JOHANNESBURG, The South African Reserve Bank (SARB) says some of its annual banknote order is outsourced to credible and vetted international printing companies.
However, this is only a small percentage of South African currency, and the rest is produced at the South African Banknote Company, a subsidiary of the central bank.
The SARB confirmed here over the weekend that it has now received a consignment of banknotes held in an aircraft which was impounded in Zimbabwe after making an emergency landing at Harare International Airport.
The plane was on its way from Germany, carrying a consignment of South African banknotes which had apparently been printed in Europe. Zimbabwean authorities impounded the plane when the body of a dead man, apparently a stowaway, was found on board.
The post-mortem showed that the man died from a lack of oxygen.
The International Police Organization (Interpol) has issued a notice to police forces in Germany and all countries where the plane made stopovers — Belgium, Ivory Coast, Nigeria and Uganda — to assist in establishing the identity and nationality of the suspected stowaway.
The plane was released from Harare to fly to South Africa over thew weekend.
SOURCE: SABC