SA rallies behind TRSA as it ups the ante on banks' 'discrimination'

TransformRSA (TRSA) president Adil Nchabeleng said on Sunday that the organisation would mobilise all affected business people and the global community to get the domestic banks to play ball. Photo: Supplied

TransformRSA (TRSA) president Adil Nchabeleng said on Sunday that the organisation would mobilise all affected business people and the global community to get the domestic banks to play ball. Photo: Supplied

Published Aug 10, 2020

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JOHANNESBURG – TransformRSA (TRSA) president Adil Nchabeleng on Sunday restated his assertion that a large number of black-owned businesses in South Africa were being sidelined from the government’s multibillion-rand stimulus funding.

In an interview with seasoned political journalist Sifiso Mahlangu on Galaxy Universal Network’s Politiki, Nchabeleng reiterated that the organisation would mobilise all affected business people and the global community to get the domestic banks to play ball.

“We are gathering massive numbers … complaints, numbers of people who are supporting the campaign … the amount of people who are going to come up with honest stories. Whether (the way the banks treated them) was fair or not would be tested at the Equality Court. We are going to have a legal suit to be launched locally and internationally like what the Afriforums have done to the black government. We are going to complain about the top five banks,” said Nchabeleng.

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Earlier this year, the government announced a R500 billion stimulus package to help manage the damaging fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic. The banking sector was to administer R200bn of these funds.

“The organisation sees the need for the banks to be taken to the Equality Courts of South Africa. We are appalled that the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) which gave SA banks liquidity of more than R200bn by reducing their balance sheet requirements, provided a further R200bn in guarantees which was committed by the government so that banks could provide loan facilities to businesses that are affected by the Covid-19 pandemic,” Nchabeleng said.

After the story of TRSA’s move was broken by Independent Media on Friday South Africans took to social media, mainly Twitter, to share how they were discriminated against by the domestic banking sector.

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