RBZ dismisses bond notes hoax

Source: RBZ dismisses bond notes hoax | The Herald May 10, 2017

Daniel Nemukuyu Senior Reporter
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor (RBZ) Dr John Mangudya has dismissed as false, social media reports that the central bank was introducing bigger denominations of bond notes.

False Press statements that circulated on WhatsApp and Facebook falsely communicated that RBZ would release new $10, $20 and $50 bond notes with expiry dates, with effect from May 15 this year.

The messages also claimed that RBZ was prohibiting the use of Master Card, VISA Card and Maestro outside Zimbabwe without clearance from the central bank.

The malicious statements, falsely attributed to Dr Mangudya and with a fake link to The Herald website also insinuated that RBZ had rapped Government departments like the police for failure to bank cash.

RBZ yesterday rubbished the false Press statement describing it as malicious. “These statements are false and should be treated with the contempt they deserve,” said Dr Mangudya.

“The bank dismisses the statements in their entirety as false, irresponsible, mischievous and malicious as neither the Governor nor any officer of the bank has held any such Press briefing or made the statements as alleged.”

The statements, Dr Mangudya said, were not only false, but dangerous as they had an effect of causing unnecessary anxiety, panic, alarm and despondency within the economy.

“The statements are also calculated at discrediting Government and the bank’s progressive efforts to stabilise the economy and fuel chaos in by targeting the sensitive financial sector,” he said.

Dr Mangudya slammed the originators of the bogus RBZ statements and urged the nation to ignore them. “The circulation of the false statements is abuse of social media by retrogressive, wayward and divisive elements, who want to depict the economy in bad light through propagation of their shenanigans,” he said.