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Bloch defends GonoCentral bank governor Gideon Gono, who has been under a lot of flack, has finally got someone backing him. Economist and business consultant, Eric Bloch, director of some 80 companies, says Gono is being used as a scapegoat for everything that went wrong in Zimbabwe.Bloch has been one of Gono's advisers and has managed to get the governor to support some key industries in Bulawayo such as Merlin and Ascot Clothing. The Movement for Democratic Change says one of the outstanding issues within the global political agreement is that Gono and attorney-general Johannes Tomana, must go. But President Robert Mugabe brushed this off at a joint press conference with Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara when he said the agreement could not be derailed just because of one man. Bloch said Gono was being used by the Zimbabwe African National Union- Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) and was forced to implement some policies that he did not agree with. "I think he is being used as a scapegoat for everything that went wrong in this country. Gono was being used. He was forced to implement programmes like ASPEF (Agricultural Sector Productivity Enhancement Facility), BACOSSI (Basic Commodities Supply Side Intervention) and even buying tractors and cars for MPs, chiefs etc," Bloch said. "If you remember well in December 2006 he published a 16-page supplement in which he reproduced letters from various government ministers instructing him on what to do. I think ZANU-PF wants him to stay because they are scared he knows too much though I believe that he will still keep his confidentiality. "The MDC wants him to go because it argues that if he was being forced to do things he did not want he should have stepped down. But the reality is that he felt that if he stepped down ZANU-PF might put an even worse puppet," Bloch said. Gono has been governor of the central bank since December 2003. His term office expired at the end of last year but Mugabe extended the term for another five years without consulting the MDC arguing that he had the constitutional right to do so. Some people are now arguing that people should not focus on Gono or Tomana as individuals but on institutional reform. Posted- 30 December 2009
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© Insider Publications 2009. This story is available for syndication. Contact the publisher at charlesrukuni@insiderzim.com
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