HARARE – Mobile airtime services providers NetOne and Zellco have switched off more than 1 000 contract lines that had been leased to Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe employees as a result of failure to settle bills.

The failure to settle bills to the state-run NetOne and Zellco is a result of the adoption of multiple foreign currencies by the government which has seen the central bank abandoning all money printing activities, resulting in the Zimbabwe dollar being shelved until next year.

Central bank officials said first to be affected were employees that were using Zellco contract lines.

"People who were first affected were the ones that use lines from Zellco as our bills have not been paid for some time," an official said.

"Initially we thought this was only affecting middle and junior managers but to our surprise most lines belonging even to divisional chiefs have also been disconnected. NetOne started disconnecting some of the lines at the start of this month and there seems to be no solution in sight."

As a result of failure to settle the bills most central bank employees have acquired lines from Econet and Telecel.

"What can we do?" a senior manager whose line was also disconnected said. "We just have to adjust to the fact that our lines were switched off and look for other service providers. First they tried to take our cars and now we are being told nobody can resign."

Central bank spokesman Kumbirai Nhongo was continuously said not to be in the office whilst his mobile phone was not reachable.

Although NetOne has put a facility of 30 percent discount for all payments done on time, the central bank has failed to capitalise on this offer.

"Although the bank would have wanted to pay these bills, there is no money everybody is being paid US$100 every month." – ZimOnline

By Zimonline