The head of the Zimbabwean central bank is due in Britain later this week to raise funds for the state’s depleted coffers, despite a travel ban which prevents Robert Mugabe and other leading politicians entering the country, The Guardian has learned.
Gideon Gono, previously Robert Mugabe’s personal banker, is due to address a group of Zimbabweans in Birmingham on Thursday to encourage them to send money home to their families through government channels, according to Zimbabweans invited to the meeting.
He plans other meetings in Luton, London and Glasgow.
EU sanctions prevent President Robert Mugabe and 98 named officials travelling to or holding financial assets in any EU country, but Gono is not among those barred.
Since taking over the reserve bank in January he has introduced several schemes that credited with slowing down the collapse of Zimbabwe’s economy.
But he is not free of scandal. The South African claimed on Sunday that he had carried out hundreds of illegal currency deals, including several which had paid for lavish shopping sprees by Grace Mugabe.
He admitted that before going to the reserve bank he had acted as Mugabe’s personal banker.
In Britain he will try to persuade the estimated 400 000 Zimbabweans to send money home through official channels rather than the private channels they prefer because the official exchange rate has been unrealistically low.
Gono has introduced a system which offers a competitive exchange rate. If he succeeds in tapping into the remittances it will bring a hefty amount of urgently needed foreign currency to the state reserves. He has already urged Zimbabweans in the US to do the same, in a speech in Dallas.
Lady Amos, leader of the House of Lords, said recently that Gono was free to travel to Britain because he was not regarded as a key member of Mugabe’s government.
”As I understand it, the governor of the reserve bank is not on the exclusion list because he is not playing a leading role in the Zanu-PF politburo or in the government,” she told the House of Lords on May 25.
She confirmed that she was ”aware that the government of Zimbabwe are seeking to reach out to the diaspora and seeking to get them to send remittances back to the country through formal channels”, adding: ”I cannot comment on the use that they will make of that.”
Analysts in Zimbabwe said that Lady Amos was mistaken in suggesting that Gono was not a key policy maker for the regime.
”Gideon Gono is the most significant maker of financial policies in Zimbabwe today,” said a Harare economist who would not be named.
”His decisions have become more influential than the minister of finance.
”It is outrageous that Gono is being allowed into Britain on what is essentially a fund-raising trip for the Mugabe regime. We thought that was what the EU sanctions were supposed to prevent.”
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change said it was dismayed by the visit.
”These are the same Zimbabweans who have been disenfranchised by the Mugabe government, which has prevented them from voting.
”We fear the government will use the funds gathered through this campaign to fund Zanu-PF’s election campaign in March next year.” – Guardian Unlimited Â