Confederation of Zimbabwe Retailers (CZR) has raised concern on the rejection of bond coins and notes including ZWL$2.00 and ZWL$5.00 by traders, retailers and wholesalers in the market.
The association’s president Denford Mutashu says the rejection goes against nation-building efforts that the retailers’ sector has always pledged to partake.
“As an Association we would like to advise the retail sector that it (rejection of bond coins) is against the law to wantonly reject a national currency that is legal tender,” Mutashu says.
“CZR calls upon law enforcement agencies to help instil disciple on the matter as the public has been left exposed.”
With the introduction of the ten and twenty dollar bond notes, businesses have now rendered the 50 cents and one-dollar coins useless and the consumers have followed suit in not using the coins.
Mutashu says, “It has also come to our attention that most of those rejecting the coins and notes have been actively fueling the forex parallel market, contributing to the destruction of confidence in the local currency.”
“Shops in rural areas, small towns have since joined the unscrupulous trend, instructing their employees to reject payment in local currency.”
“The conditional selling of goods in USD, Rand, and Pula only is discouraged,” he went on.
The government allowed citizens to use foreign currency in trading in the wake of the COVID-19 induced lockdown.
Critics have taken such a move as a ploy to return into the multi-currency regime.
The government, however, insists that there will be no going back to the multicurrency regime.
