Sekunjalo plays the race card after appeal court judges find Nedbank can close the group’s accounts

The Sekunjalo group has responded with outrage to a Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) finding that will effectively allow Nedbank to close the accounts of the group. This comes after a full bench of South Africa’s second-highest court of appeal excoriated a finding made by the Equality Court. 

The finding constitutes a huge legal setback for the Sekunjalo group and its 44 associate companies, which has been conducting a four-year legal campaign to prevent a host of SA’s top banks from closing its accounts. 

The group was initially successful in gaining an interim order against Nebank at the Equality Court preventing the bank from closing several accounts. 

The finding of the SCA reverses this decision and sharply criticises the judgment of Judge Mokgoatji Dolamo, saying the court should have dismissed the application in the first place because Sekunjalo had never established a prima facie case of unfair racial discrimination.

In response, the Sekunjalo group said it was “dumbfounded” by the ruling and questioned the race of judges in the case, saying it was “highly unusual” that a panel of five white judges should come to this decision in this “landmark case” about how SA’s banks treat customers differently according to their racial classification.

“Not to impugn the integrity of these judges, but it is highly unusual and especially so given that every other case at the SCA on the day that this matter was heard, had been presided over by a bench fully representative of South Africa. Why not this matter?”

Central to Sekunjalo’s case was the distinction it made between how it had been treated, and how several “white” companies had been treated, including Steinhoff, EOH and Tongaat Hulett, whose bank accounts with Nedbank and other banks remained open.

The judgment contains “some obtuse observations”, Sekunjalo said, including one claiming that Sekunjalo had not conclusively proven that EOH, Tongaat Hulett and Steinhoff – whom it cited as being treated differently – were in fact white-owned. 

“Sekunjalo contends that the judges did not apply their minds to this point at all.”

Sekunjalo had not been found to be suspected of any financial misconduct, the Sekunjalo statement said. 

“Indeed, Nedbank, in writing, confirmed that Sekunjalo had not been found to have done anything wrong. Thus, there is no need for Sekunjalo to take any corrective action. This was also ignored by the SCA.”

Dismissed with costs