Ridiculous: EcoCash Manager May Face Arrest For Cash Out Premiums – Minister Mutodi

Honourable Energy Mutodi, our Deputy Minister of Information has given his two cents regarding EcoCash’s cashout problem and as with most things that come from his Twitter account it’s pretty interesting…

Ecocash manager may face arrest if her business continues to inconvenience the public by charging exorbitant transaction costs
Deputy Minister of Information Energy Mutodi

This is spectacularly ludicrous especially coming from a government official and its pretty interesting to note that the Deputy Minister believes threatening Natalie Jabangwe is the way to go about solving this problem.

Before looking at why this is a pretty absurd position to take, it’s also interesting that ZACC (Zimbabwe’s Anti-Corruption Commission) has said that they’ll be investigating the cashout problem which they believe has been “enabled at a systematic level”. Yeah right ZACC, go after EcoCash agents whilst turning a side-eye to the real corruption.

Yes, EcoCash has benefited from the chaos ensuing with their agents charging premiums to cashout (i.e they make more on charges). But the only reason why agents have resorted to selling cash is because cash is in short supply in Zimbabwe and has become a commodity. Where is the crime being committed by the EcoCash manager? As my employer would say, “these are just the basic economics of supply and demand.”

Maybe Mutodi should consider arresting RBZ officials too since they have failed to solve the issue of cash shortages leading to all this anarchy?