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Mugabe praises central bank governor
Mail & Guardian (SA)
July 26, 2006

http://www.zwnews.com/issuefull.cfm?ArticleID=14847

"Without the work done by the RBZ, we would not be where we are now"

Harare - Zimbabwe's central bank governor Gideon Gono has become so unpopular that some ruling party officials want him dead, President Robert Mugabe was quoted as saying in the Herald newspaper on Wednesday. Mugabe said Gono's controversial monetary policies, including a fixed exchange rate, stringent anti-graft measures and large-scale printing of money, had annoyed some people so much that they wanted to send him to the next world, the state-controlled newspaper said. "Gono, there are some circles that do not love him," Mugabe told guests at a lunch to mark the opening of the new legislative session on Tuesday.

The 82-year-old president, however, praised the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor's policies and said he should be left alone, the paper said. "I am sure that without the work done by the RBZ, we would not be where we are now," Mugabe said. Zimbabwe is mired in its worst economic crisis ever, with annual inflation at nearly 1 200% and critical shortages of foreign currency, fuel and drugs. The central bank chief, who has vowed to turn around the economy, has fixed the rate of exchange for the US dollar at just over Zim$100 000, but on the thriving parallel market it now fetches around five times that amount. Gono's war on corruption has made him particularly unpopular. On Tuesday, Zimbabwe's deputy information minister Bright Matonga was arrested on graft charges related to the acquisition of buses during his time at the state-run bus company Zupco. Mugabe said some officials were cheating. "We want a turnaround and the policy of cheating must stop. We cannot continue cheating each other," he said.

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