Some confusion over Reserve Bank recall of R200 notes

consumers have been told not to panic after the south african reserve bank ordered all old r200 notes be recalled by the end of the month.

in a statement from reserve bank governor gill marcus last month, consumers were told they needed to take old r200 notes to commercial banks and have them exchanged before may 31.

after this date these notes can only be exchanged at the reserve bank.

the ruling was made in a bid to fight counterfeiting as the old notes are easily copied.

new r200 banknotes, which were made after 2005, bear the signatures of former reserve bank governor, tito mboweni and current governor, gill marcus, on the bottom right and have enhanced security features which cannot be copied.

head of trade and information at border-kei chamber of business, tish holbrook, said the recall would not have much impact on businesses, but could have an effect on consumers.

she added that people should not panic over the rumours that are spreading that all r200 notes will no longer be accepted as legal tender. this is not the case.

“it is not legal for businesses to put up signs saying they will not accept r200 notes. they can only do it if they know for certain the money is fake,” holbrook said.

“south africa has a problem with fake r200 notes, but we haven’t had many reports in the east london region.”

pick n pay manager at vincent park michael maphuma said he had not had a problem with counterfeit notes.

“we have not had any counterfeit notes at our shop, but there are some other stores that have been hit,” he said.

“at this stage we still accept the (old r200) notes up until the end of may, but we do urge customers to change the notes at banks.”

cambridge spar general manager, wesley sparg, said counterfeit notes had been a problem at his store recently.

“we still accept the notes, but we have found nine fake r200 notes in the last two months,” sparg said.

“we also find a lot of fake r50 notes and r5 coins.”

sparg added that he was happy with the ruling to recall the old r200 notes.

“it will protect us because we are the ones who lose out if we have fake notes, but at the end of the day we still have to accept these notes from customers,” he added.

head of communications at the sa reserve bank, brian hoga, said that there should not be any reason for people to miss the may 31 deadline as they have been given over a month to exchange their old notes.

“people just should not miss the deadline. they have been afforded enough time,” he said.

hoga added that there was an understanding that some people will have extenuating circumstances for still having the old notes and they could contact the reserve bank to make an exchange. hoga said: “each case will be addressed on its merits.”

by justin lawrence