Kombi Conductor Kills Passenger For Paying Fare With Torn US$1 Note
Police in Harare have arrested a commuter omnibus (kombi) conductor (hwindi) for murder after he fatally assaulted a passenger, who had paid the fare with a torn US$1 note.
According to a post on the ZRP X (Twitter) page, Tawanda Pindu (25) slapped Batsirai Chisindi (35) which resulted in him falling to the ground.
Apparently, Chisindi sustained a deep cut on the back of his head when he hit the ground and bled profusely resulting in his death. Police said:
ZRP confirms the arrest of Tawanda Pindu (25) in connection with a case of murder that occurred on 13/09/23 around 2115 hours at a service station along Seke Road, Harare in which Batsirai Chisindi (35) died.
The suspect, who was the conductor of a kombi, assaulted the victim with open hands after a misunderstanding over a torn US$1 note.
The victim fell on the ground and he started to bleed profusely from the back of the head. As a result, the victim succumbed to the injuries.
In Zimbabwe, most businesses and ordinary citizens reject soiled US dollar banknotes and illegal money changers are making a killing by exchanging old and torn US notes for a fee.
However, in July 2022, the United States Embassy in Harare said all US dollar notes including soiled and damaged ones remain legal tender. It said:
US government policy is that all designs of US Federal Reserve notes remain legal tender or legally valid for payments, regardless of when they were issued.
This policy includes all denominations of Federal Reserve notes from 1914 to the present.
…any badly soiled, dirty, defaced, disintegrated, limp, torn or worn out currency note that is not mutilated and does not require special examination to determine its value, is considered legal tender by the US government.
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