INFORMATION, Media and Broadcasting Services minister Jonathan Moyo yesterday described former Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor Gideon Gono as scandalous and desperate after the aspiring Manicaland senator blamed his woes on Zanu PF factionalism. Staff Reporter
Gono on Wednesday sensationally blamed his disqualification by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) to be sworn in as senator for Manicaland on his detractors in Zanu PF.
The Zanu PF politburo nominated Gono to take over the senatorial seat left vacant by the death of former Agriculture minister Kumbirai Kangai who died soon after becoming the Manicaland senator last year.
But ZEC last week wrote to Zanu PF informing the party that Gono was ineligible to take up the seat as he was not a registered voter in the province.
Gono appeared to blame the Registrar-General’s Office and ZEC for the mix-up saying he had sought to transfer his name on the voters’ roll from Harare to Buhera last year. Moyo said the response showed that the former governor had become too desperate to assume the seat and his argument was based on emotions.
“It is abundantly self-evident that, by any means available or not, Gono is desperate to be a senator for Manicaland province, a provincial parliamentary seat he apparently mistakes for Buhera district,” he said in a statement last night.
This explains why he has become so emotional and reckless about his comments to the point of displaying his ignorance on the law in public.
The fact of the matter is that when Gono sought and was given by the Registrar-General a confirmation of transfer of his voter registration from a constituency in Harare to Buhera West on 5 December, 2013, that confirmation of that date was a legal nullity as the Registrar-General ceased to have the legal authority to effect such transfers on July 10 2013.
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“The fact that Gono was, as he still maybe, ignorant of this legal position is not a defence. Further it is neither fair nor responsible for Gono to blame anyone else for his ignorance of the law,” Moyo added.
He said the legal complications around Gono’s transfer from Harare to Buhera West had nothing to do with Zanu PF factionalism, but were as a result of changes brought about by the new Constitution.
“Rather than personalising this process, distorting facts and casting aspersions while publicly displaying his ignorance of the law, Gono should tell voters in Buhera in particular and in Manicaland in general why he did not register as a voter there by 10 July, 2013, ahead of elections last year, as provided in the law because doing so would have enabled him to cast his vote in a province he so desperately now wants to represent by hook or crook,” Moyo said.
“Zimbabwe is not a banana republic. It is repugnant and therefore unacceptable that the enactment of any law should be hurried or done to suit the political interests of an individual or to mitigate the consequences of anybody’s ignorance of the law.”
The minister said Gono was also wrong to insinuate President Robert Mugabe leads a faction in Zanu PF.
