Kukurigo reports that Foreign Currency Accounts (FCAs) held by Zimbabweans in the country are now at risk following an announcement by President Mnangagwa that the use of foreign currency will be outlawed.
Writes the publication:
Mnangagwa also hinted at the concomitant return of exchange control restrictions that would make it illegal to pay salaries or suppliers in foreign currency, saying all foreign currency would have to be changed into the local currency, with transactions strictly in the local currency.
“When you go to South Africa and you have the United States dollar, Euro or whatever currency, you have to go to the bank and change it and get Rands. That is what you use in stores in that country” Mnangagwa said.
The moves come as authorities become increasingly desperate to access foreign currency for critical imports, with Treasury recently accusing industry and FCA holders of refusing to liquidate their foreign currency into RTGS dollars at the expense of critical imports.
Government’s increasingly militant economic posture, with authorities repeatedly accusing business of sabotaging the interbank foreign currency market, has jittered industry, with heightened creeping expropriation fears that the authorities will introduce a legislative framework allowing it to forcibly convert foreign currency balances.