Traders at Harare’s Mbare Musika have been accused of destroying the local currency, the Zimbabwe dollar.
Chivi North legislator Mathias Tongofa claimed that since the introduction of the $50 note, people are now rejecting the $10 note as legal tender.
Tongofa asked in the National Assembly what the central bank was doing about this as it had now become a trend that people reject lower denomination notes whenever a higher note is introduced. He said:
We noticed that the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) and Ministry of Finance introduced the 50 dollar note denomination for the convenience of buyers and businesses.
However, the effects of the higher denomination are that as soon as the higher denomination is introduced, the smaller denominations are now rejected in the market.
I would like to know what the RBZ is doing to ensure that the public does not deny the smaller denominations. Currently, people are rejecting 10 dollar notes.
Previously they denied the five-dollar note and all this starts from Harare. I wonder whether they are doing enough to ensure that the phenomenon does not occur each time they add a new denomination.
The 10 dollar note already is now being attacked, it is no longer accepted in the market. We just wonder what they are doing.
The source of that issue here, in this city, is from Mbare – that is where it starts.
I wonder what they are doing as the monetary authority to ensure that such a phenomenon does not occur each time they add a higher denomination to the market.
National Assembly Speaker Jacob Mudenda advised Tongofa to ask the Minister of Finance Mthuli Ncube during question time but Ncube was not in the House on Wednesday.
Ncube was expected to present the mid-term budget review yesterday but will do so next Thursday, 29 July.