WRAP Crisis worsens, Bank governor on his role ADDS more Gono

(9 Dec 2008)
Budiriro, Harare - 9 December 2008
1. Woman pouring water into container
2. Close up of raw sewage
3. Man jumping over raw sewage
4. Close up of hand turning on tap with no water
5. Children pushing wheelbarrows with water containers
Rainbow Towers, Harare - 8 December 2008
6. Governor of Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, Gideon Gono chatting to people at book launch
7. SOUNDBITE: (English) Gideon Gono, Governor of Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe:
"I'm supposed to be the worst governor that this country has ever had. I'm supposed to be one governor who deserves nothing but brickbats."
8. Poster advertising book written by Gideon Gono, Governor of Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe
9. SOUNDBITE: (English) Gideon Gono, Governor of Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe:
"When I was being taken to the Security Council to be slapped with more sanctions, that very week, that very same week, I was receiving an offer to become the second most powerful man in the world of finance, that is being vice-president of the World Bank, based in Washington, delivered by none other than the United States' ambassador to this country."
10. Cutaway audience listening
11. SOUNDBITE: (English) Gideon Gono, Governor of Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe:
"The offer had the blessing of President George W Bush, it had the blessing of Secretary Condoleezza Rice, it had the blessing of the World Bank."
12. Various of book signing
STORYLINE:
Nearly a week has passed since Zimbabwe declared a national emergency over a cholera epidemic and the collapse of its health care system - state media has reported that the government is seeking more international help to pay for food and drugs to combat the crisis.
Aid agencies say the government has left it too late.
The failure of the southern African nation's health care system is one of the most devastating effects of the country's overall economic collapse.
Zimbabwe, engulfed in an economic and political collapse, has by far the world's highest official inflation of 231 (m) million percent.
In August, the central bank slashed 10 zeros from the local currency but a newspaper that cost 10 Zimbabwe dollars in the new denominations in August cost 700,000 Zimbabwe dollars (0.45 US dollars; 0.35 euros) in recent weeks.
The state Herald newspaper acknowledged the zeros were back by publishing a guide to large electronic and written transactions involving quadrillions of Zimbabwe dollars showing 15 zeros, quintillions with 18 zeros and even decillions with 33 zeros used.
President Robert Mugabe, in power since independence from Britain in 1980, blames Western sanctions for the economic collapse.
But critics point to his 2000 order that commercial farms be seized from whites - the often violent seizures disrupted the country's agriculture-based economy.
In November, Mugabe reappointed central bank governor Gideon Gono for another five-year term at the Reserve Bank.
In his acceptance statement, Gono vowed to rein in the bank's "quasi-fiscal operations," its term for printing extra money and subsidising state enterprises, measures seen as having fuelled inflation and crashed the local currency.
Gono has been heavily criticised for failing to curb the nation's inflation, but at the launch of a book on his experiences at the helm of the Bank over the past five years, he attempted to exonerate himself.
Speaking at his book launch at Rainbow Towers in Harare on Monday, Gono claimed he had been offered the post of vice-president of the World Bank, an offer which he stated had "the blessing" of both US President George W Bush and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

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