UBank future sabotaged by chief – NUM
Call to establish a workers’ bank
THE NATIONAL Union of Mineworkers (NUM) yesterday blamed the chief executive of UBank for sabotaging the institution’s future and called for the establishment of a workers’ bank.
In a strongly worded statement after the union’s national executive committee (NEC) held last week, general secretary David Sipunzi condemned the behaviour of the bank’s chief executive Luthando Vutula and the board for doing nothing to save it.
Sipunzi said all they had done was to downgrade the bank and sell it to the lowest bidder.
“If they have run short of ideas on how to grow the bank, the NEC is requesting them to do the honourable thing and move aside to allow those who have the bank’s interest at heart to take over,” Sipunzi added. Union attack Mpho Ramosili, the spokeswoman for Ubank, yesterday said the bank had no comment on the union’s attack of its positioning.
The NUM, which owned 50 percent of the bank with the rest held by the Chamber of Mines, said the meeting reaffirmed its view that the bank was not for sale.
The union also said the bank was currently not in breach of the Reserve Bank requirement in terms of capital adequacy ratio.
“We also call on Cosatu to seize this as the golden opportunity to utilise UBank as the vehicle to implement its resolution on the establishment of a workers’ bank,” Sipunzi said.
It was reported previously that the black-owned commercial bank, which predominantly services mine workers and customers in the rural areas, had been wooed by the controversial Gupta family.
The Gupta-controlled Oakbay Investments had attempted to buy the bank after all of South Africa’s major banks