BULWAYO - The South African Reserve Bank (SARB), in partnership with the Reserve bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ), has embarked on a campaign in Zimbabwe to raise awareness on the recently-launched series of South African bank notes.

“The campaign is aimed at educating the public about the new SA bank notes which now feature an image of South Africa (SA)’s first democratically elected president Nelson Mandela.

“The back side of the new notes have maintained the “Big five” animal images appearing on the old series,” said SARB and RBZ in a joint press statement.

SA, Africa’s largest and strongest economy, is Zimbabwe’s major trading partner, with thousands of Zimbabweans crossing in and out of the country daily.

“This new series of SA bank notes is amongst the best in the world, with a unique combination of state of the art security features, as well as enhanced features for the visually impaired including raised print on both sides of the bank note.”

The notes — 10, 20,50, 100 and 200 Rand — were launched in SA on November 6, all with Mandela’s face on them.

Hlengani Mathebula, SARB head of strategy and communication, called for people to be aware of the security features of the new notes and check for counterfeit notes.

“We last upgraded our security features about seven years ago, therefore we were now due for upgrading, also our current notes have been in circulation for over 20 years thus a need for us to change the designs,” he said in Bulawayo, adding that according to international best practices, security features on bank notes should be changed after every five to ten years.

Both the new and old South African bank notes remain legal tender and will co-circulate for some time.

Mathebula said SARB decided to first officially launch the new Rand notes in Bulawayo since the currency is highly used in the city compared to others in the country.

The campaign involves law enforcement officials and other cash-handling institutions in Zimbabwe. - Bulawayo Correspondent