The race-based Eyethu share scheme offered by Nedbank was likely to be tested in the equality court after a complaint by one of its members, labour union Solidarity said on Sunday.
Spokesperson Kallie Kriel said in a statement that Clinton Kuypers tried twice in the past week to buy Eyethu shares from Nedbank, but was turned away because he is ”white”.
”Nedbank was not able, however, to identify the criteria that were used to classify Mr Kuypers as ‘white’,” Kriel said.
He said the trade union’s legal team has already written to Nedbank, requesting to be supplied with its criteria to classify a person as a specific race within two weeks.
”In its correspondence, Solidarity points out that legislation regulating racial classification has been scrapped, leaving the bank no legal framework on the grounds of which it can perform racial classification of its clients.”
Kriel said since the union had announced its campaign against the bank’s race-based share scheme, it has been inundated with complaints from dissatisfied Nedbank clients.
He said although the union was in favour of eradicating inequality and poverty, the bank’s share scheme was unlikely to do that.
According the the Eyethu share scheme offered by Nedbank, only ”black people” qualify for the shares. Shareholders will, after a certain period of time, receive one free share for every three bought. – Sapa