Gono calls for granting of title deeds to new farmers

Jewel Bank chief executive Gideon Gono told United States ambassador to Zimbabwe Joseph Sullivan that contradictions in Zimbabwe’s economy could lead to a meltdown in six months.

He showed the ambassador a document that he had submitted to President Robert Mugabe in which he was advocating more capital expenditure, the devaluation of the Zimbabwe dollar and rapprochement with international lenders.

Gono had also written to the central bank calling for the granting of title deeds to farmers resettled on white commercial farms.

Full cable:

Viewing cable 02HARARE2819, Business Leader Believes Zimbabwe Must Change

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This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

UNCLAS HARARE 002819

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

STATE FOR AF/S

NSC FOR SENIOR AFRICA DIRECTOR J FRAZER

USDOC FOR 2037 DIEMOND

PASS USTR ROSA WHITAKER

TREASURY FOR ED BARBER AND C WILKINSON

DEPARTMENT PASS USAID FOR MARJORIE COPSON

¶E. O. 12958: N/A

TAGS: ECON EPET EFIN ETRD ZI

SUBJECT: Business Leader Believes Zimbabwe Must Change

Course

Sensitive but unclassified. Handle accordingly.

¶1. (SBU) Summary: Jewel Bank CEO Gideon Gono told us he

believes Zimbabwe’s macroeconomic imbalances are

unsustainable over the next 6 months. Gono’s frank

appraisal hints that a dose of reality may be seeping

through to the country’s upper echelon. End Summary.

¶2. (SBU) The Ambassador and Econchief met on December 2

with Gono, head of a major indigenous bank and confidant

of President Mugabe. Gono argued that contradictions in

Zimbabwe’s macroeconomic policy could lead to meltdown in

the next 6 months. He showed us a document he had

submitted to Mugabe and other political higher-ups at the

beginning of 2002, advocating more capital expenditure,

devaluation of the official exchange rate and

rapprochement with international lenders. He also gave

us a paper he presented to the Reserve Bank last month,

calling for the granting of title deeds to farmers

resettled on white commercial farms.

¶3. (SBU) Comment: An acknowledgement from someone who has

Mugabe’s ear that GOZ economic and land policies are

failing is welcome, even though Gono probably couches

these criticisms in more delicate terms to the President.

We hope it is an early sign that political higher-ups are

willing to entertain the notion, at least in private,

that policies of price controls, overvalued currency,

chaotic land redistribution and overbearing taxation are

destroying the economy. End Comment.

Sullivan

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