Will banks stand up for their clients?

THE INSTITUTE of Race Relations is relaunching an open-letter campaign to ask the banking sector a fundamental question: Will it expect its clients to pay off debt on properties expropriated without compensation by the government?

With the National Assembly adopting a motion to re-establish the ad hoc committee on amending section 25 of the Constitution, it is clear that those bent on destroying property rights have no intention of letting South Africans own what they have worked hard to earn. The ANC-SACP government will use the Covid-19 crisis and the economic disaster as a cover to aggressively pursue expropriation without compensation (EWC).

While hard-working South Africans have ceased hoping the government will act in their interests, there is hope that the banking sector will be brave enough to speak out on behalf of their clients’ right to own property.

From the responses we received, banks think land reform is important, they won’t say anything about the security of property rights, they won’t state their opposition, they won’t be standing up for their clients, they didn’t make submissions to Parliament and they will be expecting their clients to pay for the privilege of losing property.

The IRR will make sure corporate SA understands that selling out the people to secure a sweetheart deal for government favour isn’t an option.

HERMANN PRETORIUS | Deputy head of policy research, Institute of Race Relations