PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe reportedly faces a dilemma over the swearing in of former Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor Gideon Gono as Buhera senator due to a lapse of a legal framework to appoint him.
TATENDA CHITAGU OWN CORRESPONDENT
Gono, who was tipped as the next Finance minister in an expected Cabinet reshuffle, was chosen to replace the late Kumbirai Kangai.
Sources said Gono would have to wait a little bit longer before being sworn in as there was no legal framework to effect the appointment at the moment because of the lapse of Statutory Instrument 85 of 2013 that amended the Electoral Act to enable holding the July polls.
Statutory Instrument 85 of 2013 was appended by Mugabe using the Presidential Temporary Measures Act, but it lapsed six months later.
“The president has a soft spot for Gono and would like to see him rise politically. No wonder he was nominated by Manicaland despite resistance from some quarters as he is not senior in the province,” a top Zanu PF official said.
“But he sailed through and he could have landed the Finance ministry if there was going to be a Cabinet reshuffle, but that is where the headache is. The presidential decree lapsed. There is no supporting Act for such a move, meaning for now it is at a standstill. There is need to proclaim a law.”
That Mugabe likes Gono, according to the source, is known in Zanu PF given his attendance of Gono’s daughter’s wedding, as well as touring the former RBZ governor’s Donnington Farm.
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Mugabe made an unannounced tour of Gono’s chicken farm at which he was full of praise for the former central bank chief.
Mugabe openly defended Gono’s credentials and right to ascend to higher political office despite blatant opposition from some within Zanu PF and the government.
The tour raised eyebrows with some taking it that Mugabe was grooming him for the country’s top post.
Mugabe has stifled succession debate in the party resulting in fierce jostling between two rival factions, one reportedly led by Vice-President Joice Mujuru and the other by Justice minister Emmerson Mnangagwa.
Both Mnangagwa and Mujuru have publicly denied leading factions.
