27 February 2022
More than 6 000 clients who claim they have been racially or otherwise discriminated against by South African banks have come together in a class-action suit against the banks.
Represented by Johannesburg law firm Gardee Godrich Attorneys, the clients will apply to intervene in proceedings instituted by Sekunjalo Group executive chairman Dr Iqbal Survé and 42 others at the Western Cape Equality Court.
Attorney Godrich Gardee, who has been involved in a number of public litigations, said his clients would have brought their own case independently, but that the Sekunjalo matter had acted as a trigger to spur them on.
He said his clients were people overbilled on interest on their mortgages and whose bank accounts were arbitrarily terminated due to their purportedly being risks to the banks.
He was convinced the application would succeed as his firm has evaluated the facts presented by its clients, and if unsuccessful they would pursue the matter through appeals all the way up to the Constitutional Court, if necessary.
Gardee accused banks of taking advantage of their monopoly because the country has no state bank and had there been a state bank, all 1.5 million state employees would bank with it.
Meanwhile, Dr Iqbal Survey of Sekunjalo group says there was evidence of collusion between the country’s major banks, as they all followed the same patterns in severing ties with Sekunjalo and related entities.
He said the banks had a serious case to answer as they had violated the group’s constitutional rights.
Dr Survé is asking the court to declare that the banks’ conduct constitutes unfair discrimination, and that their decisions to close the group and its related entities’ bank accounts should be overturned.
Source IOL
