HAVING failed to convince two previous finance ministers, Pravin Gordhan and Tito Mboweni, to help bring the African Bank Holdings Limited (ABHL) back to its fold, the National African Federated Chamber of Commerce (Nafcoc) is hoping Minister Enoch Godongwana will listen and act.
Throughout the celebration of its 60th anniversary in Durban three weeks ago, the chamber had been talking about getting back the bank, which is estimated to have five million customers and is worth over R30 billion.
Former ANC national treasurer Zweli Mkhize was among those at the event who expressed optimism that it was not too late for the bank to return to Nafcoc.
During an interview with this reporter this week, Nafcoc president Gilbert Mosena insisted that the chamber wants the bank back in its fold.
He said the draconic anti-black policies, which continued after the birth of the democratic system in 1994, and “financial sabotage” led to Nafcoc losing the bank to the mighty and influential South African Reserve Bank (SARB), Public Investment Corporation (PIC), and a consortium of commercial banks.
“All we want is the government to give us a go-ahead to acquire the bank because the SARB, the PIC, and the other banks were ready to release the bank.
“We are looking for the government to be decisive in saying let the African Bank be restored to Nafcoc,” he said.
The ABHL, which was placed under curatorship on 10 August 10, 2014 by the Ministry of Finance, was established in 1975 as the brainchild of the chamber’s founding Nafcoc president Dr Sam Motsuenyane, who passed away on April 29 last year at the age of 97. It was seen as a vehicle of economic empowerment for black South Africans.
Mosena said it was, however, snatched from Nafcoc almost the very same way the colonial system dispossessed black people of their land.
“In 1996, we started having some problems because there was this concept of demutualisation, which was used as a way of kicking us out of the bank, and we lost the bank.
He said the demutualisation led to the cashflow problems, hence, it was placed under curatorship by SARB.
“There was a process where SARB put money to acquire 50% shares, PIC also injected money to acquire 25%, and the last 25% came from the major commercial banks,” he said.
In establishing the bank, the Nafcoc was assisted by the late King Goodwill Zwelithini, who championed the initiative and offered political legitimacy to the bank.
Then, it is claimed, KwaZulu-Natal Prime Minister Mangosuthu Buthelezi “used the Bantustan legal framework to register the African Bank through the KwaZulu government, thus making the impossible possible".
Certain black people came in numbers to support by donating R1 each towards the initiative, which Mosena said was “a symbol of collective ownership, unity, and resistance.”
He said that after he was elected the Nafcoc secretary-general in 2009, he approached the SARB to say, “We need the African Bank back to us”.
“And I led a delegation to meet with these so-called shareholders (including commercial banks and the PIC) and we made a very solid case to say ‘we want our bank back'.
“Around 2020, during the COVID pandemic, they (shareholders) said if we could organise money, they would be willing to give us their stake,” Mosena said.
He then thought that the government should help restore the bank to Nafcoc, the same way the issue of land restitution has been handled.
“The government put money for the land to returned to the dispossed communities, so there should be same principle with the bank because we lost the financial institution, now the government must do that in compliant with the constitution, which wants economy to be transformed and justice to be done for maginalised black people to be on the same platform with their white counterparts,” he said.
Mosena said in 2014, the bank experienced financial troubles because of its failure to collect the loans. He said this led to the majority of black shareholders being systematically kicked out of the bank.
“This was the final and complete loss of any ownership that Nafcoc had with the bank,” he said.
He said that in trying to raise money to buy back the bank in 2020, he led a delegation to China, Indonesia, and the United Kingdom, looking for possible partners to acquire the bank.
He said African Bank was a sustainable financial institution because of having branches in all provinces, rural areas, and townships, but it needed capable management, which he said Nafcoc could make it possible.
“We first engaged with Pravin and Tito Mboweni, and we are now waiting for the new minister (Godongwana) to give us an appointment so that we can articulate what we are saying.
“The government should be assisting us because this is the issue of financial transformation, which is backed up by the constitution,” he said.
Mosena estimated that to acquire the bank, Nafcoc might need to cough out up to R25 billion.
When asked if Nafcoc members could raise that kind of money, he said: “Remember, before establishing the bank, people asked the same question, but we were able to collect R1 from every person until we established the bank.
“But now it is not a question of people physically raising money because many of our African people may have to look at our asset value and our friends in and outside the country.
“Therefore, the question of raising R25 billion is not much as we can do it in the form of crowdfunding as long as we issue shares to that value,” he said.
Standard Bank could only confirm that it still has shares at African Bank, but slightly diluted because “there was a recent BEE staff transaction.”
Nedbank spokesperson Vallie Annaleigh referred questions to SARB.
The SARB said it was currently owning 45% of ABHL, “which will be diluted further when planned retail shareholding schemes are implemented.”
“The planned retail schemes intend to introduce black public shareholders, with a specific focus on black women and black entrepreneurs.
“The new entity was created and recapitalised with R10 billion, underwritten by a consortium of banks and SARB,” said SARS head of communication Thoraya Pandy.
FNB spokesperson Dineo Molaba said the bank and its counterparts still hold a stake at African Bank, which was “diluted following an Employee Share Ownership Plan (ESOP) for management.”
She said FNB was willing to let go of its shares.
“But the other shareholders have pre-emptive rights as per the shareholders’ agreement,” said Molaba.
The National Treasury, ABSA, African Bank, and PIC have not responded to questions sent to them earlier this month.