I belong to Mugabe’s faction, Gono says

Former Central Bank governor Gideon Gono yesterday said he did not belong to any political faction in the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front. “I have been longing to speak publicly; the last time I spoke publicly was when I was still the RBZ Governor and I want to emphasise that I belong only to President Mugabe’s faction and ZANU-PF political party in its totality,” he said at the memorial service of Kumbirai Kangai, the man whose shoes he wants to fill as senator for Buhera. The government has gazetted the Electoral Amendment Act paving the way for Gono to stand for the vacant seat which has to be filled by a male ZANU-PF candidate but the act says if there is any objection from a voter, the party has to resubmit a candidate. “Hatina kuuya pano tichiti uyu ndeuyu achazorwisa uyu; ngatiite zvinhu zvinovaka,” Gono said. But the fact that he was backed by ZANU-PF Secretary for Administration Didymus Mutasa and Party Spokesman Rugare Gumbo, both known to belong to Vice-President Joice Mujuru’s faction, could be misread to mean something. Mutasa has been under fire for sowing divisions in the party and Harare youth leader Godwin Gomwe said he wants to tell Mugabe this when he returns from China today. Gono might be stretching things too far by claiming he does not belong to any faction because the First Lady Grace has already entered into politics. The fact that he was proposed by Oppah Muchinguri says a lot about her and her husband. And as ZANU-PF heads for its congress, it is not reality that matters but people’s perceptions.

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