A 100 reasons why Gono should resign

A 100 reasons why Gono should resign

GONO

• Gono wants white farmers back

• Central back chief admits failure

• Gono revises inflation target 100 percent upwards

• Gono's 'sleepless nights' over inflation

• Gono fighting a losing battle

• Gono, the Zimbabwean Napoleon

• The small minds in charge of our economy

• Overcoming the 'Messiah Complex'

By Patrick Mlambo

AFTER reading Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono’s monetary policy statement, I have been left wondering whether indeed this man knows what he is doing. In fact, the long and short of it is that he should resign. He can see he cannot change things. He has no solutions to the current problems. His resignation is the most useful decision he should make under the present circumstances. He should bite the bullet and let go of the governorship.

Gono’s monetary policy statement is nothing more than hogwash. It does not promise anything to the ordinary man. It does not say anything positive. It gives nothing to look forward to. It sends shivers down the spines of those he promised to pin down. It is full of retribution. It offers nothing to look forward to for the ordinary man. The ordinary man has no interest in Gono’s retribution, because he gains nothing from it. The men whom he wants to descend on are not excited either. Gono wants to name and shame those involving themselves in corruption. What will that achieve? We witnessed this kind of retribution in the late 80s through the Sandura Commission. Maybe Gono never learnt something – that they were all pardoned except for those who had already died. What therefore does Gono think he will achieve by this act of retribution? This is senseless as it will achieve nothing. I never expected it from the RBZ governor.

This man fails to understand his role. Can he be told that he is the RBZ governor and not a politician. He should learn to leave politics to politicians. Politicians determine fiscal policy and that should be left as their domain. His role should be to convince them, and lobby them on the merits of aligning their fiscal policy with his monetary policy. It is not his duty to spell out fiscal policy. I am sure no one gave him a job description when he took over. It is not his territory. Little wonder there are reports of certain sections of the ruling party calling for his head. Yes, they cannot leave him alone because he is growing bigger than a simple governor. He is usurping ministerial powers. He is slowly becoming a Jonathan Moyo of the previous parliament and cabinet and for that he should step down or get the kick.

As if the above is not enough, the nature of retribution he proposes for exporters resembles a lot of folly on his part. It shows a lack of vision. Exporters are the source of meaningful inflows of foreign currency. More of these people are required to get Zimbabwe from where it is. It is their foreign currency that we require as a country, and not the diaspora dollar or pound. I am not sure what their response would be, in a country without that currency, to a policy statement that promises to deal with them viciously for ‘wrongs’ that they do. They are smarter than Dr Gono by all means. And a crackdown on them would worsen things. He can take all the exporters to jail, all Zimra officers and officials to jail, all corps to jail etc, but the ones who replace them will be equally corrupt if not worse. It’s not about retribution Dr Gono. It is about a change in mindset. It is about a change in values. It is about teaching children to grow up as good citizens. It is about teaching children in homes. It is not about teaching them ‘not to steal because if you are caught you will go to jail’. It is about teaching them to be ‘good citizens’ and also that ‘good citizens do not steal because stealing is bad’. Gono is teaching the former and it is a pity he is teaching adults and not children. Such requires a national approach, not one of violent enforcement as is the case now. It requires the efforts of everyone, not the RBZ chief’s single-handed approach. As he does not understand this, I call for his resignation.

"For as long as there is no foreign currency available to all bidders at the auction floors, there will always be a parallel market"

PATRICK MLAMBO

See now he has been sucked into the Kuruneri saga. Maybe it is true he in fact facilitated the transfers, in which case he is likely to be found guilty. Any full investigation of his tenure as CBZ chief will bring out a lot more things against him – remember he should have been responsible for the activities of his direct reports. Who knows, he might end up behind bars for flouting the same rules he preaches right now. In a previous article I said Dr Gono needed to give government some explanations regarding the Zimbabwe/Malaysia Bilateral payment arrangement and how that money made available by government to the ‘productive sector’ to buy stuff from Malaysia was utilized in procuring stuff from our neighbours South Africa. In his position he is not only expected to be free from corruption, but must be seen to be free from it. The Kuruneri saga will cast a lot of doubt about him despite what the final verdict on his involvement would be. It would therefore be gracious for him to step down now.

In addition, we read about Dr Gono having sanctioned the purchase of 50 state of the art cars for use by the RBZ in fighting corruption. I am told those cars are at the RBZ depot in Msasa. Imagine, 50 cars for the RBZ when the Ministry of Health is using ox-drawn ambulances in Seke. Yes, 50 cars to enforce his retribution when people are dying enroute to hospitals in ox-drawn ambulances. It beats all reason. These are cars that will be parked kwaMereki during weekends and at rural homes over holidays. Corruption has suddenly become more important now than before to the extent of sidelining dying people in preference for spelling out policies and holding conferences in hotels regarding how best the RBZ can harness the corrupt business people. While fighting corruption is good, it might as well be left to the government through responsible ministries and not the RBZ. Yesterday Gono was complaining about the size of the cabinet and today he is on a recruitment drive and spending mission for a department that will have more court cases than any positive returns to the economy. For this lack of moral fibre, I ask Gono to step down.

And after buying the RBZ vehicles and hiding them in Msasa, the man has the guts to tell Zimbabwe that he is going to be restricting the importation of luxury goods into the country – because he has brought in his. This too is corruption and he should step down for it. Why did he not say it prior to that mega purchase?

He has also failed to close the parallel market. For as long as there is no foreign currency available to all bidders at the auction floors, there will always be a parallel market. Everyone in Zimbabwe prices their goods based on parallel market rates. We need no explanations on this – that is how things are. But exporters are expected to convert their foreign currency holdings at the auctions at the RBZ stipulated rates. The implication is that they will be subsidising the importers. If there should be any subsidies, then government is supposed to be responsible for that. The RBZ forex subsidies to importer is not proper. Look at it this way. An importer gets USD at the auctions (on a day he is lucky, usually he buys USD at the parallel market rates) for ZWD9000.00. He gets his stuff in the country and does his costings at ZWD25000.00 and sells to the market. The next day, the importer goes again to the auctions and buys again at ZWD9000.00 and the exporter continues to be forced to sell his forex at the ZWD9000.00 and the cycle continues like that. It is not sustainable for the exporters. The parallel market is there because there is a demand for the forex. If the parallel market had been absent, then all the manufacturing and other importing companies would have been ‘dead’ by now and Dr Gono would have fewer companies for his 50 brand new cars to monitor. Because he could not destroy the parallel market as promised on his ascendancy to governorship, he should step down.

In his policy statement, he decries the drop in tobacco output as contributing to the drop in foreign currency inflows. Till when will Zimbabwe be pinning its hopes on a crop that everyone the world over is campaigning against. There are anti-smoking campaigns everywhere and in many countries people are no longer allowed to smoke indoors in restaurants , pubs etc. Even if the tobacco hectarage goes up, the inflows from it may not be that newsworthy. For this lack of vision, I ask the governor to step down.

I am not trying to be too negative about Gono. He simply has no clues as to what to do. He has no solutions to the current problems from the RBZ’s perspective. He is not aware of where he starts and ends. He has turned the RBZ governorship into a political post and wants to do everything and be everyone. It is a total recipe for disaster. He should leave politics to politicians and lobby them for alignment of their policies with his. This governorship is beyond him. Retribution has never achieved anything anywhere. It has only brought bitterness and resentment. It does not change anyone’s mindset and Gono is better told to leave that route. In his prayers to God for answers, let him seek wisdom to get everyone to share his values and not incarcerate anyone as the Zim jails are not enough to accommodate everyone involved in the sins that Gono would like to use the 50 state of the art cars for.
CONTACT MLAMBO: pmlambo@clear.net.nz
READ GONO'S MONETARY POLICY
Mlambo is a regular New Zimbabwe.com columnist and economy analyst
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