A new black economic empowerment (BEE) share scheme at Nedbank, called Eyethu, will most likely be tested in the Equality Court after a complaint by one of its members, said labour union Solidarity on Sunday.
Union spokesperson Kallie Kriel said in a statement that its legal team is acting on behalf of one of its members. Clinton Keypers was turned away twice from Nedbank last week because, according to the bank’s staff, he is “white”.
Nedbank’s Eyethu scheme is a BEE scheme intended for black, Indian and coloured people. After a set period of time, shareholders will receive one free share for every three that they own.
“Nedbank was, however, not able to identify the criteria that were used to classify Mr Kuypers as ‘white’,” said Kriel.
Solidarity has already written to Nedbank, asking it to provide the “objective criteria” by which Kuypers was classified as “white” within two weeks.
“The Financial Sector Charter, on which Nedbank bases its racial determinations, does not contain any criterion for racial classification,” added Kriel.
In the letter to Nedbank, Kriel said: “Legislation pertaining to racial classification has long been scrapped, which means that there is no legal framework within which Nedbank can classify its clients on the basis of their race.
“In the absence of other criteria, does Nedbank intend to resort to humiliating customs such as pencil tests in order to determine the race of its clients?”
So-called “pencil tests” were used in the apartheid years to determine a person’s race when it was not clear, by sticking a pencil in his or her hair.
Kriel further criticised the scheme’s “racist prescriptions” and said the “new black elite is the only group that is likely to benefit” from it.
Since Solidarity announced its campaign against Nedbank’s Eyethu share scheme, the trade union — according to Kriel — has been receiving complaints from other dissatisfied Nedbank clients who were also refused shares on racial grounds.
In response to Solidarity’s letter, Nedbank sent the Mail & Guardian Online a release stating: “We believe the Nedbank BEE deal is extremely forward looking and innovative, differing significantly from those of every other bank in that it is truly broad-based and offers ordinary black South Africans the opportunity to become shareholders of the bank.
“As we live in a non-racial society, it would be up to the courts to decide whether or not a person falls within the Financial Sector Charter’s definition. Participation in the Eyethu scheme is aimed at black people as defined in terms of the Financial Sector Charter, which describes black people as: African, Indian and coloured citizens of South Africa.
“We wish to point out that the Eyethu scheme has been specifically designed to prevent the situation of ‘enrichment’ referred to by Solidarity, whereby wealthy black individuals can gain all the benefits of this BEE transaction,” Nedbank said.
“The response to Eyethu has been very positive,” it added.
The bank also said it is guided by government policy and the Financial Sector Charter, which requires that all banks have at least 10% black shareholding.
“All the BEE transactions concluded by major banks will have this result,” it said.