Latest news with #GeneralIndustriesWorkersUnionofSA
IOL News
2 days ago
- Business
- IOL News
South African banks face scrutiny over political account closures
SA's big banks' trade policies in the spotlight Image: IOL Regulators have been warned against approaching complaints about South African banks in the same way as US president Donald Trump, who this week issued an executive order after accusing financial institutions of unacceptably restricting law-abiding individuals and businesses' access to banking services based on political or religious beliefs. Mametlwe Sebei, president of the General Industries Workers Union of SA (Giwusa), an affiliate of the SA Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu), said Giwusa would not support merely implementing moves similar to Trump's as the situation required the same interventions but for different reasons. Sebei said moves against the banks for being reactionary and assaulting human rights must be supported. "We also know that banks are not accountable in this country, there are political parties, trade unions, community organisations whose bank accounts were closed without an adequate explanation," he said. Sebei described banks as untransformed and that there is not much to look into as far as the banking industry and its conduct are concerned as many South Africans have suffered a lot. He said even Giwusa recently had a dispute with one of the country's major banks, which gave some members access to the union's accounts without authorisation and there were no adequate explanations. According to Sebei, companies perceived to be close to certain public figures have had their bank accounts closed without explanation. "When they close bank accounts, they are effectively condemning workers in those companies to unemployment, retrenchments and job losses. You cannot destroy a company to punish the owners," he said. Sebei said the idea that private banking institutions can take political decisions is extremely dangerous and that is why this should be strongly regulated. In addition, he said the law already provides for instances where there is suspicion of misuse of banking facilities by a client that is able to be reported to the authorities as provided for in the Financial Intelligence Commission Act. Sebei added that the current laws can be implemented without jeopardising jobs and the livelihoods of workers. "Financial services are a lubricant by which the economy is working, it has enormous power in society and in the economy that can destroy not only individuals but also companies and whole industries. These people are wielding enormous public power that has been privatised into institutions that are guided by profiteering and nothing else and want to exercise this power without transparency, accountability and even pass political judgment and that for me is deeply troubling," he said.
IOL News
27-04-2025
- Politics
- IOL News
South Africa's Freedom Day: A Celebration or a Reflection of Ongoing Struggles?
South Africa commemorates Freedom Day, but some organisations refuse to celebrate as many people are still living without dignity. Image: File Various organisations, including unions and civil rights groups, have refused to celebrate Freedom Day as socio-economic challenges 31 years later in democracy. The organisations said the social backlogs that democracy promised to overcome have instead deepened. Freedom Day is a day South Africa celebrates its first post-apartheid election. On April 27, 1994, a new path for South Africa was paved and the idea of a rainbow nation was cemented. This was the first democratic national election held in the country where all people could vote irrespective of their skin colour. The fight for liberation and an equal South Africa culminated in a single day that would change the trajectory of the country. Despite this gain, South Africa faces multiple interconnected socio-economic challenges. These include high unemployment, inequality and poverty. These are exacerbated by issues such as corruption, poor infrastructure and limited access to basic services. The South African Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu) said while the political right to vote was achieved in 1994, economic liberation has been brutally deferred. The federation said rural areas remain zones of abandonment. Informal settlements and townships are scenes of permanent degradation — where millions live without dignity, trapped in overcrowded, unsafe, filthy, and uninhabitable conditions. 'Now even small towns, once relatively livable, are decaying rapidly, racing to join the working-class residential areas in collapse. Potholes, broken water infrastructure, electricity blackouts, refuse piling up, crime, and environmental hazards are no longer exceptional — they are the new normal,' said general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi. Climate change disasters are devastating communities, with thousands displaced by floods, droughts, and fires. Yet government planning remains reactive, uncoordinated, and wholly inadequate,' he said. The sentiments were echoed by the General Industries Workers Union of SA (Giwusa), saying the promises of freedom, dignity, and equality have been shattered by the ruthless advance of capitalism. The union added that what millions fought and died for has been betrayed by a system that replaced apartheid with exploitation dressed in democratic robes. Giwuss president Mametlwe Sebei said although the union acknowledged that the end of apartheid brought about the end of the daily racial humiliations of the black working class, they did not fight and die for mass unemployment, starving wages and casualised jobs, the continuation of land theft, sexual and gender-based violence to be rife and youth to be gunned down for daring to protest. 'This Freedom Day, we declare openly: There is no real freedom under capitalism. We owe this system nothing but its overthrow. We should not beg for crumbs. We must fight for everything they have stolen. We fight for socialism – a system where the wealth of South Africa belongs to those who produce it: the working class,' Sebei said. The South African National Christian Forum (SANCF) said the Freedom Charter has not yet been implemented, saying poverty, unemployment and inequality have been on the rise since 1994. The forum's president Bishop Marothi Mashashane said: 'We cannot celebrate the document which we are told is the best constitution in the world but it is never implemented, people will not eat or wear this piece of paper which is violated by the same politicians who wrote it,' he said, adding that there is nothing to be celebrated in the country where there is no justice for the poor.
