Gono's reaction to Standard a breath of fresh air

Gono's reaction to Standard a breath of fresh air

• Statement by Dr Gideon Gono on Standard apology

• Standard retracts story on Gono's Mercedes

• Statement by RBZ board on Gono Mercedes

• Statement by Zimoco on Gono Mercedes

• Gono hits back in car storm

• Zimbabwe's central bank chief unpaid

• Gono rules himself out of presidential race

• Gono hunted by armed gang - paper

By Lloyd Msipa

WOW! Is all I could say after reading erve Bank governor Gideon Gono’s reaction to the Standard newspaper’s retraction of the ‘Brabus Mercedes story’ which was incidentally also followed-up by he UK based, The Zimbabwean newspaper.

This story and the subsequent reaction to it by the Governor made me realise, whilst we seek the assistance of International institutions, western countries and other organisations not indigenous to our country to get us out of the political, economic and social quagmire that we are in, we are in fact our own worst enemies.

Our country Zimbabwe has been on a downward spiral for several years and it dawned on me that it is us who have exacerbated this fall. I am not concerned at this juncture on whom and what is to blame for all these problems our country Zimbabwe is facing. More importantly we need to start exhibiting a sense of nationhood, brotherhood, sisterhood and agree to disagree on issues without being malicious towards one another. We need to realise that the pen is mightier than the sword. A nation will fall as a result of a pen being in the hand of somebody irresponsible.

A nation is defined by a people in it, not its geographical location. As a consequence Zimbabwe is now all over the world, Botswana, South Africa,UK, America, Canada, you name it in little pockets. We need to start to positively engaging one another wherever we are. We need to start exhibiting a new culture of tolerance towards one another. Yes, we are in disagreement as to why Zimbabwe is in the predicament that it is in today. However, what we fail to realise is that whilst we may be in the comfort of residing in foreign countries, each and every one of us are linked to Zimbabwe, one way or another.

Zimbabwe consists of a population that has a (plus or minus) eighty percent literacy level. Of the Zimbabweans in this literacy bracket, more than forty percent are professionals, which include, teachers, doctors, journalists, lawyers, engineers, you name it. But guess what, most are outside Zimbabwe. The prevailing argument that we are all out here because of the situation back home has by now become redundant. Even the western countries that we sold this excuse to are beginning to wonder as to how sincere we are. The reason being, we seem to be doing nothing to fix our problems.

We need to get off our laurels and start talking the language of reconstruction wherever we are in the world. It does not matter which side of the political divide we fall, the idea is to begin to nurse the culture of tolerance, nation hood or else we stand to loose Zimbabwe as we know it.

The culture of tolerance exhibited by the Governor on the Standard/The Zimbabwean issue is a rare one. It is a breath of fresh air in as far relations between us Zimbabweans are concerned. Do not get me wrong, there are so many decisions made by Governor Gono in relation to the monetary affairs in Zimbabwe, which I have not agreed with, but this reaction has been a rare exhibition of political, social and personal maturity.

A virtue most in political office lack. One would have expected him to sue, but instead he decided to engage rather than play the blame game. The blame game got us Zimbabweans to were we are today.

This article does not seek to offer a one stop solution to the crisis engulfing our country today. But credit should be given were it is due, in this instance to Governor Gono. It is my strong belief that if all of us, where ever we are, in our little way begin this moment the process of linguistic reconstruction, change our attitudes, write positively and responsibly maybe just maybe it will lead to a new culture of tolerance whereby we can agree to disagree with one another without the malice, hate, physical and emotional assault and negativity we exhibit towards one another as a nation.

The writer Lloyd Msipa is a Lawyer based in the United Kingdom he can be contacted at lmsipa@virtalukandco.com

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