A 24-year-old Harare man, Kudakwashe Welcome Maketo, appeared before the Harare Magistrates’ Court facing charges of contravening Section 5(1)(a)(ii) of the Exchange Control Act Chapter 22:05, as read with Section 4(1)(a) of the Exchange Regulations SI 109 of 1996 as amended by Section 2 of the Statutory Instrument 122A of 2017 and Section 3 and 4(2) of SI 245 of 2018 “dealing in currency”.
The court established that on August 1, 2024, police officers spotted Maketo, a resident of New Tafara, Harare, at Kamunhu Shops in Mabvuku, offering to buy foreign currency from passers-by in exchange for local currency.
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The police officers approached Maketo and agreed to exchange money with him. Maketo offered them a rate of US$1 to ZWG16 and the officers transferred a total of ZWG320 from their mobile wallet into Maketo’s wallet.
Maketo was subsequently arrested when he received the US$20 trap money. During the arrest, he was found in possession of 5 bank cards.
The court convicted Maketo of “dealing in currency” and sentenced him to 6 months imprisonment, with 3 months suspended for 5 years, resulting in an effective sentence of 6 months.
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