MK Party's Dirks calls for KZN legislature to meet with national Treasury over Ithala Bank crisis
Members of the KwaZulu-Natal legislature want to meet with the national Treasury, as a block of parties from the province, to address the challenges faced by Ithala SOC Limited.
Mervyn Dirks, chief whip of the Umkhonto we Sizwe Party, stated that the legislature can no longer leave the matter of Ithala solely to the Premier of the province and the Treasury.
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This comes after they were briefed that Ithala SOC Limited continues to fight for survival, with its future becoming increasingly bleak. The bank is facing a provisional liquidation application which has been brought by the SA Reserve Bank's Prudential Authority.
While commonly referred to as a bank, Ithala was never granted a banking licence. However, the Minister of Finance granted an exemption which allowed it to operate and take deposits. When the exemption expired, the Prudential Authority appointed a repayment administrator to handle the bank's deposits and subsequently brought the provisional liquidation application.
Ithala met with members of the Finance Portfolio Committee recently where it revealed that it has not put together a budget for this financial year as a result of the challenges it is facing, which have led to the bank's officials being unable to access key financial information.
Members of the committee expressed concerns that the bank has not put together a budget and demanded it does so by Tuesday morning.
Dirks said: "From where I am sitting, what is happening here is that their (bank) hands and feet are tied. It is clear that there are some people somewhere in government who want to liquidate Ithala."
He added, "Perhaps we must make a joint effort and not leave it up to the Premier or the Treasury. It must be a delegation of all political parties, including the largest party in the province, the MKP. We should go and meet with the national government to present a united front as KZN and deal with this issue, as it seems a decision has already been taken to liquidate this bank."
Chair of the Finance Committee, Mthandeni Dlungwana, stated that it was concerning that Ithala had not presented a budget because if the issues they are facing are resolved, Ithala would not be ready to take any action.
"As we are sitting here, we want to assist the process; the budget has a process," he said.
The CEO of Ithala Bank, Dr Thulani Vilakazi, said that they wrote to the province to request a delay in the submission of the budget. "We are not in control, even of our assets, because they also took that away from us."
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