A BLACK market foreign currency dealer Kudakwashe Welcome Maketo (24) has been convicted of illegally trading in forex and sentenced to six months’ imprisonment.
Maketo will serve an effective three months in jail after three of the six months’ sentence were suspended for five years on condition of good behaviour.
The accused person 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 State’s case was that on August 1, 2024, police officers spotted Maketo, a resident of New Tafara, Harare, at Kamunhu shopping centre in Mabvuku, offering to buy foreign currency from passers-by in exchange for local currency.
The police officers approached Maketo and agreed to exchange money with him. The accused person offered them a rate of US$1 to ZWG16 and the officers transferred a total of ZWL$320 from their mobile wallet into Maketo’s wallet.
He was subsequently arrested when he received the US$20 trap money. During the arrest, Maketo was found in possession of five bank cards. — NewZimbabwe
