Public launches lawsuit against ‘racist’ SA banks
MATTER: Interdict against Nedbank at W.Cape Equality Court
More than 6 000 people who say they’ve been racially or otherwise discriminated against by South Africans banks have launched a class action suit against the financial institutions.
The clients, represented by Johannesburg law firm, Gardee Godrich Attorneys, will be applying to intervene in the proceedings instituted by Sekunjalo Group executive chairperson Dr Iqbal Survé and 42 others at the Western Cape Equality Court.
Attorney Godrich Gardee said individuals or organisations that have experienced discrimination such as having their accounts, credit and loan facilities terminated and withdrawn without good cause or on the basis of racial discrimination were eligible to join the class action as complainants.
“Our clients invite the public to make contact with us and register their interest to fight against the boundless public power exercised by banks and financial institutions.”
He said his clients were people who had been over-billed on interest on their home loans and whose bank accounts had been arbitrarily closed due to them purportedly being risks.
Gardee accused the banks of taking advantage of their monopoly.
An urgent interdict against Nedbank was heard in the Western Cape High Court two weeks ago, to prevent the bank from closing the Sekunjalo Group of companies’ accounts.
Daily Voice’s parent company Independent Media is owned by Sekunjalo.
In his decision, Judge Matthew Francis said given that Sekunjalo was engaged in other legal action pertaining to the same matter, he could not hear the merits of the case in the High Court, as the court did not have the jurisdiction to do so because the matter was to be heard at the Equality Court and the Competition Commission.
In court papers, Dr Survé said there was evidence of collusion between the country’s major banks, as they were all following the same patterns in severing ties with Sekunjalo and related entities.
He is asking the court to declare that the banks’ conduct constitutes unfair discrimination and that their decisions to close the group’s bank accounts should be overturned.
FNB said it had not received any court papers relating to the matter, while the other banks did not respond to queries.