Mugabe refuses to budge on Gono and Tomana

Mugabe refuses to budge on Gono and Tomana

http://www.swradioafrica.com

By Tichaona Sibanda
23 May 2009

Robert Mugabe has apparently refused to budge on his re-appointment of
Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono and Attorney General Johannes Tomana amid
reports the 3 principals have decided to declare a deadlock on these two
issues.

When Mugabe, Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara met on Tuesday they
agreed that the MDC's Roy Bennet would finally be sworn in as Deputy
Minister of Agriculture. They also agreed on the appointment of five
governors from the MDC-T, one from MDC-M, and four from ZANU PF.

Mugabe has also agreed to return the powerful communications portfolio,
which he had unilaterally stripped from MDC Minister Nelson Chamisa's
Information, Technology and Communication Ministry and placed under the
supervision of his own Ministry of Transport headed by Nicholas Goche.

The state controlled media initially referred to Chamisa as 'Minister of
Information, Technology and Communication,' but a few days after the
communication portfolio was stripped from his Ministry and given to Goche,
all state media outlets also struck off 'Communication' when they referred
to his ministry.

Chamisa always insisted nothing had changed in his Ministry since no one had
communicated the change to him officially, and he had only read about it in
newspapers.

A source in Harare told us Arthur Mutambara was given the task of announcing
the progress made so far in the talks. The MDC-M secretary general Welshman
Ncube confirmed to the Zimbabwe Times that the 3 principals had agreed on
virtually everything except Gono and Tomana's appointments.

Human rights lawyer Dhehwa Mavhinga told us Mugabe would rather stick with
Tomana and Gono because they continue to manipulate the judiciary and the
Reserve Bank to keep ZANU PF afloat.

'Gono initiated and pioneered quasi-fiscal activities that saw ZANU PF keep
afloat in near impossible conditions. Tomana has selectively kept the MDC on
tenterhooks by violating the law on a daily basis by detaining and cracking
down on officials and activists,' Mavhinga said.

Our Harare correspondent Simon Muchemwa told us ordinary Zimbabweans are now
getting fed up with the continued delay in implementing the full terms of
the GPA.

'People are saying when two elephants fight; it is the grass that suffers.
Ordinary people on the ground can't even raise money to buy bread or sugar
for their families because of this impasse to finish the talks,' Muchemwa
said.