via Furious Gono denies indigenisation U-turn
CENTRAL bank governor Gideon Gono on Saturday accused the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) of carrying out a hatchet job on him, following a TV report on Friday night claiming that he had performed a U-turn on his opposition to the indigenisation of banks.
Gono said the ZBC had removed his comments from their context and selectively omitted certain qualifications to his statements before the Bulawayo business community “for reasons best known to themselves”.
The RBZ chief, who is due to present his Mid-Term Monetary Policy statement later this month, said it was also curious that the ZBC had waited a whole week before running their report.
“The ZBC decided to select certain speech bites from both my statement and that of Dr Eric Bloc, with whom I shared a platform in Bulawayo on Wednesday, August 7,” Gono said in a statement.
“What ZBC did to both of us is akin to running with a portion of a statement while leaving out a very important condition to that statement. It’s like telling people that the Highway Code says ‘do not drink’ or ‘do not drive’, when the full sentence says ‘do not drink and drive’! That’s what the ZBC did to us.”
Gono has been vocal in his opposition of a “one size fits all” approach to the indigenisation of banks, to bring them in line with Zimbabwean law which requires foreign companies to hand-over a controlling stake to locals.
London-based Standard Chartered and Barclays are among the banks that would be targeted for indigenisation – a policy being vigorously pursued by the Indigenisation and Empowerment Minister Saviour Kasukuwere.
Gono said: “Let me reiterate for the umpteenth time and state that there can never be a U-turn by the central bank or by the governor or board on this matter. We will not allow untrained hands to play with gun-powder to the detriment of this whole economy, depositors or the wishes of my principal, President Robert Mugabe, who is very clear with regards to the sensitivity and critical importance of the financial sector.”
The RBZ chief, who has already filed a complaint with Tarzen Mandizvidza, the ZBC General Manager, said he told his audience in Bulawayo that “we’re not opposed to indigenisation in the banking sector, but we insist that it be done in an orderly manner”.
“I want to assure all stakeholders that there will not be the kind of forced, unstructured, chaotic or illegal interventions in the banking sector along the lines that some quarters have been calling for. That will not happen, nor will that ever be allowed under my watch,” he said.
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COMMENTS
But it was acceptable to have forced , unstructured, chaotic and illegal intervention with regard to the land issue….. We are governed by monkeys !!
on this one,thumps up Gono.however,indeginisation must be done to complete the revolution but not in a radical manner.so Mugabe is good but those around him are making his name to be bad.bt remember your stay at that bank is now three months only,they wil arrest you i know these guys so dont talk too much as of now.take my advice
Gono, this is the same line of thought and should apply to all sectors, including agriculture and mining…everything must be done orderly openly and not done at Kasukuwere’s office. It must not be done on political patronage basis. Patronage is what has killed Africa. Land instead of going to our Gwebi trained agriculturalists was mostly givien to Zaniods especially the good farms.
Lucky , some of us we have skills that have allowed us to move elsewhere while we watch disaster unfolding especially after the evilutionary party’s land slide. They can now do what ever they want with our money and resources without accounting to anyone…especially Chinos.
WATCHOUT, THE ZEROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOs are coming soon!as long as the voodoo economist remains gov!
So Mr Gono so if the whole government you are working 4 as the RBZ governor is singing another tune, why do you to stick to them as if you ar being forced on the job. If indeginisation is a bad policy and you keep on mumbling that’s its bad and your pay masters are doing nothing just pack your bags and go. Period! Not waste our time…you are just as good as those ‘indeginisation-praising-goons’. Nxa!