By Sylvia Chebet
The Premier of Gauteng province in South Africa, which has Johannesburg as its capital, has called on residents, banks and retail businesses to go cashless in order to reduce violent cash robberies.
The province’s premier Panyaza Lesufi believes a cashless system, which involves card and digital transactions, will discourage thugs from carrying out such robberies.
"If we remove cash and convert our province into a cashless environment this madness will be minimised," Lesufi posted on X. "The retail industry must heed our call to move towards cashless," he added.
Cynical masses
Lesufi's post on social media attracted a lot of reactions with some expressing doubts about the effectiveness of the move.
Praising Gauteng's digital infrastructure, the Premier's post further read "we are a highly digital province. Even uncles when they ask for money they say ‘eWallet’ me."
He went on to elaborate saying “if you’ve got less cash, there won’t be ATM bombings, if you have less cash you are not going to have this cash-in-transit bombings, if you have less cash you’re not going to have business robberies.”
There are concerns however that some people will be left out of the economy if Gauteng province, considered South Africa’s economic centre, ditches cash.
The proposal is still a long way from becoming reality, a spokesperson for the Youth ICT Council, a non-governmental organization focused on improving access to digital technology in the country, Aluwani Chokoe, says.
Chokoe cites internet connectivity challenges being faced by individuals, businesses and even government facilities such as hospitals which serve people on a daily basis.
“We need digital infrastructure for digital trade and at least for the majority of South Africans to have access,” she tells TRT Afrika.
A skeptical @TMbuzi agrees, saying: "Impossible to go cashless at the current rate. Majority of our population relies on informal sector for survival.” A social media user, @TMbuzi advises the government to ‘’fix the crime problem by making visible policing a thing.’’
Chokoe also points out that there is the need for tightening cyber security and regulations as the physical insecurity could easily give way to more cyber security threats.
“We need stringent measures to mitigate against identity theft and data breaches,” she says.
Police have since launched a manhunt for the robbers who made away with an undisclosed sum of money after attacking and blowing up a cash-in-transit van on a major highway, south of Johannesburg.
Cashless future
Countries, businesses and individuals had learned more lessons on the importance of a cashless economy during the Covid-19 pandemic as people turned to card payments and digital transactions to curb the spread of the virus.
In South Africa, the adoption of digital payment systems and fintech is said to be on the rise with companies and corporations onboarding more people to an array of technologies that enable mobile money transfers and card payments.
However, South Africa's informal economy still relies heavily on the physical circulation of cash.
Lesufi’s proposal to go cashless may well be a suggestion more than an actual call to arms against cash.
