Fake: Gono's Letter To Tsvangirai

Impeccable sources now confirm that the letter supposedly from Gideon Gono to PM Tsvangirai, which the Prime Minister has denied receiving, was in fact written by Mugabe Spokesman George Charamba as a propaganda ply. It has worked spectacularly

The letter circulating online purportedly from Gideon Gono to Prime Minister Tsvangirai is fake.

Sources close to the Governor say the Governor has disowned the document and says he has not written to the Prime Minister. Gono claims that his issue is being handled by the dictator and the Prime Minister and he had no reason to appeal to a man whom he knows definitely wants him out of office - Morgan Tsvangirai.

Impeccable sources now confirm that the letter originated from the office of Mugabe's spokesman, George Charamba. Charamba, a propaganda man, has repeatedly suggested to Gono that he should fight back by telling the world the true facts around the US$1 billion credit lines and STERP that are Gono's achievements.

The embattled Governor has resisted these suggestions because he still hopes to be able to work with Tendai Biti and does not want to appear insubordinate. You will recall that I have told you before that Mugabe, at the outset of the battle over Gono, told Tsvangirai that Gono can not be punished for past deeds but that if he proved insubordinate under the new dispensation, then the MDC would have a case.

Gono is aware of this and was fighting to ensure that he does not put a foot wrong. The press conference held by Gono and Biti last month, at which Biti said there was no bad blood between them, was an attempt to fall in line with Mugabe's wishes.

Prime Minister Tsvangirai has denied receiving the letter.

Charamba apparently felt that Gono was letting a good propaganda opportunity go to waste. He felt that the MDC-T was claiming credit for things they did not do, such as the credit lines, dollarisation, reduction of inflation and even STERP.

(It boggles the mind, though, that t=anyone would want to claim credit for STERP, which a South African economist as recently as last week called "a joke").

The fake letter contains many of the arguments that appeared last week in The Herald in an article that quoted unidentified "sources" as saying STERP was a ZANU PF programme handed to Biti in his capacity as Minister of Finance when he took office.

The same article also sought to "set the record straight" on dollarisation and all the other things that Tsvangirai has been claiming as the successes of the Inclusive government.

Charamba first sought to have these leaked anonymously, and the Herald article only said STERP was put together by ZANU PF "officials" before the Inclusive government was formed.

Perhaps this did not cause a good enough stir for Charamba. Shrewdly leaking a fake letter to PM Tsvangirai from Gono ensured that the letter got a much wider audience than the Herald.

Sure enough, it has now been widely reproduced on the Internet. In doing so, the arguments in it, the ones Charamba has been seeking to make widely-known (STERP, dollarisation etc as ZANU PF programmes), are also now being read.