Last week we ran a story of a messenger who was arrested for swapping US dollars for Bond notes. The messenger was arrested for allegedly stealing US$4 000 delivery money and replacing it with $4 010 bond notes.
We then questioned why the messenger would be arrested for stealing if he replaced the USD dollars with the same amount of bond notes. The question was brought forward based on the fact that bond notes are officially said to be on par value with US dollars. And we went on to ask and propose this;
Banks are doing pretty much the same thing that landed the messenger in court. When I deposit my US dollars and then, later on, I choose to withdraw my money from my bank account they give me bond notes. They are essentially swapping. So, we can conclude that banks are stealing from us. Therefore, we can take banks to courts, isn’t it?
After the messenger was arrested, the case was put before the courts.
The verdict
The Bulawayo provincial magistrate found the messenger not guilty and acquitted him of all charges against him. The magistrate found him not guilty on the charges indicating that the state case was fragment as there was no loss on any of the parties involved since Bond Notes and US Dollars are pegged at the same value. The magistrate also said there no documentation citing the denominations of the money given to the messenger.
We cannot take banks to court
The magistrate’s’ verdict clearly shows that we can not take banks to courts for swapping our US dollars in our bank accounts for Bond notes because both currencies are officially considered to have the same value ($1 US dollar has the same value with $1 bond note). Despite the official parity of the two currencies, people still continue to burn the two currencies (selling US dollars for Bond notes or Bond notes for US dollars).
Anyway, these days virtually no one deposits their US dollars in bank accounts because of the fear that they won’t be able to withdraw them since banks are experiencing cash shortages (both US dollars and bond notes). Anyway, the prospect of taking banks to courts en masse was not likely to take place even if the magistrate had ruled that Bond notes and US dollars had different values…
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