News / National
Mugabe's banker denies assassination plot
27 Mar 2013 at 07:57hrs | Views
RESERVE Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor Gideon Gono yesterday denied reports that he had fled the country following an attempt on his life, saying he was in Egypt attending the African Export Import Bank board meeting.
Social networks were yesterday awash with reports that a plot had been hatched to eliminate the central bank chief and that he had fled to Egypt.
Gono has been accused by senior Zanu PF officials and outspoken politburo member Jonathan Moyo of attempting to halt the country's controversial indigenisation programme in the banking sector.
"Many in my circle of operation know that every quarter I attend a board meeting of the African Export Import Bank headquartered in Cairo and my current visit to the Egyptian capital for that purpose this quarter is/was no exception," he said in a statement.
He described the allegations as "the usual fiction" saying people close to him were aware of his whereabouts.
Gono has been engaged in a turf war with Empowerment minister Saviour Kasukuwere over the latter's drive to implement government policy on the indigenisation of foreign-owned banks.
The central bank chief said he was an indigenisation proponent, but appreciated the need to tread with caution on the indigenisation of the financial institutions.
"I have stood firm on indigenisation since October 2007, saying we should not use a one-size-fits-all strategy and treat banks as if they were manufacturing or mining firms - a position supported by President Robert Mugabe who urged flexibility when he spoke on his birthday. Since then I have come under siege," he said.
Allegations of corruption in the $800 million compliance deal for platinum producer Zimplats, a subsidiary of South Africa-based Impala Platinum, has heightened tensions between Gono and Moyo with the former Information minister accusing him of leaking documents relating to the transaction to the media and trying to get the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission to investigate the deal.
Moyo claimed in his column in a local weekly that Gono thought he was untouchable because he tried "to save this country" at the height of hyperinflation some six years ago.
But the RBZ chief says he is being vilified for merely raising concerns about the appropriateness of the indigenisation deals crafted by the Empowerment ministry.
Social networks were yesterday awash with reports that a plot had been hatched to eliminate the central bank chief and that he had fled to Egypt.
Gono has been accused by senior Zanu PF officials and outspoken politburo member Jonathan Moyo of attempting to halt the country's controversial indigenisation programme in the banking sector.
"Many in my circle of operation know that every quarter I attend a board meeting of the African Export Import Bank headquartered in Cairo and my current visit to the Egyptian capital for that purpose this quarter is/was no exception," he said in a statement.
He described the allegations as "the usual fiction" saying people close to him were aware of his whereabouts.
The central bank chief said he was an indigenisation proponent, but appreciated the need to tread with caution on the indigenisation of the financial institutions.
"I have stood firm on indigenisation since October 2007, saying we should not use a one-size-fits-all strategy and treat banks as if they were manufacturing or mining firms - a position supported by President Robert Mugabe who urged flexibility when he spoke on his birthday. Since then I have come under siege," he said.
Allegations of corruption in the $800 million compliance deal for platinum producer Zimplats, a subsidiary of South Africa-based Impala Platinum, has heightened tensions between Gono and Moyo with the former Information minister accusing him of leaking documents relating to the transaction to the media and trying to get the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission to investigate the deal.
Moyo claimed in his column in a local weekly that Gono thought he was untouchable because he tried "to save this country" at the height of hyperinflation some six years ago.
But the RBZ chief says he is being vilified for merely raising concerns about the appropriateness of the indigenisation deals crafted by the Empowerment ministry.
Source - newsday
