Former Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor and businessman,
Gideon Gono, is named in sensational claims of multiple farm ownership
which he accumulated under state leases due to his high-level political
ties and influence in former President Robert Mugabe’s government, which
saw him allegedly attempt to grab another from a private bank and
prejudicing it in the process.
At the height of his reign at the Reserve Bank, the then powerful
man, leased State farms measuring about 5000 hectares, although the
government was advocating a single farm ownership policy.
Gono refused to discuss the issue of his multiple farms with the
Business Weekly, dismissing the allegations as unfounded. The newspaper
could not get details on how much the former bank governor was paying in
lease fees for the farms, and how productive he was as the government
is pressing for high use of farmland.
The revelations around Gono’s farms are contained in an annexure to
an Urgent Chamber Application, High Court case HC 5056/18 in which Time
Bank shareholders are seeking a (suspension) stay of execution on two
court judgments.
Notably, the urgent application is meant to suspend a Supreme Court
ruling and High Court judgment, awarded to a party ‘wrongly’ allocated
one of their properties under Government’s land reform programme.
The Court Application alleges that Dr Gono played a significant role,
through former Lands Minister Didymus Mutasa, in settling a number of
scores, which bordered on disputes over Time Bank and the land property
in Goromonzi, which he allegedly also wanted and attempted, but failed
to acquire from Time Bank Investment Corporation (TBIC), a key
shareholder of the private bank, Time Bank.
TBIC alleges that its refusal to cancel its purchase agreement with
the original owner of the land property, for Gono to acquire it, was one
of the reasons the ex-governor caused closure of Time Bank in 2006.
Multiple farm holding was and remains a violation of the Government’s
one-person-one-farm policy meant to ensure equitable land distribution
among deserving farmers and guaranteeing optimal use of resettlement
land.
In Gono’s case, it is unclear as well how the “leased farms” sit
alongside any commercial farm he could have been allocated by the
government under the land reform programme whose mechanisation was
funded by Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe under his watch.
Addressing a youth rally in Gweru last week President Mnangagwa said
Government will repossess land from multiple farm owners and
redistribute it to youths and other Zimbabweans yearning to venture into
the lucrative farming business.
Government has already indicated a land audit would be instituted to
identify multiple farm owners and leave identified culprits with only a
single farm.
Asked to respond on the multiple farm allegations, Dr Gono said he
would not respond to unfounded allegations and that he had nothing to
say on the matter.
“I do not respond to that kind of preposterous accusations, I don’t.
There is no story that touches on me that I should respond to,” Dr Gono
said. “I am out of the country, but thank you for letting me know,” he
said.
“I have no comment to make on this or nay other matter that involves
Time Bank directors. That is why we have functioning courts in our
country. People must just learn to move on with lives and if they have
issues, take them to the courts. I cannot be spending my time responding
to preposterous accusations born out of fractures, dreams and lies,” Dr
Gono added.
However, The Time Bank court papers shows that Dr Gono got multiple
farms allegedly with the help and approval of former Lands, Land Reform
and Rural Resettlement Minister Mutasa.
At one point, Mutasa also served as the State Security Minister in
ex-president Mugabe’s administration, which collapsed in November last
year. Mutasa could not be reached to comment on his role in the issues
raised by the Time Bank shareholders.
Documents, in the possession of Business Weekly, show that the former
RBZ chief acquired more than a single farm, parceled out some to his
family members or consolidated them under Government leases.
The consolidation under Government leases were allegedly
pre-calculated to avoid detection of multiple ownership, given the
Government’s iron-clad one farm-one man policy.
Dr Gono’s multiple farms
Three of the farms were registered under Government lease agreement MA
900/2008. The State title deeds for the three farms are 7625/2008,
7626/2008 and 7623/2008 measuring 1020 hectares, 144ha and 942ha,
respectively.
Cumulatively, the consolidated farms have a hectarage of 3 129 hectares.
Also, it emerged Dr Gono acquired two State farms under State title deed
7619/2008, which were leased to Emily Gono by the ex-minister Mutasa
with the lease being registered under consolidated Government lease MA
900/2008, dated 25/08/2008, again to avoid detection.
“Under this State title deed two farms were deliberately consolidated
in 2008 with the first farm measuring more 348 ha and the second farm
measures 1 154ha, totaling more than 1502ha,” documents show.
“Furthermore, two State farms under state title deed 7622/2008 were
leased to Peter Passion Gono by Mr (Didymus) Mutasa, as Minister of
Lands, under Government lease MA 898/2008 dated 25/8/2008.
“Under this State title deed, two farms were deliberately
consolidated in 2008 with the first farm measuring more than 161
hectares and the second farm measuring 121 hectares, totaling more than
282 hectares.”
The farms are located in the Mashonaland West Province, between Norton and Chegutu.
How Dr Gono’s multiple farms were exposed
Dr Gono’s alleged multiple farm ownership was recently exposed by his
longtime nemesis Time Bank Investment Corporation (TBIC), with whom he
got embroiled in a bruising wrangle over Time Bank, a unit of TBIC.
This expose’ came as a result of an ongoing legal dispute, which also
allegedly has its roots in the dispute between the Time Bank directors
and the ex-central bank chief.
TIBC, a key shareholder of Time Bank, recently appealed to the
Constitutional Court of Zimbabwe to overturn two court judgments, which
went against it while contesting a case of ‘illegal’ attempts to grab
one of its properties.
TBIC said that it had lost the case before the High Court and Supreme
Court because Dr Gono frustrated efforts to gain supporting documents,
which were locked up in the bank, which RBZ had closed in 2006.
Closure of Time Bank, TBIC claims, was unjustified and violated its
Constitutional rights, an assertion the company says was vindicated by
the courts of law, which awarded in its favour in 2009.
Although Time Bank contested its closure and won in 2009, it was
still not given access to the bank by the central bank, at the
instruction of Dr Gono, as this would give access to key evidence it
needed to back its land grab case and allegedly as an act to merely
spite them.
TBIC only gained access to the bank through a proper handover
takeover after incumbent RBZ Governor, Dr John Mangudya took over at the
helm of the bank in 2014, moving swiftly to end the tiff with Time Bank
and declaring “let bygones be bygones.”
How Dr Gono, TBIC fell out
Dr Gono and Mutasa were implicated for alleged facilitating grabbing
of TBIC’s residential land property, which is adjoining Dr Gono’s farm
along Mutoko Road.
Apparently, Dr Gono at one time allegedly wanted to acquire the
property, when TBIC had already had it formally approved as residential
or township land, but was turned down by the seller, one M.C Reimer.
Dr Gono allegedly claimed that he wanted to buy the property,
measuring 5 123 hectares, for himself and former president, Robert
Mugabe.
He allegedly warned that failure to concede would mean serious consequences.
Having failed in his attempt to acquire the property, having also
unsuccessful tried to have TBIC’s already concluded purchase agreement
with the original owner of the farm, one MC Reimer cancelled, Dr Gono
then joined forces with Mutasa to fight Time Bank.
In what TBIC believes was action motivated by attempts to spite Time
Bank and its shareholders, their property in Goromonzi was allocated to
Kennedy Godwin Mangenje, who is an ex-manager of the RBZ.
The allocation was done by Mutasa under the guise of the land reform programme.
The land should have never been allocated to another person under the
guise of land reform, as it had already been converted into township
land and subdivided into housing stands by the time of the land reform.
The earlier court judgments on the Goromonzi land case, which were
awarded in the favour of Mangenje, are the basis of Time Bank
shareholders’ recent urgent chamber application at the High Court and an
appeal, through TBIC, filed at the Constitutional Court of Zimbabwe.
Mangenje used as pawn
TBIC contends that Kennedy Godwin Mangenje, who was allocated TBIC’s
Goromonzi property, was used as a pawn to settle scores between Dr Gono
and Mutasa on one side and Time Bank and its owners on the other, the
global picture of which he may not have been aware of.
Apparently, before Mutasa was appointed Minister of Lands in 2003, he
had also fallen out with TBIC and its shareholders for refusing to obey
his orders.
Mutasa had reportedly sold a property in Tynwald (Cold Comfort), and
since the sale was made to a Time Bank client and the bank financed the
transaction. Troubled started when Mutasa wanted to sell the property to
another customer yet he had been paid in the first sale.
The former minister then allegedly ordered the bank not to release
proof of payment, but the bank reportedly took a principled position and
declined the instruction.
From then on, Mutasa never liked the bank, specifically its
shareholders, hence the spite that saw him, allegedly working with Dr
Gono, offering one of the bank’s land properties to a fellow black man,
an irregularity done under the guise of Government’s land reform
programme.
This was despite the fact that the Provincial Lands Committee of
Mashonaland East opposed the “purported” acquisition of the property,
owned by TBIC since 1999, as it had been approved a township land in
2003.
TBIC argued that if Dr Gono and Mutasa sincerely wanted Mangenje to
have a farm, they should have allocated him one of the many farms from
the ones that were given to the ex-RBZ chief.
The once powerful ex-central bank chief reigned as the RBZ governor
between 2003 and 2013, after which incumbent governor Dr Mangudya took
over, following the expiration of Dr Gono’s two five year terms. Business Weekly
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