OWN CORRESPONDENT and REUTERS, Johannesburg | Wednesday
THE South African Communist Party (SACP) has lashed out at the country’s financial institutions as “commercial oligarchies” which use working class money to finance white luxuries, and urged the government to force banks to invest in black communities.
“Commercial banks in South Africa today command enormous financial resources, most of which are moneys from our people,” SACP General Secretary Blade Nzimande told labour federation Cosatu’s congress.
“As the SACP we are therefore calling for legislation to force these banks to reinvest some of our moneys in our communities,” he said.
Nzimande said his party planned to launch a campaign on October 21 to urge banks to provide money for low cost-housing, credit access for small emerging enterprises and infrastructure development in poor areas.
He later said the campaign would also be to press for a national summit on transforming the country’s financial sector.
“This is a campaign for building a people’s economy. We need to focus on the banks, they are using our own money – but to fund luxury and not to really address the things that face our people,” he said.
“Their practices are not only racist, but continue to foster poverty among black people, entrenchment of racial inequalities and racism itself.”
South Africa’s key commercial banks – Standard Bank, Absa, Nedbank and FNB – have often been accused of marginalising black borrowers, particularly those they deem to have an unfit credit background.
“The poor are creditworthy, if approached collectively,” Nzimande said added.
By December 31, 1999 bad loans stood at R29.2bn, a 29.7% rise on the year before, the Banking Council of South Africa said.