EFF statement on bank's discrimination against black customers
12 March 2019
The EFF condemns the racist South African banking cartel, for discriminating against black people, by charging them high interest, in comparison to white customers. The media reports confirmed what we have already known, from the hundreds of complaints received from customers who are victimised. Black people are charged extremely high interest rates when they borrow money for home, and other forms of loans.
The EFF is well aware that it is not only banks that discriminate against black people and charge them high interest. The whole financial sector thrive on exploiting black people. Black people are charged high rates for funeral cover, life cover, motor insurance, and all other forms of financial products, only because they are black.
The EFF has spoken against exploitation of black people by the financial sector from day one.
The exploitation of black people by banks, and the financial sector as a whole, goes beyond the price black people pay for financial products. When black people fall into financial difficulties, banks are quick to repossess their products but white people are given enough time to make arrangements without losing their properties. Hundreds of black people sit with bad credit records, which could have been prevented had banks not discriminated against them.
The EFF calls for a judicial Commission of Inquiry, with Financial Forensic capacity, into discriminatory practices by banks against black people. The scope and mandate of the Commission of Inquiry should include withdrawal of banking licences of banks that discriminate on the basis of race. The scope should also include the Commission's power to instruct the banks to pay back all the monies overcharged on black people.
The permanent solution to these rapacious, greedy, and patently racist banks, is creation of a State Owned Bank. The EFF has engaged in various legislative processes to promulgate laws that will make it possible for the State to create a state owned Bank. However, true to its incompetent and negligent character, the ANC has not risen to the occasion and are not willing to create a capable state bank, to help black people gain access to non-discriminatory financial services. When the EFF takes over Government, we will establish a state owned bank which will give sensible interest rates to black people. The EFF is the only organization that can and will end the discrimination by the racist banking cartel.
Issued by Mbuyiseni Ndlozi, National Spokesperson, EFF, 12 March 2019
