City Of Harare Reverses US Dollar Billing
The City of Harare has reversed its recent directive that compelled residents to pay for some services exclusively in foreign currency.
Speaking at an urgent special council meeting on Thursday, Harare Mayor Councillor Jacob Mafume said ratepayers can now pay for services in the currency of their choice.
The local authority reversed its unpopular decision after its bank accounts were frozen by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ)’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU). Said Mafume:
When we sent out a notice on exclusive US dollar payments, it caused a bit of a ruffle in the market and drew the attention of regulatory authorities to the extent that FIU froze our US dollar accounts.
Top management went to FIU to find out what had caused that, and we agreed that in the meantime we are going to allow residents to use currencies of their choice.
