Don't attempt to use the Interfin ZimDollar ATM

THE "controversial" Interfin Bank Limited (Interfin) Automated Teller Machine (ATM) has been cordoned off from customers.

The Interfin ATM machine is situated along Samora Machel Avenue, at the financial institution's Towers Branch in Harare.

Last week some "unlucky" female customers were shocked when they received worthless Zimbabwe dollar bearer cheques when they tried to withdraw cash from the ATM which was "online" by mistake.

"The ATM was being tested and we use Zimbabwe dollars when we do such tests," Isaac Njanike, Chief Executive of Interfin Financial Holdings Limited (Interfin), said in a statement to the media after the mishap was discovered by a customer.

She had tried to withdraw US$110 but was shocked when demonetised Zimbabwe dollars were released by the ATM.

Zimbabwe dollars were demonetised in 2009 by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) to try and quell rampant inflation which had soared to more than 231 million percent, the worst in history and even in the famous Guinness Book of World Records.

Zimbabwe now uses a dual currency of the US greenback and the South African Rand as legal tender.

This is the currency available in its ATMs, but with the SA Rand only available from Kingdom Bank Limited (KBL) ATMs in Bulawayo and Beitbridge.

Over the Easter weekend, the Interfin ATM had a white sheet of paper informing customers that they "must not attempt to use it".