Pretoria - There was jubilation on Tuesday when the new banknotes featuring the image of former president and renowned icon Nelson Mandela went into circulation.
The colourful notes were used for the first time by Reserve Bank governor Gill Marcus at the Housewives Market at the Glen Gables Shopping Centre in Pretoria East. She bought fruit and vegetables at the shop at which she has been a customer for 30 years.
Speaking about the notes, Marcus said there was positive response from the public and Madiba was excited about them. “Madiba represents something very special to our country and it was time to reflect the new South Africa.”
She said notes were constantly changed for security reasons, as technologies changed.
The new R10, R20, R50, R100 and R200 banknotes feature Mandela’s image on one side. The other side maintains the Big Five animals already on the bills, with added security features making it easier even for blind and visually impaired people to identify them. “There are raised lines on the side of the notes to assist the visually impaired to identify the money,” she said.
The shop owners were also excited to receive the banknotes.
Jose Louise de Freitas said: “I am very excited, I feel like a child. The money is more colourful.” His wife, Margaret, said the idea to have Mandela’s face on the notes was brilliant and should have been done long ago.
People at the shop were excited and took turns posing for pictures with the notes and buying items just to get change in the new notes.
The South African National Council for the Blind (SANCB) welcomed the notes and said it had been fully consulted by the Reserve Bank in the process of creating the bank notes to ensure that the notes were made to be accessible to visually impaired users.
SANCB spokeswoman Shakira Hoosain said the council made suggestions to increase the ease of use for visually impaired persons. These suggestions were duly noted and the recommendations were considered as well.
For visually impaired users specifically, there are raised lines on the bottom left and right hand sides on the front of the new banknotes. R10 has one line; R20 has two lines; R50 has three lines; R100 has four lines; and, R200 has five lines.
The current and new notes will co-circulate until the old notes are phased out. Marcus could not give an exact time frame for the phasing out of old notes. She said they would still have to collect the old notes which people used in other countries throughout the world, and this would take some time.
Pretoria News