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Rutendo Nyeve, Sunday News Reporter
ENTERPRISING vendors outside the Registry offices in Bulawayo are cashing in on the scarcity of $2 and $5 notes which they are selling for US$1 per note to desperate service seekers who need them for various payments at the office.
The vendors’ major clients are those that seek to apply for Emergency Travel Documents (ETD) as well as those that would have lost their passport application receipts and are required to pay a search fee. The search fee is pegged at $5 while the ETD application fee is $38.
With the scarcity of the small denominations, applicants who present bigger denominations like $20 and $100 that require change are allegedly advised by the cashier to go and look for loose notes that do not require change.
This then leaves the applicants with no option but to buy the smaller denominations from the vendors.
Sunday News spoke to one of the vendors who identified himself as Mr Prince Dube who narrated how the “lucrative” business that they have engaged in operates.
“I don’t have the notes but I can direct you to my grandmother (name withheld) down there. She has all the notes but if you want them, please support her,” said Mr Dube who assumed the news crew wanted the notes.
After being advised that the news crew was interested in knowing how the business operates, Mr Dube said:
“Yes, we do sell these small denomination notes for US$1 per note. What happens is that the cashiers inside do not want money that needs change. So, most people who buy from us are those applying for ETDs.
“It is $38 so usually someone will be having his/her $30 then we sell them $2 notes at US$1 each. There are also those that lost their passport application receipts and are required to pay $5 as search fee. So, we sell them as well for the same figure,” he said.
Asked where they got the small denominations since they are now in scarcity, Mr Dube said:
“We buy them from people who do not know that we sell them this side, so if you bring me those notes, I give you two rands per note.”
An effort to get a comment from the Bulawayo Registry office were fruitless as this reporter was referred to the head office.
However, an official at the registry offices who spoke on condition of anonymity confirmed that cashiers were not taking bigger denominations because they usually do not have the change.
“You cannot be found with money in your cash box that is more than what you have receipted, it’s actually a misconduct and a chargeable offence. As such we usually advise those applying for the ETD and those paying search fees to look for money that does not require change, but we don’t know where they get these small notes. Most of the services are now for free just like replacing a lost identity card,” said the official.
Efforts to get a comment from Registry offices in Harare were fruitless. -@nyeve14
Bongani Ndlovu
Online Reporter