This archive report was first published on 27 June 2020.
On Friday, Zimbabwe's President Emmerson Mnangagwa's government took drastic measures to address what it termed 'criminality and economic sabotage'. The government suspended trade on the stock exchange and mobile phone-based payments, citing the need for 'intrusive investigations'.
The decision is expected to hit the economy hard, as more than 80% of all transactions are conducted on phones due to a shortage of banknotes. According to central bank data, mobile payments have become a lifeline for many Zimbabweans, who rely on them for daily transactions.
Government spokesman Nick Mangwana stated that the move was part of efforts to arrest the slide of the Zimbabwe dollar, which has sharply devalued since its reintroduction last year. He claimed that the government had 'impeccible intelligence' that suggested mobile payment platforms were conspiring in illicit activities that were sabotaging the economy.
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The suspension of all mobile payments and the stock market is expected to have far-reaching consequences for the economy. Zimbabwe's central bank had recently introduced weekly foreign currency auctions in a bid to draw scarce foreign currency into the formal market.
