So ugly is the fight that Gono, who is also the board chairman, has appealed to the Minister of Finance, Tendai Biti, to intervene to stop the messy fight.

Gono and Kuwaza have been slugging it out for the past three months through an exchange of highly charged memos and verbal clashes.

Kuwaza, a former permanent secretary in the Ministry of Finance, is pushing for an investigation into Gono for alleged corruption and abuse of state resources. Kuwaza also says Gono must be probed for his quasi-fiscal activities, which involved printing money to prop up Mugabe's regime and a collapsing economy.

The quasi-fiscal activities which Kuwaza wants investigated include the RBZ funding Mugabe's activities, the state intelligence service, army and police between 2003 and 2008.

Biti has already said he has no intention of investigating the central bank but wants those who gave instructions for the printing of money to fund quasi-fiscal activities to apologise.

As the fight reached alarming levels, Kuwaza, a non-executive board member, was said to have forcibly occupied an office in the 22nd floor of the RBZ headquarters last month, but was evicted on Gono's orders.

Kuwaza is, ironically, demanding an investigation of how tenders for the building of the RBZ headquarters were awarded.

Kuwaza also wants Gono's special advisor Munyaradzi Kereke to be fired, saying he was illegally employed. He is also calling for Kereke to be investigated to establish how he acquired his personal properties.

In a letter to Biti, dated August 27, a copy of which has been seen by the Sunday Times, Gono chronicles his running clashes with Kuwaza.

"I write to sadly bring to your attention to the fact that I have repeatedly encountered serious operational differences with Mr. C. Kuwaza, the deputy chairman of the RBZ board, which if not expeditiously resolved, will compromise the smooth functioning of the board and, in turn, the central bank.

"As governor and chairman of the board, I have for the past three months forestalled and held back writing you this letter in the hope that Mr Kuwaza was going to mend his ways naturally, but things are spinning out of control."

Gono says unless Biti intervened, there would be chaos at the central bank. The letter was also copied to Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and the chief secretary to the president and cabinet, Misheck Sibanda.

In the letter, Gono said Kuwaza was destabilising operations of the bank through "abrasive, abusive and unprofessional language" in management meetings. He also accused him of leaking information to the press.

Neither Kuwaza nor Gono were available for comment. A board member who spoke to the Sunday Times confirmed the fight between Gono and Kuwaza and said if not stopped it was likely to "explode soon".

By The Times (SA)