The government on Friday struck a mortal blow on Econet, suspending mobile money transactions, which will affect EcoCash the most, and suspended trade on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange in an effort to contain the collapse of the country’s currency.
Econet’s EcoCash is the biggest mobile money service and the measures will be felt hardest by the Strive Masiyiwa owned company, which has a 94% market share.
“Government is in possession of impeccable evidence which constitutes a prima facie case whereby the phone-based mobile money systems are conspiring with the help of the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange either deliberately or inadvertently in illicit activities that are sabotaging the economy,” Mangwana said in a statement.
“Ecocash, in particular, is acting as the centre pivot of the galloping black market foreign exchange rate and, therefore, fuelling the incessant price hikes of goods and services that are bedevilling the economy and causing untold hardship to the people of Zimbabwe,” he continued.
Econet and the Zimbabwean government have clashed several times in the past few months, with the authorities banning a number of EcoCash agents.
