Herentals college in Bulawayo is charging parents with children at the school an extra 30 per cent if they are paying using swipe or EcoCash.
A parent who spoke to Sunday News, Slibaziso Mpofu, questioned if what Herentals is doing is legal. She said:
I don’t know why they are being inconsiderate, it’s not as if it’s our choice to pay using EcoCash or swipe but we are forced by the situation at hand.
I don’t think what they are doing is legal. Thirty per cent more is a lot and as parents, we never agreed to it, they just imposed it on us, which is not a good thing because the school has to call for a meeting if they wanted to do that.
Meanwhile, the college has acknowledged that it is charging an extra 30 per cent extra for payments made using plastic money.
Herentals College’s administrator Yolanda Muriyani said the issue is not of multi-tier pricing, which is illegal, but that the school increased fees for those paying using EcoCash and swipe. She said:
We increased fees for those paying using EcoCash and swipe because when we are going to buy stationery using those forms of payments we are also charged extra therefore we had to increase.