 12 March 2004.
During Gono’s tenure as RBZ governor the country’s economy was defined by one of the worst and the highest inflation rates ever recorded in history.
It was at the zenith of his magic show that Zimbabwe became known as the first and perhaps the only country to have millions, billions, trillions, and quintillion dollar notes in circulation.
His economic policies resulted in empty shops in all the country’s towns and cities.
At the time he admitted during his interview with the Zimbabwe Independent, that his failure was owed to a myriad of factors which included politics, sanctions and drought among others, it is clear he might not have been the right man to oversee the country’s economy.
It was perhaps his close relationship with the former first family that saw him appointed as RBZ governor and not on merit.
True to Gono’s knowledge, Zimbabwe continues to suffer under the sustained illegally imposed sanctions by the West.
Testament of the resilient and hardworking character of Zimbabweans the country’s path to economic recovery is slow but commendable with President Mnangagwa having proclaimed vision 2030, aimed at transforming Zimbabwe into an Upper Middle Income Economy.
This will happen with or without the support of the country’s detractors and ahistorical critics such as Gono and many alike.
-John Mhazo/ Byo24
