Source: Obey Manayiti & Xolisani Ncube, NewsDay
AS the cash crisis continues to bite, the struggling Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) last month introduced point-of-sale machines (POS) at its roadblocks to ensure all motorists without radio licences pay up.
ZBC adopted the POS machines to deal with motorists who often give excuses that they are failing to access cash from their banks.
This also comes at a time when the Zimbabwe Republic Police is also seeking approval to use the same system at the roadblocks to allow traffic offenders to be able to pay spot fines with no excuse.
ZBC head of marketing and licensing Emmanuel Nyamayedenga confirmed the development yesterday, saying the system was now operational in all the provinces.
“We introduced the system on October 17,” he said.
This week, the NewsDay witnessed ZBC staffers manning a roadblock along Rotten Row with the POS machines.
They said there were no problems with accepting the new mode of payment claiming it was easy to work with.
Due to the persistent cash crisis, a lot of Zimbabweans are sleeping at banks in order to withdraw their savings before the government introduces the bond notes later this month.
The majority of people who are still smarting from the demise of the Zimbabwean dollar are taking no chance with the bond notes, fearing their savings will crumble again like the painful experience during the hyperinflation era.
Early this month, Home Affairs minister Ignatius Chombo told Parliament that government was working on modalities to ensure that police also migrate to plastic money at roadblocks as a way of curbing corruption and underhand dealings.
Statistics from the central bank suggest that more people now use online payment methods as cheque transactions declined by 14% to $7,9 million during the same period.
Source: Obey Manayiti & Xolisani Ncube, NewsDay