Categories: Stories

Here comes Gono again

Former Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor Gideon Gono who became famous for his “failure is not an option” but saw the country slide to its highest hyperinflation ever, is back this time promising that Zimbabwe will attract foreign investments worth $10 billion in the next two years.

The country only attracted foreign direct investment worth $421 million in 2015 but this dropped to $391 million last year.

Gono who was appointed chairman of the Special Economic Zones last week did not explain how he came up with such a wild figure.

Zimbabwe was promised billions of investment by China and Russia but very little has materialised.

This has largely been attributed to investor uncertainty because the country has no clear succession plan for 93-year-oldPresident Robert Mugabe who is now in and out of hospital.

The country’s constitution, however, says ZANU-PF will retain the current presidency until 21 August if Mugabe steps down or dies in office.

The succession battles within the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front which have pitted a faction allegedly led by the First Lady Grace Mugabe and another by Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa has made things worse, though Mnangagwa seems to have an upper hand and has literally been accepted as the de facto successor by the West.

The G40, whispers say, has no future after Mugabe as President Robert Mugabe, according to his former deputy Joice Mujuru, is the real leader of G40.

(443 VIEWS)

This post was last modified on July 11, 2017 5:42 am

Charles Rukuni

The Insider is a political and business bulletin about Zimbabwe, edited by Charles Rukuni. Founded in 1990, it was a printed 12-page subscription only newsletter until 2003 when Zimbabwe's hyper-inflation made it impossible to continue printing.

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