Zimpapers Logo

THE mushrooming of illegal forex dealers in Bulawayo has left many residents wondering if the police and the Bulawayo City Council have given up on restoring sanity in the city.

Not even the alarm raised by Chief Justice Luke Malaba, not once but twice, over the menace of Osiphatheleni has given the police and BCC the nudge to deal with the illegal forex dealers who have become so brazen in their dealings. 

During a tour of Tredgold Building last week, Chief Justice Malaba warned Osiphatheleni and other people involved in illegal activities around the building which houses the Bulawayo Magistrates Courts, saying there was an urgent need for them to be permanently flushed out of the area.

In 2018, Chief Justice Malaba also bemoaned the illegal foreign currency exchange activities around the environs of Tredgold Building while commissioning three additional courtrooms at the Bulawayo High Court resulting in police clamping down on the money changers.

At that time, police sealed off the parking area around the building but the operation was short-lived and illegal forex dealers made a triumphant return.

Last week’s warning by the Chief Justice does not appear to have moved the illegal forex dealers as they stay put.

Outside Tredgold Magistrates Courts, the forex dealers still conduct their business like a legal enterprise and even go to the extent of waiving motorists to stop as they offer them “better” rates. 

Some conduct their “business” from their parked cars mostly Honda Fit vehicles yet some sit in front of a local fast food chain with wards of notes of different currencies in hand. 

And still the police have not done much to stop this illegal trade. 

In some streets away along George Silundika Street and between 10 and 11th Avenue is another group of illegal forex dealers, making absolutely no effort to conceal their dealings. 

They “deal” from outside a popular liquor shop and different cars line up to change money for “customers” without the slightest fear or care that the police and BCC might pounce of them.

Another group conduct their business from the cars and just like outside Tredgold, some park right in the middle of the road with total disregard of the fact that they are posing a danger to fellow motorists and that they are actually breaking the city’s by laws and national traffic regulations.

This has led to many questions around the source of illegal forex dealers’ confidence. What is it exactly that they know or do that has given assurance that their conduct would not attract the attention of the law enforcement agents? Who do they know? And who has assured them that no matter how open they conduct their dealings, they will not be arrested? 

There must be a special reason that such lawlessness can be left to continue with little to no action at all by the police and BCC. 

In an interview with this paper yesterday, Bulawayo police Spokesperson Inspector Abednico Ncube said the police will come down heavily on the illegal forex dealers as they try to restore sanity in the city. 

Only time will tell whether these are empty threats or real action. The reputation of the force is at stake.

The latest operation must restore sanity in Bulawayo, once famed for being the cleanest city in the country, an honour it has since lost partly due to the illegal forex dealers who seemingly have been left to do as they please. 

If the operation fails, then heads must roll in both the police and BCC because there is no way, in a country that upholds the rule of law, that illegal money changers can hold the city at ransom.