Zimbabwean arrested for using bank notes as cards

Harare, Zimbabwe



06 December 2007 09:35

A professional hunter has been arrested on suspicion he turned Zimbabwean bank notes into business cards and handed them out at a tourism fair.

Zimbabwe is struggling with the world's highest inflation rate of about 8 000% because of an economic crisis and it is hard to buy anything with its smaller denomination "bearer cheque" bank notes.

Harare police said on Thursday they had arrested Denis Paul, a 41-year-old professional hunter and lodge owner from Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second largest city, on charges of defacing bank notes. He faces a fine or up to a year in prison.

Paul was not immediately available for comment.

The state-controlled Herald newspaper quoted him as saying he stamped his business details on 100 10 cent bearer cheques for distribution at the World Tourism Market fair in London last month because he had left without his usual business cards.

The Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) alleges he distributed more than 10 000 stamped notes, the paper said.

"The ZTA alleges that Paul had discouraged foreign tour operators from coming to Zimbabwe while claiming that the country's currency was so useless that it was only fit to be used as business cards," it said.

Paul told the daily he had gone to London to promote his tourism business and used bearer cheques he believed to have expired. "It was not my intention to demonise the country and I gave them [the cards] only to people I knew," he said.

President Robert Mugabe's government lopped off three zeroes from the local currency in July 2006 in its fight against inflation. Zimbabweans still find themselves having to carry huge wads of cash for basic transactions. - Reuters

quote:

Originally posted by 500nitro:
"...the country's currency was so useless that it was only fit to be used as business cards," it said.

That is hilarious!

The additional ink tripled the value.

At least he did something constructive with that less than adequate toilet paper. He shouldn't be punished, he should be rewarded.
Brian

I had a PH tell me he would use it for toilet paper but he was afraid to get hepatitis.

A booking agent up in this part of the US did the same thing a couple of years ago. Guess Uncle Bob didn't hear about it.

Its the only money I know that has an expiration date on it...

Here's to you Bob...

Mike

I found myself in a dstressed situation on this last safari. I had no toilet paper......You guessed it. It worked better than my fingers. I didn't even look at the denominations nor did I care.

Mark

It really is cheaper to use money rather than toilet paper. My friends in Zim will know that I mean no disrespect to them when I say what a joke that whole system is. We bought hamburgers and cokes with STACKS of banded money and that was back in June before it really fell out. I felt like the mafia or something having stacks of money like that.

Unfortunately, Dennis Paul is still in Jail. The magistrates are on strike so he is being left to rot.

NB The Chap from the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority Mr Kaske is the same fellow who tried to have several PH's arrested after the SCI and Dallas shows earleir this year for refusing to sell hunts for individuals on the US banned list. Perhaps members of the forum with friends in either organisation can have a word before next January....

Sounds to me like SCI & DSC etc should forbid that bastard & possibly even the rest of the tourisn authority delegation admittance to the shows. - Their wanting safari companies to sell hunting to people on the banned list could/would(?) result in innocent hunters being prosecuted under the Lacey act.

Yes, by allowing them to sell hunts at the conventions would be doing just what the U.S. Government has been accusing hunters of participating in, in regards to the government's recent noises about trying to get all travel and hunting to Zimbabwe prohibited, based upon their arguments that hunters are supporting Mugabe. So, as I see it, it would really be in the organizations' and conventions' very best interests to not allow it in the first place.

I don't know anything about the details of the Lacey act, and perhaps someone out there might be able to advise us on this, but would SCI/DSC etc be in default of the (Lacey) act if they accepted money from this delegation or the Zim Government for their booth etc?.........

Zimbabwe delegation don't have a booth. Zimbabwe Professional Hunters & Guides Association have a donated booth at SCI.

Government officials either gained free entry posing as jornalists or under Ngamo Safaris

Ganyana, thanks for the info..... I wonder if that means they went into the US as journos or did they come in as Governement officials? - I'd have thought that in this post 9/11 age they would have had to come in as Govt officials, and I'm a little suprised they were allowed entry....... but not as suprised as I was to hear that they invited Mad Bob to Portugal for the EU/Africa summit. - On which subject, I also wonder why they don't arrest the bastard for crimes against humanity as they did Pinochet (in the UK) in 1998.

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augusto_Pinochet#Arrest_and_trial

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