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Wallace Ruzvidzo
Herald Reporter
Consumers have welcomed the blitz announced by the Consumer Protection Commission of Zimbabwe against businesses that are not using point-of-sale machines or regularly claiming such machines were not working.
In separate interviews, the consumers said they are being cheated by such traders as they can’t use their local currency when they get paid.
When consumers are denied usage of swipe machines, they use the few US dollars they have, but lose out since they cannot get small change as some traders refuse to accept the ZiG, forcing people to buy items they ordinarily did not want.
The Consumer Protection Act’s Section 51 (h) prohibits businesses from engaging in any unfair trade practices, which include, but not limited to, violating consumers’ right to choose.
Now, with the blitz coming to force traders to have swipe machines, businesses found not complying with the requirement will be penalised in line with laid down laws and regulations.
Economist Mr Trust Chikohora said the move makes sense and will certainly cushion the citizens.
“Obviously, a lot of people would want to pay using cards and in that case, it would be anomalous if there is no such type of machine available at the business,” he said.
“But people need to be careful on how they are going to go about that because these point of sale machines have certain bank charges and someone has to have a certain volume of transactions for it to make economic sense to use them.”
When Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services permanent secretary Mr Nick Mangwana posted about the development on his X handle, Zimbabwe Nurses’ Association president Mr Enock Dongo applauded the development saying “well done”.
Another X user only identified as Trailblazer said the development was welcome although other measures were needed to put unscrupulous traders on notice.
The user identified one major supermarket operating in Warren Park, Harare, which he claimed is only accepting ZWG swipe on a limited range of products.
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