20 Questions for Zimbabwe Reserve Bank Governor, Gideon Gono (Zanu-PF)
The people of Zimbabwe have a right to hear the answers to these questions:
1. If we no longer have our own currency, why do we need a Reserve Bank?
2. Where is the money from sales of Zimbabwe's diamonds?
3. Did you buy forex at the official rate and sell it at the street rate, to purchase and run your businesses ?
4. To which other individuals did you also supply forex at the official rate?
5. What is your personal net worth now, compared to when you took office?
6. Have you ever filed a tax return?
7. How many employees are on the payroll at the Reserve Bank and how many actually still work there?
8. Have the financial records of the Reserve Bank ever been audited under your tenure?
9. Did you allow duplicate Zimbabwe dollar notes to be printed?
10. What is the difference between printing a dollar value onto tree leaves, and printing a dollar value onto paper?
11. Are you aware that the record inflation you caused in Zimbabwe has eliminated everyone's POSB, pension and burial society savings?
12. What is the value of the Reserve Bank's foreign liabilities (what is owed to foreign money lenders)?
13. Where are the Reserve Bank's gold bullion reserves, which by law should cover at least 40% of the bank's foreign liabilities?
14. Why are the Youth Militia (Green Bombers) still on the government payroll, and what is their work at present?
15. Do you think taxpayer's money should be used to pay for the beating and torture of those same taxpayers?
16. You call yourself a re-born Christian - do you think Jesus approves of violence, fraud and corruption?
17. Why do you insist that US and EU 'Sanctions' are preventing investment in Zimbabwe's infrastructure, when there are no sanctions at all from Africa, the far East, Russia, and the rest of the world?
18. Would you feel it your patriotic duty to empty your own Foreign Currency Account and donate the money towards the country's running costs? (Gono 'in the national interest', has raided Zimbabwean banks and emptied private, business, university and NGO forex accounts, including US$7.3 million from the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS).
19. The Reserve Bank Act (Part III, 14.1) stipulates that there must be no more than TWO deputy Governors. You have THREE. You and your Board are therefore in breach of the Act and should dismiss one of them immediately. Which one will you choose: Edward Mashiringwani, Charity Dhliwayo or Nick Ncube?
20. In October 2008 you said: "I am even looking for an excuse, I do not need much effort to be pushed out,” … “If anyone wants to take my job, let them come forward." What is preventing you from resigning now?