Denford Magora's Latest Zimbabwe News Blog

Zimbabwe's Reserve Bank Governor, Gideon Gono (above), is still operating pretty much as though he were the de facto Prime Minister he was before the formation of the coalition Government between Morgan Tsvangirai and Robert Mugabe. Harare, Zimbabwe, 07 February 2010 Senior staff at the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, headed by Mugabe's blue-eyed boy, Gideon Gono, have spent US$215 000 on food in the last month, with the money having been authorised by officials in Tendai Biti's Ministry of Finance. Biti is also the MDC-Tsvangirai Secretary-General. The Minister claims that this expenditure is being made without his knowledge and that he is being "circumvented"! Gono has been emboldened by Biti's failure to have him fired. Mugabe has personally and publicly said "Gono is not going anywhere, show me what wrong he has done." Quite a lot of wrong, he as done, it turns out. Recently, as Tendai Biti toured the world, going to America to lobby Congressmen to rem...

A condescending Robert Mugabe looks on, smiling benevolently like a proud father, as Morgan Tsvangirai announces to the press at a Press Conference in Harare yesterday that he is happy with the crumbs Mugabe has given him. The press conference was held at Zimbabwe House. Mugabe pointed to the announcement of various commissions and his signing of mandates for ambassadors from the two MDCs as evidence that the Global Political Agreement had been implemented!! Harare, Zimbabwe, 24 December 2009 Robert "The Soltuion" Mugabe announced at a press conference yesterday that he has now finally signed the mandates that will allow MDC-Tsvangirai and MDC (Mutambara) ambassadors to take up their posts in the new year. You will recall that this blog was the first media in the world to reveal to you that the announcement by the Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai that his ambassadors would be posted in August 2009 was wrong and that Mugabe was refusing to post them until Tsvangirai called for...

Robert Mugabe, seen here with the FIFA World Cup Trophy, has turned down a proposal from Morgan Tsvangirai that would have seen the issues of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor Gideon Gono and Attorney General Johannes Tomana resolved. Mugabe is now instead saying the approach by Tsvangirai signals that the MDC-T realise that they are on a back foot and can not win the fight they have got into with Mugabe and ZANU PF. ZANU PF hardliners are over the moon Harare, Zimbabwe, 29 November 2009 Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai is offering to drop opposition to Gideon Gono's continued tenure as Governor of Zimbabwe's Reserve Bank in exchange for the scalp of Johannes Tomana, the Attorney General who is seen as vindictively pursuing MDC-Tsvangirai officials and activists. The proposal is said to have found no favour with Mugabe. Instead, he is using the approach by Tsvangirai to tell his crew that this is evidence the MDC is on a back foot and can not sustain their calls for the fir...

Zimbabwe Finance Minister Tendai Biti has now asked the IMF to urgently release US$50 million to fund requirements for the 2009/2010 agricultural season, basically caving in to pressure from Mugabe's ZANU PF. It is also an indication that Zimbabwe is in big trouble, because the season (which informs the April 2010 harvest) has already advanced so far that the money will not make a difference at all. Biti has also outline how he wants the rest of the US$510 million from the IMF to be used and this is basically the same plan as presented by Gideon Gono, Governor of the Reserve Bank and Biti's nemesis. Harare, Zimbabwe, 27 November 2009 Zimbabwe's Finance Minister has given in to pressure from ZANU PF and instructed the International Monetary Fund to "urgently" release US$50 million of the US$500 million allocated to Zimbabwe a couple of months back to help the country withstand the global economic slump. In addition to the "urgent" disbursement, Biti has a...

Gideon Gono's appointment as Finance Secretary for ZANU PF's Manicaland Province has been reversed on orders from above, making it certain that he will now not be leaving the Reserve Bank as most of us had read. Mugabe would have lost a lot of face if this had happened because he takes little things like these as demonstrations of his power. If he says "Gono is not going anywhere. He has done no wrong, I said show me the wrong he has done", he does not expect to have to go back on that publicly. Hopes dashed, then. Harare, Zimbabwe, 25 November 2009 Embattled Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono has had his appointment to the ZANU PF Manicaland Provincial Executive reversed on the order of the "national office" of ZANU PF. Some in Zimbabwe and elsewhere will be disappointed. The appointment (Gono had been "co-opted, not elected, to the post of Secretary of Finance) had raised hopes that the Governor will now have to go, since his being a ZANU PF official ...

Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono is now one of the top five elected officials within ZANU PF in Manicaland. Which may well be the clearest indication that he is preparing to exit the Central Bank. Harare, Zimbabwe, 23 November 2009 The Reserve Bank Governor, Gideon Gono, whom Mugabe insists is an impartial civil servant who only does his job has been elected to the position of Finance Secretary for ZANU PF Manicaland Province. The Governor hails from that province. The election of Gono into this provincial office is only a step towards prominence in ZANU PF on a national stage. He is already there as Governor right now, but we can almost certainly say that he will not be that for much longer. His acceptance of the post signals that he considers his own fate inevitable and perhaps Mugabe has even had a word with him regarding his departure. And depart he will now almost certainly will. The MDC-T, if they are clever, will point to this as a sign that the man is not just a civil servant ...

Zimbabwe's Finance Minister and MDC-Tsvangirai Secretary-General has totally capitulated to Mugabe and ZANU PF on matters of fundamental principle Harare, Zimbabwe, 20 November 2009 Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor, Gideon Gono, has been granted immunity from prosecution on any actions "taken in good faith" in the revised Reserve Bank Act passed by Parliament this week. That is right, he gets away scot-free. ZANU PF, Mugabe's party, had threatened to defeat the Amended Act if Tendai Biti, Finance Minister, refused to amend his amendments. The ZANU PF caucus in the House breathed fire on Tuesday this week, saying the Bill as presented by Biti was aimed at a person and not at institutional reform. It is now clear that they wanted to protect Gono from any action that could arise if his past behaviour was held up to the mirror of the new law. Some of the other amendments agreed to by Biti was a curtailing of the powers that had been to give by the original proposed Act. ...

Days after Robert Mugabe attended the China-Africa Summit in Egypt (above, Mugabe is second from right as you look at the picture), a Chinese/Angola joint Venture has signed a US$8 billion investment deal with Zimbabwe. The MDC-T and their ministers have been deliberately left out of the negotiations and the signing ceremony, which was inexplicably presided over by Mugabe's Chief Secretary and the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor, Gideon Gono. Harare, Zimbabwe, 19 November 2009 A Chinese/Angolan joint venture company has signed a largely mineral and precious stone deal with the Zimbabwe government worth US$8 billion. The US$8 billion comprises of five separate "strategic cooperation Agreements", according to the Zimbabwe government. The joint venture company, called Sonangol, will invest in gold and platinum refining, oil and gas exploration, fuel procurement and distribution, and housing development. It has also been announced that a "significant" amount of th...

"No More" - Tendai Biti's proposed amendments to the Rserve Bank of Zimbabwe Act are designed to ensure that the Bank does not revert to being a funder of lavish lifestyles for Zimbabwe's elite from ZANU PF. Gono is put in such a straight jacket by the revisions that he will effectively need the Minister's permission to so much as cough and sneeze. Harare, Zimbabwe, 19 November 2009 I was rather surprised that even our most senior businesspeople in Zimbabwe are unaware of the details contained in the revision of the Reserve Bank Act, which Mugabe's ZANU PF has now said will never see the light of day. Why so much noise, and what exactly is Tendai Biti trying to do with this amendment that has got ZANU PF knickers in a twist? Is it true what the party is saying, that the Act revision is targeted at an individual? Here's the detail, then. The focus of the amendments is on Section 6 of the RBZ Act, which will be amended to say that the Bank should only focus ...

Finance Minister Tendai in parliament: His proposed Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Bill now faces certain death after ZANU PF announced over the weekend that they will oppose that Bill unless it is amended to their liking. The ridiculous claims from ZANU PF are that the Bill targets an individual (Gideon Gono) and have, therefore, nothing to do with reform of the institution itself. They have also expressed alarm at Tendai Biti's characterisation of the Bill as a "transitional mechanism". As a result of this, ZANU PF sees regime change skeletons in all manner of closets! Harare, Zimbabwe, 15 November 2009 ZANU PF MPs have now openly come out to say that they will scuttle the Reserve Bank Bill being proposed by Finance Minister Tendai Biti of the MDC. They claim the bill is aimed at an individual and not the institution. In addition, they are arguing that it puts too much power in the hands of the Minister and is contrary to regional best practise, which is to give the Central B...

The IMF has called on Tendai Biti to budget for the Reserve Bank after the Bretton Woods Institution uncovered scandalous theft of statutory reserve money by the Central Bank to continue funding quasi-fiscal operations this year. Books at the Central bank have also been cooked to allow for the dispersal of money belonging to banks to fund foreign trips by government officials and certain well-known shoppers at taxpayers' expense. Gono did not seek or get approval from Biti for this shady behaviour. He acted like he was the Finance Minister Harare, Zimbabwe, 30 October 2009 We revealed on this blog a little while back that Mugabe had given Gideon Gono widespread ministerial powers and that the MDC-T were aware of this fact. The IMF, after an audit of the Reserve Bank, has effectively confirmed our story, revealing that the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe continues to steal funds its custody and using these to continue quasi-fiscal operations. The Central has been taking money belonging to...

With Zimbabwe's roads still in a deplorable condition, littered with potholes such the one in Harare City above shown in this picture, a senior ZANU PF minister and trusted aide to Mugabe has publicly demanded that Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono return US$7 million that he siphoned from a bank account belonging to Zimbabwe's Roads Agency. He is threatening to let Tendai Biti loose on Gono is the Governor continues to ignore letters sent to him demanding repayment of the misappropriated money. Harare, Zimbabwe, 28 October 2009 A senior ZANU PF minister has turned on Gideon Gono, Governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe in parliament, saying he had stolen money from the bank account of the Zimbabwe National Roads Authority (ZINARA) and was refusing to give it back. Minister of Transport and Communications Nicholas Goche (also a negotiator for Mugabe in the negotiations with the MDC, leading to the formation of the Inclusive Government) told a Parliamentary Committee that Gono ...

His Excellency, the Other President of The Republic of Zimbabwe, Finance Minister Tendai Biti, is seen here addressing parliament. ZANU PF is now trying to find ways to implement the wide powers Mugabe has secretly given to Gideon Gono, Governor of the Reserve Bank. The latest effort, though, is clumsy, relying as it does on a redundant Reserve Bank Act. Biti appears unfazed by all this noise Harare, Zimbabwe, 23 October 2009 We have, yet again, been proved right. This time, it is the Gideon Gono and Reserve Bank versus Tendai Biti saga. As I told you last month, Mugabe has secretly bolstered Gideon Gono's powers to be almost on par with those of Tendai Biti, the Minister of Finance and MDC Secretary-General. It is the implementation of these powers that is proving a prickly pear. Hence the resort to legalistic contortions. Today, ZANU PF, through the state media, is attempting revisionism at its most ridiculous. They now claim that the Reserve Bank Act give Gideon Gono and not Ten...

Attorney-General Johannes Tomana, whose home phone number has been released to the public as MDC activists and supporters urge each other to call his home persistently and ask for the granting of bail to Roy Bennett. The move is likely to further strain relations between Prime Minister Tsvangirai's party and the AG's office. The MDC has been trying to get Tomana fired by Mugabe since February this year, but has gotten no joy from the "The Solution." Relations with Gideon Gono, however, appear to be improving as Tsvangirai reached out to him this week. Harare, Zimbabwe, 16 October 2009 In a move that is likely to entrench the intransigence of Attorney-General Johannes Tomana, the MDC yesterday published the private home phone number of Attorney-General Johannes Tomana and urged its supporters to call the number repeatedly until they get through and protest the jailing of Roy Bennett after his indictment in Mutare this week. The opposition party urges supporters of Benn...

Tendai Biti confirms for the first time what we said during December last year and January this year, that he and others were dead set against joining Mugabe. As one of the negotiators, Biti knew that there were issues on which there had been no agreement, issues that the negotiators ha referred to their "Principals". Mugabe used well-known and tired negotiating tactics in his one on one negotiations with Tsvangirai, after these matters had been referred to the Principals. Tsvangirai panicked, seeing his chance to be Prime Minister slipping, even though the African Union had specifically said it would only recognise a Coalition government in Zimbabwe. As a result of the panic, he gave in to Mugabe and forced his National Council to adopt a resolution to join the government over the objections of Tendai Biti, Nelson Chamisa, Roy Bennett and others. Harare, Zimbabwe, 12 October 2009 Finance Minister and MDC Secretary-General has now confirmed that it was Morgan Tsvangirai who f...