POLITICS

Save our jobs please! – Oakbay employees

Staff members appeal to banks to re-open the company’s accounts

An open letter from the employees of Oakbay to (SOS):

20 April 2016

Maria Ramos, Chief Executive Officer, ABSA

Jacques Celliers, Chief Executive Officer, FNB

Ben Kruger, Chief Executive Officer, Standard Bank

Michael Brown, Chief Executive Officer, Nedbank

Dear Maria, Jacques, Ben and Michael

RE: IMPASSIONED PLEA FROM OAKBAY EMPLOYEES - PLEASE SAVE OUR JOBS

We are not rich people. We are not politically connected. We have not captured the state. We have never offered any politician a job.

We do not know if any of the allegations against the Gupta family or Oakbay’s management are true. We do not care.

All we care about is providing for our families. If you do not open Oakbay’s bank accounts we cannot be paid and Oakbay cannot pay its bills.

If by the end of May the accounts remain closed, Oakbay’s businesses will close. That means that thousands of us will be without a job.

How will we pay our bills? How will we feed our families? You will not just be hurting us, but our children too. Must they go to school on an empty stomach? What happens when we cannot pay our rent or house bonds? Will our children have to live on the street?

 We urge you to recognise that your actions have a human cost. Only a few weeks ago the companies we worked for were profitable and our jobs secure. We do not understand why we have become the victims in a political game.

Please reopen the bank accounts so that we do not have to suffer. We, the employees, have not done anything wrong.

We humbly ask you to hear our message.

Yours faithfully

Employee Representatives

1. P Mosomane

2. R Russo