Pretoria - The South African National Council for the Blind (SANCB) has commended the new Mandela banknotes that came into circulation on Tuesday.
The SANCB said it had been fully consulted by the Reserve Bank in the process for creating the new notes. This was to ensure that the notes were made to be accessible to visually impaired users.
The council said suggestions it made to increase the ease of use for visually impaired persons were noted and recommendations were considered.
"On 19 October a team from the Reserve Bank held a workshop with our national executive committee to ensure that all sectors of the visually impaired community receive training and information regarding the new notes.
"We support the inclusivity of the Reserve Bank's endeavours to ensuring that visually impaired users' needs and challenges are taken into consideration when designing and implementing the new notes," said the council.
The bank's governor Gill Marcus on Tuesday became the first person to use the new banknotes bearing the face of former President Nelson Mandela. The governor used the new colourful banknotes --that include safety features such as a watermark, a raised print and the image of the "big five" behind it-at a shop at the Glen Gables shopping complex in Pretoria.
The bank said the council, trained visually impaired people on the new notes.
"For visually impaired users specifically, there are raised lines on the bottom left and right hand sides on the front of the new banknote. R10 have 1 stroke, R20 have 2 strokes, R50 have 3 strokes, R100 have 4 strokes and R200 have 5 strokes," said SANCB. - SAnews.gov.za
