The ANCYL is vindicated by the Public Protector findings on the “illegal gift given to Bankrop Limited/ABSA Bank

19 June 2017

The African National Congress Youth League is upbeat by the Public Protector’s finding on “whether the South African Government and the South African Reserve Bank improperly failed to recover from Bankrop Limited/ABSA Bank an amount of R3.2 Billion, cited in the CIEX report, owed as a result of an illegal gift given to Bankrop Limited/ABSA Bank”, we are aware that the report has indicated that the correct amount is 1.125 billion. It is public knowledge that we were amongst the first organisations who vociferously called for ABSA to pay the money due to South Africans by staging a massive march to their head offices, as expected right-wingers and co-opted ilk in the public discourse ridiculed us. We will demand that money be utilised to fund Education. Indeed today history is on our side.

We are motivated by the fact that the Public Protector has recommended that the Special Investigation Unit investigate various other institutions who are beneficiaries of “misappropriated public funds” particularly during the apartheid era, we will closely monitor this process and exert pressure where necessary. We also hope that the foreign owned South African Reserve Bank will cooperate with our institutions in making sure that all “misappropriated public funds” are recovered, we will further seek audience with the Reserve Bank to raise other related matters.

As the ANCYL we further note the proposal by the Public Protector to amend section 224 of the constitution by the Portfolio Committee on Justice and Correction Services, it is our long held view that the constitution as it stands doesn’t protect the poor but the rich and we have always insisted that it should be amended in order to bring about fair redistribution of wealth and promote socio-economic transformation. We will study the proposed submissions and make our view known. 

Lastly, we want to applaud Adv Mkhwebane for bringing about a grassroots approach in handing investigations as it is clear from most of the reports she issued today. To us that brings true meaning of what the office ought to be pre-occupied with and not chase investigations that make headlines whilst there’s a backlog dating back as far as 2011.  We thank all those who believed in us when we raised this matter, indeed tomorrow will be better than today.

Issued by Mlondi Mkhize, National Spokesperson African National Congress Youth League, 19 June 2017