TSHOLOTSHO MP and Zanu PF politburo member Jonathan Moyo has accused Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono of peddling lies against the Zanu PF-championed indigenisation programme with the aim of discrediting the party and cause a protest vote in the forthcoming elections. Report by Everson Mushava
In an opinion piece published by a State-run weekly newspaper yesterday, Moyo accused Gono and the MDC-T of manufacturing “outright lies and malicious misrepresentations” about the Zimplats indigenisation transaction in a bid to discredit the indigenisation programme.
Gono last week had written in a private weekly lashing out at the ownership scheme of the indigenisation programme in favour of a supply side model.
A local daily newspaper also claimed massive corruption in the Zimplats indigenisation transaction.
The paper claimed the indigenisation transaction was made without enough consultation and that the Zimplats transaction could be adjudicated in London under English Law, a move that could embarrass President Robert Mugabe who has repeatedly said “Zimbabwe will never be a colony again”.
Moyo said Gono was the source of these stories, accusing him of being a “spineless coward” whose “disappointingly dirty hands” have influenced the “lies” peddled against the indigenisation programme in a bid to end Indigenisation minister Saviour Kasukuwere’s political career.
The central bank boss was not reachable for comment and a text message sent to him was not responded to at the time of going to print last night.
“If by attacking the equity or ownership-based model of indigenisation in favour of the so-called supply side approach, the Governor of the Reserve Bank (Gono) is hoping to be a striker in the ‘Bhora Musango’ brigade ahead of the forthcoming general election that is around the corner, he honestly and seriously should think again,” Moyo wrote.
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Mugabe suffered his first electoral defeat to Tsvangirai in March 2008 after some of his MPs allegedly embarked on an operation code-named “Bhora Musango” (kick the ball out of the field) where they campaigned for themselves alone, and not Mugabe due to the succession battles in the party.
“This is not 2008. The game this time round is Bhora Mugedhi (the ball into the net) and the players are Zanu PF only,” Moyo wrote. Lambasting Gono’s supply side model, Moyo said it was notable that those opposed to the equity or ownership model of indigenisation preferred foreign direct investment.
“The (logic of the) so-called supply side model touted by Gono . . . is akin to that of a house nigger whose hopeless mentality is that it is far better to profit from selling the furniture of the house as a vendor under the spell of Maslow’s discredited hierarchy of needs than to own the house even if it does not have any furniture,” said the sharp-tongued former minister.
He said the Zimplats deal was still under negotiation and denied that it was inconsistent with Zanu PF’s indigenisation programme.
