Mugabe gazettes Bond notes law

President Mugabe has gazetted Statutory Instrument 133 of 2016, which provides a legal framework for the introduction of bond notes as acceptable legal tender in Zimbabwe. SI 133 of 2016, Presidential Powers (Temporary Measures) Amendment of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Act, empowers the central bank to issue out bond notes using its preferred design, form and material.

Section 44B of the amendment reads:
"The Minister may by notice in a Statutory Instrument prescribe that a tender of payment of bond notes and coins issued by the Bank that are exchangeable at par value with any specified currency other than Zimbabwean currency prescribed as legal tender for the purposes of section 44A, shall be legal tender in all transactions in Zimbabwe to the same extent as that prescribed currency."

In terms of the statutory instrument, RBZ will determine how the bond notes and coins will look like.

"There hereby issued by the Minister in terms of section 44B (1) of the principal Act as inserted by these regulations bond notes in such units as shall be specified by the Bank and whose design, form and material shall be determined by the Bank and notified to the public."

The Statutory Instrument, for the avoidance of doubt, also covers bond coins that are already in circulation.