Bill Watch 50/2019 New Measures to Outlaw Use of Forex in Zimbabwe 29 September 2019 BILL WATCH 50/2019 [29th September 2019] Further Government Measures To Outlaw Use of US Dollars & Other Foreign Currencies in Domestic Transactions Background Three months ago, when the Minister of Finance and Economic Development gazetted SI 142/2019 [link] declaring RTGS dollars to be the only legal tender in Zimbabwe, press headlines referred to the "outlawing" of the use of the US dollars and other foreign currencies in Zimbabwe. Ministers and officials said the same thing. In Bill Watch 32/2019 [link] dated 24th June – the same day SI 142 was gazetted – Veritas, however, cautioned that the SI did not in law forbid the use of foreign currencies in Zimbabwe and was, therefore, not as far-reaching as its makers had perhaps intended. Latest Measures to Outlaw Use of Foreign Currency The Government has now taken further steps to outlaw the use of all foreign currencies in domestic Zimbabwean transactions. In a Government Gazette Extraordinary released after close of business on Friday 27th June two closelylinked statutory instruments made by the President were published, effective immediately: SI 213/2019 – Presidential Powers (Temporary Measures) (Amendment of Exchange Control Act) Regulations, 2019 [link] This is a ten-page set of regulations made by the President in which he amends the Exchange Control Act to expand his own regulation-making powers under the Act to authorise him to make regulations for "the enforcement of the exclusive use of Zimbabwe dollar for domestic transactions". The term "domestic transaction" is not defined. Other amendments to the Act by the SI introduce a detailed "civil penalty" system under which the Reserve Bank is empowered to impose civil penalties for contraventions of regulations made under the new power. The Schedule containing the provisions for civil penalties take up 8 pages of small print [some of them are probably not legal] The enabling statutory authority cited for the regulations is the Presidential Powers (Temporary Measures) Act. In Veritas' view this Act is unconstitutional. See comment later in this bulletin. SI 212/2019 – Exchange Control (Exclusive Use of Zimbabwe Dollar for Domestic Transactions) Regulations, 2019 [link] This is a much shorter set of regulations in which the President uses the new power he has given himself by SI 213 to enact the following general prohibition in section 3(1):

Select target paragraph3