By Staff Reporter
Former Reserve Bank Governor, Gideon Gono has responded to Cde Chris Mutsvangwa insinuation that the country lost its gold under his tenure.
In his response Dr Gono said the public must disregard such statements as they are far from the truth.
“Be advised all that no gold was lost during my time as Governor. If such lies are left unchecked with authentic facts, they could become that “little spark” that sets alight a whole forest at a time when the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe and the country at large have more important issues to deal with than waste time attending to veld-fires whose uncontrolled consequences could end up melting whatever confidence the bank is trying to build around itself,” said Dr Gono in his response.
Dr Gono further said , past governors are not supposed to comment publicly on matters “current” which a sitting governor is capable of dealing with regardless of which period those matters occurred but the allegations buy Cde Mutsvangwa compelled him to respond.
” However in this case, I feel the need for leadership in dealing with this matter, so that we do not burden our new governor John Mushayavanhu or immediate past governor John Mangudya with an historical matter that I can easily deal with myself without ambiguities or the need to look for Sekuru Ndunge, the late doyen of traditional healing and forecasting to return from the other world so he can provide spiritual proclamations to something that is so straightforward, simple (if we respect TRUTH) and explainable in plain, non-technical English.”
The ex RBZ chief who presided over Zimbabwe’s economic tsunami period over culminating in them most difficult year, 2008, is open to a commission of inquiry to look into what he termed ‘serious allegations.’
“If this explanation still proves difficult to understand, I would advocate that we ask President Emmerson Mnangagwa to set up a Commission of Inquiry in terms of the Commission of Inquiry Act (Chapter 10:07) incorporating all interested parties to look into this serious allegation of perfidious proportions and report to the nation its findings in simpler language than I would have done here.”
“Ordinarily too, no governor would want to comment publicly on any matters he/she dealt with while in office because the Official Secrets Act which binds and prohibits us from commenting on specific documentation received or matters of the state dealt with during our periods in office. Section 4 is particularly telling – level 14 fine or 20 years in jail or both if violated. But I am risking that by putting the record straight in a manner that cleans the image of the nation’s central bank.”
In his word, Dr Gono said he d decided to take the ‘bull by the horns’ because of the ambiguous nature of the allegations, casting aspersions on many distinguished personalities who served as governors under former President Robert Mugabe and still carry “scars and pride” of national service equal only to a few living souls around during one of the most difficult economic episodes of our country.
“The ex-governors’ integrities ought to be respected and protected in retirement, as well as those ministers of finance under whom they served and reported to. It is my duty to set the record straight for their sake as well as mine, so that our new governor does not take his eyes off the “ZiG ball” to go into the archives of 18 years ago, searching for files and records for a response to this little fire that has deliberately or inadvertently been started with checking facts with all concerned.”
The die has been cast , and the nation awaits to hear if Cde Mutsvangwa will further comment on a matter whose timing is off given the monetary challenges the country is facing.