Gono seizes POSB shares

By Tererai Karimakwenda
May 14, 2008

The governor of Zimbabwe’s Reserve Bank, Gideon Gono, has been showing his true colours recently. Just weeks after it was reported that Gono sits on the board of the Joint Operations Command (JOC) that is running the country and sponsoring the violence, it has been reported that he seized shares worth about Z$6.5 quadrillion, that were held on the stock market by the government-owned POSB bank.

According to the ZimOnline news site, Gono took the shares last Friday after threatening to fire POSB chief executive Admore Kandlela if he resisted the takeover. The report said Kandlela had earlier warned Gono that the POSB would collapse if he took the shares. After writing about the attempt to the Ministry of Finance, he was advised not to release the shares and this allegedly made the RBZ chief furious. Kandlela and POSB chairman Tim Chiganze were summoned to Gono’s office last Thursday.

ZimOnline say that in this meeting Gono threatened Kandlela and promised the POSB executives that the Reserve Bank would assist the POSB with its financial needs. Kandlela turned again to Finance Minister Samuel Mumbengegwi, who tried and failed to stop Gono’s moves. The certificates of shares were on Gono’s desk that Friday morning.

Economic analyst Bekithemba Mhlanga criticized Gono and the government for stealing POSB shares, saying: “This money is taxpayers’ money. Why take away their money to use it to finance a violence campaign against the same taxpayers who voted them out.”

He explained that the government is broke and has been selling shares in the many companies in which they invested, in order to buy food, clothing, fuel and ammunition for the perpetrators of violence. They also have a huge domestic debt that they are failing to pay.

Mhlanga quoted MDC secretary general Tendai Biti who said when a new government takes over, Gono will have to account for these transactions, and there will be serious repercussions. It is not clear whether the RBZ chief grabbed the shares for himself or ‘on behalf of a powerful politician aligned to Robert Mugabe’, as one source at the RBZ suggested. What is clear though is that Gono’s actions have nearly destroyed the POSB and as always, it is the poor people that will suffer as POSB services mostly low-income depositors.