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This last weekend saw business return to normal, although being a month end the retail sector was busy, and now the Government and the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe are looking at the lessons arising from the previous weekend induced panic, figuring out how to hunt down those responsible, and taking steps to prevent such stupidity happening again.

At the same time consumers seem to becoming a lot more sensible, and are patronising the shops and garages, which continued business as normal last week, continuing to accept cards and mobile money, refusing to move to triple pricing, refusing to raise prices without justification and refusing, in general, to exploit their customers. Since this group includes the major fuel companies and the major supermarket and retail chains it was possible, even during the brief panic, for everyone to buy their daily needs.

And we assume that a large number of people are now inoculated against the worst of social media rumour-mongering, although considering the amount of false facts that have been pumped out this way over the last few years one would have thought suspicions would have been raised. Zimbabwe has a flourishing Press, and experience around the world is showing that the notices of the death of official news publications, print or digital, are grossly premature; real journalists check their facts and that is why even in the most digital of economies they are able to earn a living.

The general official reaction to the nonsense is, unfortunately, going to mean more effective controls. But even here the authorities are looking at enforcing existing rules a lot better, increasing penalties and no longer turning a blind eye. And the lead agencies will be the Reserve Bank and Zimra rather than the ministries. This is sensible.

Already some investigations have started. Someone put out into the street a lot of brand-new bond notes and coins just over a week ago. This sparked a rumour that the RBZ was playing games, but the RBZ knows neither itself nor, presumably after careful checking, any of its staff were responsible so has started checking the banks. It should not take long to find out from which bank or banks the notes at least came from, since these things are numbered, and then a more detailed investigation of the guilty bank should produce the culprits.

This has happened before, at what most people still consider a very respectable bank, and no doubt the top management were horrified at the actions of one their number. The RBZ should be given full cooperation by all banks and can expect the banks to take maximum internal disciplinary action against the greedy to complement any official criminal action. The only fall-out likely is a general tightening of banking rules, already pretty strict. These sort of problems are generally initiated by someone finding a loophole than by systematic manipulation of rules by the management team and every discovered loophole needs a new rule to plug it.

At the same time the Government will soon seek Parliamentary approval for tighter enforcement and penalties of existing rules that compel traders to bank cash and prevent multiple pricing depending on the method of payment. These are required although the existing cash-back facility by responsible traders should continue; the sums allowed are very small and help their customers pay bus fares and other tiny amounts without a lot of hassle. The Government and the RBZ are now fully aware of which sectors of the economy, and which businesses, are responsible and have a high level of integrity and so need a lighter regulatory touch.

The authorities are also aware of which sectors, and which businesses, played the fool just over a week ago and need to press hard in investigations under existing law. One easy target would be the “cash-only” service stations of the previous weekend. A business that sells two products, has clearly recorded deliveries and has to store the stuff onsite, does not take long to investigate. In 30 minutes an investigator can figure out how much was sold, how much cash was raised, how much was banked and if it was not banked who made digital payments to “buy” it.

At the same time the authorities in general need to continue encouraging everyone to go digital. In urban areas bank transfers, swipe cards and mobile money are now totally dominant; in rural areas there is a lot of progress to be made, but examples of places like Kenya show potential.

As Minister of Finance and Economic Development Patrick Chinamasa has explained, the economic growth this year and especially the sudden jump of hundreds of thousands of rural families from dire poverty to having a bit of money in their pockets is the principal cause of the surge in demand for cash and goods. This creates opportunities for manufacturers of goods and should be a starting point to digitalising rural economies. For a start Cde Chinamasa needs to think very hard about whether he really needs to tax digital payments; this seems unfair. At the same time he, the RBZ and Portraz must work with mobile money providers to see what the lowest viable fees could be with present and anticipated high traffic. Our problems are not insoluble, but we need to continually rethink our systems to make everything simple, cheap, fair and transparent.