[...]Kubatana.net speaks out from Zimbabwe » Blog Archive » Texting it in – what we want in a new Zimbabwe[...]…

Eish, Gono has come out all guns firing for the wrong reasons. Whatever evidence he has to prove that Biti’s firm was engaged in externalisation of foreign currency does not exonerate him from the economicLLY MURDEROUS activities he engaged in. The fact that the West has taken up strategies akin to what he claims are his is no justification for his engagements in propping up the military structures of ZANU PF. Saving a nation , and a party are very different things.

Gideon Gono served, and saved ZANU, and its militia, repressive and ideological state apparatus, whilst we slept in bank qeues, whilst our mothers, fathers, sons and daughters wallowed in hunger, sickness and death, as our peanuts were eroded by inflation as he placed unreasonable limits, luxuriating with his ‘principals’ in conspicous wealth through the money they stripped from its rightful owners, us.

The ‘governer’ wants to talk of self interest when referring to Biti, and other politicians, whose interests is he saving?What reserve bank Governer holds on to a position, and agrees to be reappointed, after presiding over so much decadence.

And he even has the guts to complain about his children, and ask for an apology!!Apology my foot!!When we were scurrying at the University of Zimbabwe, starving, searching for material, braving the dire situation we found ourselves in, and he complains about his spoilt children being expelled?He should have brought them to the UZ, and we could have discussed the future of the nation together, and see if we were all sleeping on bank qeues,with no electricity at home, no water, literary bare when it comes to the basics of survival.

People like Gono abuse the privilege of having a platform to air their views, and are too veinglorious to apologise for the suffering they put us through.

Honestly, does he think Bitis comments would be the impetus for someone to bring harm upon him?Ordinary Zimbabweans got fed up with hinm long back, without Tendai Biti they would still clamour for his head.He is a leach in any language, a liar and thief.

There is no need to hide behind the office of the governer anymore, or ask for protection because, as we say in Shona, ‘akadziya moto wembavha’.He shared the warmth of the kleptocratic regime , he propped it up, and today he has the guts to spend resources publishing supplements, writing letters to Morgan Tsvangirai.

Gideon Gono paid the very security agents who terrorised Tsvangirai and the MDC, now he writes like he was a nuetral player. Was financing terror busting sanctions? Gideon Gono does not even have a neck because he leads a good life, compared to the debilitated state of the ordinary Zimbabwean.Let us not be decieved by these lucifers, who claim to have more benevolence that they can grow tummies on everyones behalf.

And he is still claimg credit for this and that!So much for pointing out self interest in other people, it ‘his advice’ which failed to work, which will work now?Very silly mhani!!!

The abuse of institutions such as what happened with the reserve bank, similar to the military and other state institutions is something we must fight against if we are to get a new dispensation, not this half baked governement of national disunity, squables, and deadlocks.

Zimbabwe is still crying for change, and we are not sure if our budget for what Morgan Tsvangirai called ‘residual resistance’ is huge enough, we underbudgeted i think.The fight for democracy is still on.

Gideon Gono cannot expect that Morgan Tsvangirai is the person who will grant him ‘amnesty, or let bygones be bygones’.Just like we said Mugabe is not Zimbabwe, so the same applies with Prime Minister Tsvangirai.He suffered at Gonos hands as well, but as Zimbabweans, we deserve an apology from Gono, gor the misery he put us through as he saved ZANU PF, and that he recuse himself, if he is not self serving, from his position as Governer.

He has done enough, and he must give the chance to others with new ideas, since he even failed to’ bust the sanctions’ as he points out.What miracles will he perform now?The propaganda overdrive he is now engaged in only makes us lend a more critical eye at him, and wonder what amount of greed and selfishness can make a man dig for all these incriminating issues and blacmailing so as to save himself, when to us he is the manifestation of an agent of repression nand atrocities, economic and otherwise.

If Africas development is to hinge on the wisdom of men like Gideon Gono, if our financial institutions are to be managed by headstrong peoplem who would not mind financing another Hitler in the name of abstract principles they themeselves cannot live up to, then we are doomed.Imgined your sovereignty, autonomy, well being in the hands of a kleptocratic, journalistic man who parades himself as an innovative economist.Ha!

I shudder, and get nauseated to think Gideon Gono should still be defending himself after what Zimbabweans have gone through.

As the Prime Minister has said, Zimbabweans may forgive, but they should not forget.The men and women who were at the forefront of taking the lives of their fellow countrymen walk scott-free, even defend their activities, just because they recieved orders from someone.Reminds me of these studies carried out on obedience to authority on why Nazi soldiers carried out the atrocities they did.So we let them go, forget they exterminated millions?Of course not!!

National healing will come with justice, not with wholesale amnesty.Gideon Gono has to own up, to stop representi ng himself as a saviour.The anarchy he says Zimbabwe would have fallen into is his own personal prediction, because we were in anarchy already.What does he think we were going through then?Then he says people would not be comfortably calling shots today.The clown at the reserve bank never ceases to amaze.Simply put, if he had not been there Mugabe would not have been able to hold on, to finance the violence and intimidation, to oil the repressive state apparatus, not nthe way ‘your governer’ the ‘affable economic journalist’ wants to put it.

If we check, we may discover Gideon Gono may find his way into the Guiness book of records for writing the most press statements and supplements, a propaganda effort which has made me write this, realising the extend of Gonos kleptocratic audacity.

As Mahatma Gandhi pointed out, throughout history, the ways of truth of love have always triumphed.Gono will ot last forever, and he should rest assured that we will not forget whjat he has also said and written over the years.

If he can keep records, so can we.If he is not brave and humble enough to apologise and recuse himself, in the interests of the country, history will judge him harshly, and it will not care about his many press statements and his letters.The sword of Dmaocles will always hang above his head as long as he continues on his tirades of self interest, and callous defense of atrocius economic practices.

For the lives sacrificed on the altar of his and ZANUs affluence still struggle to rest, their souls torment us, we who lost those we love, and they shall surely torment him, the architect of our losses.

It is not for the love of vengeance that I write this, but out of sheer desire for self respect from a man who defends the indefensible, out of frustration and hurt, wounds that are still fresh in the deepest recesses of our hearts as a result of the pauperisation we suffered at the hands of Gideon Gono.We hold him personally responsible, for he presided over a period of unprecedented patronage and clientelism, economic decadence and disregard for human life and rights.

I am at a loss to describe the anger that Gideon Gono arouses in the people I know, and how we wish he would just be honourable enough to go, to show people he does acknowledge what he did, not all this defense of murder, literally.

When Gono sleeps, if he ever does, and he still has a conscience, we plead with him to spare us his rhetoric, to make a public apology, and to leave the reserve bank, not because he is incompetent, but to give it a new lease of life.The stench of his abuse of the institution still lingers all over the economy, and repulses those who might want to reengage. If Al- Queda is synonymous with terror, then Gono, with all his intelligence, understands what a metaphor is, the same way Mugabe called Simba Makoni and Morgan Tsvangirai prostitutes.
To be honourable and go, or not to be. That is the question for Gideon Gono, whether it is nobler in his mind to keep defending himself after having caused misery to the people of Zimbabwe through propping up a quasi-military regime, or to pack his bags, admit he messed up, and go. Maybe write more press statements and letters from the sidelines telling us how he managed to save ZANU PF from its demise.That would make more interesting reading than these futile attempts at self defense.Eish, it never ceases to amaze for shoo.