14 May 2001
Today's Business Day Newspaper reports that the Banking Council considers raising customer charges to cover the costs from a new Reserve Bank requirement on cash reserves.
The South African Communist Party (SACP) condemns this move by the Banking Council. The SACP calls on the Banking Council not to pass these costs to customers and to withdraw its consideration of increasing customer charges. The SACP also calls on the Reserve Bank to engage the Banking Council to ensure that customer charges are not increased.
Without doubt, the proposed increase on bank charges will hit millions of poor and working people who use the banking system. This proposed increase will also perpetuate the exclusion of more than 20 million South Africans who are outside the banking system.
Considered against growing calls on banks to change, this increase belies verbal commitments made by banks to social investment. It reaffirms, once more, the need to intensify the SACP-led campaign to make banks serve the people.
The proposed increase confirms that commercial banks in South Africa today are nothing other than instruments of maximum capitalist accumulation at the expense of the majority of our people.
Also key in this is the need to move speedily to ensure that we have public sector banks which are democratically controlled and are aimed at meeting the needs of the people.
It is for these reasons that the SACP has invited trade unions, religious formations, NGOs, co-operatives and community organisations to a meeting on Wednesday, 16 May to take forward and escalate the campaign for the fundamental transformation and diversification of the financial sector in our country. 55 different formations have already responded positively to the invitation and will be sending delegations.
CONTACT
Mazibuko K. Jara (surname Jara)
Department of Media, Information and Publicity South African Communist Party
Tel: 011 339-3621/2
Fax - 011 339-4244
Cell: 083 651 0271
Email: sacp1@wn.apc.org