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Gono's monetary statement a breach of trust and confidence in the political settlement
Hon. Elton Mangona, MDC Secretary for Economic Affairs, Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
February 03, 2009

The purported RBZ governor, Gideon Gono, yesterday announced a monetary policy statement which violates the ground rules of normal economics and casts further doubt on Zanu PF's sincerity to comply with the Global Political Agreement and the SADC resolutions.

Firstly, Gono has no locus standi to act as RBZ governor as his reappointment is still contentious. The SADC summit conceded that his reappointment is subject to fresh negotiations.

The logical position would have been for both the national budget and the monetary statement to be deferred to allow for the consummation of the inclusive government.

Secondly, the decision to lop off 12 zeroes is not a panacea to the economic ills afflicting the country. The real zeroes that need to be lopped off are the charlatans and corrupt barons in Zanu PF who are milking the country.

The new measures that give unbridled leeway to gold and diamond traders will create serious leakages on precious minerals that will allow the big sharks, who are mainly found in Zanu PF, to fleece the country.

Thirdly, the decision to license rural shop owners is at variance with the reality of the lack of adequate stocks in most rural shops. For a rural shop owner with very few items on his shelves to afford United States dollars in licence fees is an extortionate measure, to all intents and purposes.

It will be a casino economy where even vendors and road-side dealers are all required to procure licences of US$10 from the RBZ to engage in mundane economic activities that are of no benefit to the national economy.

Furthermore, there is too much rhetoric on the part of the RBZ when it comes to its commitment to deal with corruption.

Only last week, the government threatened to name, shame and prosecute all ministers and MPs who looted the RBZ-sponsored farm input scheme but suddenly there is silence of the grave on the issue.

The MDC believes that a new family of local currency notes is not the solution.

Workers including civil servants should also be paid their salaries in real money not to use the voucher system.

The real solution is a family of political formations working towards one purpose of addressing the problems facing the people of Zimbabwe. We must stop as a nation the habit of addressing symptoms and not the real disease affecting our economy.

Our economy needs open heart surgery and not painkillers. We need to bite the bullet. Only a political solution will address the challenges facing the country.

Gono cannot make fundamental policy decisions outside the framework of the inclusive government. He cannot claim to be restructuring the central bank when his own tenure is a subject of serious political differences.

His tenure has seen the RBZ being turned into Father Christmas; doling out largesse to senior Zanu PF officials while quasi-fiscal activities have been used to bribe the populace to vote for Zanu PF.

Under Gono's tenure, the RBZ became a Zanu PF private bank through which they were able to sponsor terror campaigns against the innocent people of Zimbabwe.

A solution will be found only in Zimbabwe when Zanu PF becomes sincere on the issue of the formation of an inclusive government in line with the resolutions of SADC.

Zanu PF should stop dithering on outstanding issues so that we clear the way for the formation of an inclusive government which should deal with the political and economic crisis.

We are only the solution to our problems.

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