BONGANI HANS and MANYANE MANYANE
THE unions sympathising with the Sekunjalo Group have welcomed the news that Standard Bank has postponed its decision to unbank the company.
This was after the banking institution this week announced that it would continue to provide banking services to Sekunjalo after the group lodged a bid for leave to appeal to the Constitutional Court, challenging the Competition Appeal Court (CAC), which had ruled in favour of Standard Bank.
Standard Bank and other banks had approached the CAC to appeal the Competition Tribunal ruling that the banks should postpone terminating the company’s banking facilities pending the finalisation of the matter.
The termination could have affected more than 30 companies under Sekunjalo, including Independent Media.
The Information Communication Technology Union (ICTU), which represents the majority of Independent Media group’s employees, said the postponement of the bank accounts termination would not only be good for the company to continue doing its business transactions but it would also be good for the Independent Media’s employees.
“They would not be told that they won’t be paid their salaries because Independent Media does not have bank accounts,” said the president, Origenous Mogoatlhe.
The union represents about 200 media employees out of about 1 600 staff members who are at risk of losing their jobs as the termination of the companies’ bank accounts threatened to collapse the biggest media group in the country.
Mogoatlhe said Sekunjalo demonstrated that although the rulings of the CAC should always be respected, they could still be challenged.
He said it was “very” incorrect of Standard Bank to bully its clients “based on nothing else but just a fishing expedition”.
“We don’t believe that there is any rationale for that (terminating bank accounts) to happen, but we believe the higher court would absolve Independent Media from this particular issue and (Independent) continues to have its banking with Standard Bank without any disturbance,” said Mogoatlhe.
Also welcoming the postponement was Pan African Congress of Azania (PAC) president Mzwanele Nyhontso, who had been supportive of Independent Media and media freedom.
Nyhontso criticised the latest developments and called on Standard Bank to abandon terminating the accounts.
“They must stop these controversial decisions.
“I firmly believe that Standard Bank is controlled in London and these are political decisions with nothing to do with suspicions of fraud and crime (against Sekunjalo).
“It is politics because they want to control everything. This is the right decision and we can only be happy for you guys,” said Nyhontso.
In its statement, Sekunjalo said it had acknowledged that Standard Bank postponed its action and its bank accounts would remain operational.
“Whilst the Group acknowledges the extension, the Sekunjalo Group reserves its rights to interdict Standard Bank and join it to the Equality Court action.”
The group further acknowledged the extraordinary stress and strain its employees faced in recent weeks and thanked them for their show of strength and support against exceptional and unprecedented challenges no one should have to endure in a free market and democratic society.
“The Sekunjalo Group of companies believes in the rule of law, our Constitution, our right to bank, right to trade, and our inalienable right for a free and just society in which all South Africans can prosper,” read the statement.
Zimbabwe Anti-Sanctions Movement chairperson Rutendo Matinyarare, who has also been sympathetic to the group, said although he was happy he was worried that the Standard Bank decision was not based on good faith.
“Sekunjalo is going to the Constitutional Court and the court will be forced to make a ruling that the banks have no right to close people’s accounts because they are violating human rights. And them not closing Sekunjalo’s account is an attempt to appease the group to withdraw its case at the Constitutional Court and we are saying the company should continue with the case,” said Matinyarare.
Political analyst Professor Sipho Seepe shared these sentiments, saying the decision to suspend the closure of the accounts was a tactical move.
“The strategic intent remains intact. Totalitarian states do not announce themselves. They are insidious and deliberate. They will require the same focus on the mind.”