The Victoria Falls municipality has stopped accepting payment in anything but US dollars from its ratepayers.
Payment in the domestic currency, the RTGS (real-time gross settlement) dollar is not accepted, despite its official recognition as legal tender to transact and settle any outstanding payments.
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe announced the new currency in February, and it represents the electronic balance in local bank accounts.
Last year, the bank ordered the separation of local bank accounts from accounts that have US dollars.
The municipality set out the new condition in an internal memo - of which the Sunday Times has seen a copy - sent out to all its department heads earlier this month.
Dwindling forex reserves have caused the municipality to make this about-turn on its decision in December last year to allow payments in hard currency, bond notes or by debit card.
UNILATERAL
Victoria Falls town clerk Ronnie Dube said the unilateral decision taken that ratepayers settle in US dollars for access to service delivery was agreed on by a full council meeting and various business organisations.
"We received a lot of payment towards the end of last year in bond notes, while our suppliers are now requesting us to pay in US dollars," said Dube.
"So we thought the only reasonable way of getting that money without going through the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe system will be going through our own residents.
"We were approached by some business people requesting to pay in forex, so we can't turn that offer down."
UNREALISTIC
Finance committee chair Ephius Mambume declined to comment on the matter, other than to say that the councillors took the decision without the committee's input.
Town residents said they were "shocked" by the local authorities' decision to reject payment in the domestic currency.
A number of residents were turned away this week when attempting to pay for services in local currency. One of them was Dumisani Masuku.
"I am a hardware owner in Mkhosana and we are not making much profit and we don't sell our products in foreign currency," said Masuku.
"I was referred to the town treasurer and he told me that council had passed a resolution and were not turning back.
"RTGS payment is legal tender and we don't understand why they are refusing it and chasing people away in numbers . we fear that they are going to raid our shops if we fail to comply."
The chair of the Combined Victoria Falls Residents Association, Morgan Dube, said it was unrealistic for the local authority to expect residents who have access only to RTGS dollars to pay in foreign currency.
CITIES NEXT
The cities of Bulawayo and Gweru could soon follow suit after they hold their council meetings in the next few weeks, according to their town clerks.
Bulawayo town clerk Christopher Dube said that though the city had not yet adopted a policy of strictly US dollar payment for service delivery, "for smooth service delivery, we will implement it".
Elizabeth Gwatipedza, the Gweru town clerk, said the city was "contemplating" bringing the matter before its full council meeting...