News / Local
Welshman Ncube blasts Gideon Gono
17 Apr 2012 at 13:37hrs | Views
INDUSTRY and Commerce minister, Welshman Ncube has rubbished a proposal by a section of the Bulawayo business community that is likely to see Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor Gideon Gono managing the Distressed Industries and Marginalised Areas Fund.
In an interview on Tuesday, Ncube said Gono had no capacity to handle the issue of the fund.
"On what capacity will Gono be handling this issue? It is absolutely nonsensical and I will never tolerate such nonsense.
"We don't understand how Bulawayo businesspeople want Gono to come in. Whatever the problem they are facing on accessing the fund is being attended to.
"We can not try to solve a problem with another problem. The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe is not just a bank but is a Central Bank. I am saying no fund will go to Gono," said Ncube.
He said the cabinet would discuss the DiMAF issue and come up with the way forward to enable the intended companies to benefit.
"We have tabled the matter in cabinet and will be in a position to shed more light on the issue after (the next) cabinet (meeting). At the moment I can not say much because there have not been any developments.
"All we want is for CABS to revisit the conditions because I have said this over and over again that they assume that the fund is for healthy companies yet it is for distressed companies. It is impossible to apply conditions for healthy companies to the distressed ones," said Ncube.
The Matabeleland Chamber of Industries (MCI) president Ruth Labode is said to be at the forefront of lobbying that the Government's part of the fund, $20 million which is yet to be released by government, be deposited with the Central Bank.
The utterances by Labode have left a lot of Bulawayo politicians with questions. The proposal was made soon after Gono's visit to Bulawayo and it is still not known how he managed to 'trick' Labode and other business people into winning his trust.
So far, no company from Bulawayo has accessed money from the fund because of the stringent conditions put by CABS.
Some politicians in the region argue that no Bulawayo owned company would be privileged to get the fund as it was part of the Zanu PF 'Grand Plan' to suppress development of Matabeleland.
They say the issue was likely to take years to materialize like the Matabeleland Zambezi Water Project that is yet to be completed more than 100 years since it was mooted.
In an interview on Tuesday, Ncube said Gono had no capacity to handle the issue of the fund.
"On what capacity will Gono be handling this issue? It is absolutely nonsensical and I will never tolerate such nonsense.
"We don't understand how Bulawayo businesspeople want Gono to come in. Whatever the problem they are facing on accessing the fund is being attended to.
"We can not try to solve a problem with another problem. The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe is not just a bank but is a Central Bank. I am saying no fund will go to Gono," said Ncube.
He said the cabinet would discuss the DiMAF issue and come up with the way forward to enable the intended companies to benefit.
"All we want is for CABS to revisit the conditions because I have said this over and over again that they assume that the fund is for healthy companies yet it is for distressed companies. It is impossible to apply conditions for healthy companies to the distressed ones," said Ncube.
The Matabeleland Chamber of Industries (MCI) president Ruth Labode is said to be at the forefront of lobbying that the Government's part of the fund, $20 million which is yet to be released by government, be deposited with the Central Bank.
The utterances by Labode have left a lot of Bulawayo politicians with questions. The proposal was made soon after Gono's visit to Bulawayo and it is still not known how he managed to 'trick' Labode and other business people into winning his trust.
So far, no company from Bulawayo has accessed money from the fund because of the stringent conditions put by CABS.
Some politicians in the region argue that no Bulawayo owned company would be privileged to get the fund as it was part of the Zanu PF 'Grand Plan' to suppress development of Matabeleland.
They say the issue was likely to take years to materialize like the Matabeleland Zambezi Water Project that is yet to be completed more than 100 years since it was mooted.
Source - Southern Star Business
