Petrol prices have us fuming. Inflation is higher than you might like to be on some days and that R10 note some of us could bank on to secure a feast at the tuckshop when we were younger, laughs in our faces now if we allocated it the same power.
All of the above considered, South Africans have accepted that we’re forking out a lot more money than we used to. That’s why when a R10 coin and a R500 note began circulating on social media, rumoured to be part of a #bettereconomy issued by the ‘Reserve Bank’, some thought it made sense.
The account that shared the post, @ReservebankSA premised itself on looking identical to the actual SA Reserve Bank. It shared separate tweets indicating the designs for the new coin and notes respectively, which were reshared by Twitter users.
Twitter detectives were hot on the trail as usual, discovering quickly that the account was fake (easily identifiable by the lack of followers on the copycat account and the omitted verification icon). However, word had already caught fire.
The South African Reserve Bank took to announce over the weekend that the news was fake, as well as the account.
“SA Reserve Bank is not planning to issue a R10 coin nor a R500 note,” it stated.
The actual designs of the new rands were part of archived collections. The R10 coin was part of Mint’s collector coins from 2017, and the R500 note design comes from a 2008/2009 circulation of fake news, as per Business Insider.
The government issued a statement on the R500 note over a decade ago and debunked its validity.
Would we need R10 coins and R500 notes?
According to the South African Reserve Bank, its research projects that the introduction of these denominations, particularly the R500 note is that it isn’t necessary at this time, and that “South Africa is not ready for a R500 banknote.”
As the Citizen further adds, it’s “unlikely that grappling South Africans will have to carry bags of cash to buy a loaf of bread just yet as the value of the Rand maintains some value.”
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Picture: Twitter
