Cape Town - The South African Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu) has condemned Standard Bank’s decision to sever ties with Independent Media.
Saftu national spokesperson Trevor Shaku accused the banking sector of serving the interests of the dominant capitalist faction and not caring that the negative consequences of the move will affect workers.
“The siege of Independent Media by the hypocritical commercial banks will rob the media landscape of press diversity, lead to retrenchments, and open a space for other narratives to be hegemonic.”
The statement from Saftu follows that by the Insurance and Banking Staff Association (Ibsa), a union representing workers in the banking sector, which on Wednesday issued a statement slamming Standard Bank’s decision.
The decision by Standard Bank follows a threat from a number of commercial banks to cut ties with the Sekunjalo Group of Companies’ (Sekunjalo) chairman, Dr Iqbal Survé.
Although Standard Bank, in its official statement, has not disclosed the reasons for severing ties with the company, other banks cited “reputational risk”.
This is something Sekunjalo as a group is challenging through several interrelated legal actions.
In papers filed with the Equality Court in the Western Cape, Sekunjalo Group executive chairman Dr Iqbal Survé is asking the court to declare that the banks’ conduct constitutes unfair discrimination and that their decisions to close the group and its related entities’ bank accounts should be overturned.
In a statement, Shaku said: “This move by Standard Bank and other banks which have already cut ties with Sekunjalo Group will completely suffocate and drive them out of business.”
He said like any media group, Independent Media employed a wide range of workers, and in the interim as Independent was forced to make alternative arrangements to pay its staff, the workers would be affected or inconvenienced by non-payments.
He said if all banks, including Nedbank (against which Sekunjalo had an interim interdict prohibiting it from closing its accounts) succeeded in cutting ties with Sekunjalo and its linked companies, the business might close and the workers would be retrenched.
Saftu said no matter how controversial, Independent Media provided a unique narrative and had established a reputation of being against pro-Western imperialism.
Saftu accused the banks of hypocrisy and selective morality in citing reputational damage as a reason for their actions, and asked whether banks had turned into paragons of morality and upholders of high ethical standards.
Shaku said that if Saftu were to agree with the position taken by commercial banks that business enterprises that were found to be dishonest and committing fraud should immediately have their bank accounts closed, or be liquidated or sold, then the union would demand the SA Reserve Bank close the accounts of commercial banks – including Absa, Nedbank, Standard Bank, RMB and others.
He said: “The selective morality of the banks seems to be underpinned by political motives of the factions of capitalism, whose bitter fights have become highly pronounced in the country lately.”
mwangi.githahu@inl.co.za