Former RBZ Governor Gideon Gono Blasts ZANU-PF Spokesperson Chris Mutsvangwa

Former Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor Dr Gideon Gono has dragged ZANU-PF spokesperson Chris Mutsvangwa, who accused him of losing the country’s gold reserves.

The Explosive “Revelation” By The ZANU-PF Spokesperson

On 15 April, at a ZANU-PF media briefing, Mutsvangwa alleged that an RBZ governor who served under the late President Robert Mugabe lost the country’s gold reserves to Arabs.

“We had our gold reserves, then the Americans imposed sanctions, then we were short of US dollars. As we were short of US dollars, our Reserve Bank governor then, I won’t mention names; these days, I am not mentioning names. Our Reserve Bank governor engaged outsiders in the Arab world. They said, ‘We can give you US dollars but on condition that you support it with your gold.

“But [for] the transaction to be complete, the Arabs requested that the gold move from our own vaults outside the country to where they can see the gold, which our former governor duly obliged. The story gets murky after that, according to the former President. The gold reserves are gone; the US dollars don’t come.”

Gideon Gono Discloses The Facts Of The Scandal

Former RBZ governor Dr Gideon Gono took offence at the allegations and came forward to set the record straight. He revealed that the incident occurred in 2006, and he lost no gold. The plan involved a jeweller from Saudi Arabia.

Gono explained to ZimLive:

“We are talking here of what could, if it had succeeded, have been a “structured gold-backed transaction” which required mining the gold from underground in the first place, then export it in exchange for funds that would have been delivered and repackaged “fourfold in the first place” involving international banks and all above board, but after the first transaction amounting to a US$5 million deposit was executed by RBZ, the transaction failed on the other side and all parties to the envisaged transaction reimbursed each other, with no prejudice incurred or suffered by any of the parties to the transaction and ultimately, no gold was mined from underground for further export in terms of the initial agreement which is now causing a hullabaloo due people who were not part of the RBZ team trying to confuse the nation.”

He added that the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission investigated the issue in 2016 and found no wrongdoing.

Gono then reprimanded Mutsvangwa, telling him to stick to facts. He also questioned the ZANU-PF spokesperson’s timing of the statements, urging him to have some “finesse”.