Gono and Official Secrets Act

By Levi Mhaka

Published on December 14, 2006

The Governor of the Reserve Bank, Mr. Gideon Gono, published a 16-page supplement in all the three Sunday newspapers on 9th December 2006 defending his practice of making payments outside the national budget totalling $400million.

In a budget presentation last month, Dr. Herbert Murerwa, the Minister of Finance, said government ministries would no longer be allowed to continue accessing funds from the RBZ, but would have to make do with what they were given under his budget. Dr. Murerwa said quasi-fiscal expenditures by the RBZ were boosting money supply growth and fuelling Zimbabwe's inflation.

In the process of trying to exonerate himself from the attacks over quasi-fiscal activities (QFA), we need to find out whether Mr. Gono might have broken the law as provided for by the Official Secrets Act Chapter 11:09 (as amended at 31 December 2004).

On one hand, we have a minister who has not denied instructing the central banker to print money willy nilly. The minister has now realised his folly and then asked all public bodies to seek funding through the line ministries.

On the other hand, we have a governor who is happy to print money to supply it cheaply for political reasons. Because he has been asked to stop and is being informed publicly not to expect such instructions, he gets offended and panics. He rubbishes his political principals by telling the whole world world that he was such a fool of central banker that he was just printing money. He is just too affected because the leverage that he was exercising over a number of public officials is gone. He enjoys much publicity and he cannot remain quite.

The Official Secrets Act also sets strict limits on the disclosure of government information without permission. While I hold no brief from the Government of Zimbabwe nor Mr. Gono, I painstakingly went through the Official Secrets Act.

Has Gono broken the law by releasing the correspondence between his office and that of the Vice President(s) and ministries? What is 'high level' or 'confidential' information, as defined by the relevant Act?

To those who would find it objectionable that he released such information, and therefore seek his prosecution. Are these people fully agreeable to the nature of the Official Secrets Act, which has been described as draconian. We need to balance a need to promote accountability of our 'governors' and the integrity of the public institutions by limiting what information is necessary for citizens to be informed.

His biggest mistake rather than crime is to defend himself publicly against or rather ridicule his political principals. He lacks 'corporate' public decency. A person of Gono's stature should behave like a judge as far as public conduct is concerned. The personal temperament or whims or emotional affiliation of judges and central bankers must remain very private.

His emotional mood can affect the value of a national currency. You wonder why there are people who would take it upon themselves to study the body language of Allan Greenspan, the former US Federal Reserve banker. He is employed to administer national currency and not to express any other issues directly to the public.

While his defence seems to be watertight from an academic point of view, it smacks of an ulterior motive in that it targets the general public about an issue that belongs to the Establishment. He is always behaving like a trade unionist!

Recall what he did and said on camera the last time he visited Berverly Building Society during his so called 'Operation Sunrise'. Very dramatic. He could have been more successful in theatre than in banking.

Here is a brilliant person without a decent public personality. He is thorough but not thoughtful. Clever but not wise. He is the same league as Professor Jonathan Moyo, the late Dr. Edison Zvobgo, Edgar Tekere, Thomas Mapfumo (compare with Oliver Mutukudzi), Philip Chiyangwa. They all lack decorum. Such people are usually flamboyant and such people do not go very far.

Gono's public spat on a minister is a clear sign that we no longer have a State President, who only gets angry when his power is under threat to the point of discouraging people to succeed him. He is now associating huPresident nehuroyi.