The Sunday Mail

NEW: Harare City Council reverses US dollar payments  

Online Reporter  

THE Harare City Council has suspended a recent directive that compelled residents to pay for some services exclusively in United States (US) dollars.

Residents can now pay services in the currency of their choice.

The latest development comes a week after the embattled municipality’s bank accounts were frozen by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ)’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU).

Speaking at an urgent special council meeting on Thursday, Harare Mayor Councillor Jacob Mafume said council is no longer charging its services exclusively in hard currency.

“When we sent out a notice on exclusive US dollar payments, it caused a bit of ruffle in the market, 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 for the meantime we are going to allow residents to use currencies of their choice,” he said.