By Staff Reporter

NEW Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor John Mashayavanhu has been advised to “keep quiet for a long time” and ” work on monetary policy from his office” after appearing to suggest that he was appointed to the apex bank because he hails from Masvingo province.

Speaking at an event organised to celebrate his appointment, the RBZ chief suggested that it was time someone from Masvingo took over since all the post-Independence central bank governors – Dr James Kombo Moyana, Dr Leonard Tsumba, Dr Gideon Gono and Dr John Mangudya – had been from Manicaland province.

Exiled former cabinet minister Professor Jonathan Moyo said Mushayavanhu’s remarks were “crude and unbecoming of a Central Bank governor” to suggest that his “appointment (was) a tribal and regional achievement”.

” … it seems Dr Mushayavanhu sees himself as having been appointed on account of his home village, tribe and region; a consideration which leaves him deservedly vulnerable to the charge that he’s just a primitive tribalist and regionalist,” wrote Moyo on X, formerly Twitter.

“Someone with the RBZ Governor’s ear should advise Dr Mushayavanhu to henceforth keep quiet for a long time, work on monetary policy from his office, and quit speaking at public gatherings. It’s not only in his interest to do so; it’s also in the national interest!”

This was the latest in a series of gaffes by Mushayavanhu whose appointment by President Emmerson Mnangagwa came as the country prepared the launched of a new currency, the Zimbabwe Gold (ZiG).

The ZiG is the sixth currency Zimbabwe has used since the spectacular 2009 collapse of the Zimbabwe dollar amid hyperinflation of 5 billion percent, one of the world’s worst currency crashes to date.

Speaking shortly after the launch of the currency last month, Mushayavanhu pulled a shocker when he said; “We also didn’t know much about a structured currency. We got a consultant from the World Bank who come to us.

“And a lot of the things that you’re seeing about the structured currency actually came from the World Bank. So, if you’re going to blame me, you’re actually blaming the World Bank. Maybe they didn’t advise us properly. And if they did not advise us properly, it’s fine. Let’s refine it.”

Stung by public criticism over the remarks, Mushayavanhu tried to walk the comments back, but only succeeded in making things worse.

“I heard … that people were now saying the structured currency that we introduced was given to us by the World Bank,” said the RBZ chief.

“That is not true. We got a consultant to work with us by [sic.] the World Bank who assisted us in getting further information on the structured currency and that enabled us to refine our thoughts on that currency. We then proceeded to put together the monetary policy statement that we presented on the 5th of April.”

In response, Prof Moyo was scathing, noting that; “you are a walking disaster and a proverbial goner, if you are a top technocrat at the highest echelon of a key and strategic institution like the (RBZ) and you find yourself publicly denying your very own words, hardly a week after you uttered them in public, and after those words were widely discussed and debated in public while you remained silent.

“Hence, it is a terrible and indefensible way for RBZ Governor Dr John Mushayavanhu to needlessly and recklessly score successive own goals one after the other, a week apart, by blatantly contradicting himself and saying opposite things about one and the same thing.”

Moyo added that at a time when public trust in the new currency was critical, the RBZ head “should be speaking no mumbo jumbo politics, and doing monetary policy to win the much-needed public confidence in the new national currency, the ZiG.”

COMMUNICATION 101 GONE HORRIBLY WRONG FOR RBZ GOVERNOR

It is unfortunate and rather very concerning that a growing number of important stuff that the new @ReserveBankZIM Governor, Dr John Mushayavanhu, has been captured on video saying at public gatherings of one sort or another… pic.twitter.com/DOCundy4zU

— Prof Jonathan Moyo (@ProfJNMoyo) April 30, 2024