National Consultative Forum of the Financial Sector Coalition

7 October 2003

Tomorrow, Mrs. Zanele Mbeki of the Women's Development Bank will deliver the Keynote Address at the National Consultative Forum of the Financial Sector Campaign Coalition (FSCC or the SACP-led Campaign to Make Banks Serve the People).

The National Consultative Forum will be held as follows:

DATE - Wednesday, 08 October 2003
TIME - 09h30 - 16h30
VENUE - Protea Hotel, Gold Reef City, Johannesburg

Mrs. Mbeki's address will focus on the experiences of the Women's Development Bank and on current initiatives in providing access to credit for the poor. Mrs. Mbeki's Keynote Address will be followed by the Chairperson of the FSCC, Blade Nzimande, who will present the Annual Report of the FSCC to the National Consultative Forum. This Forum is an important landmark in the Campaign to Make Banks Serve the People.

The Forum will be attended by 70 delegates drawn from 45 organisations including:

• the SACP, the ANC, COSATU
• SA Council of Churches
• HIV/AIDS organisations - AIDS Law Project, AIDS Consortium and the Treatment Action Campaign
• National Co-operative Association of South Africa
• Savings and Credit Co-operatives' League
• Developmental organisations, NGOs, community based organisations
• Human and legal rights organisations

The agenda will also include:

• Speech by Herbert Mkhize, NEDLAC Executive Director
• Speech on the Financial Services Charter - by Billy Modise from the Black Business Council
• Discussion of a 3-year Programme of Action of the FSCC

The Campaign to Make Banks Serve the People was launched in October 2000 and the Financial Sector Campaign Coalition was constituted in May 2001. The Coalition brings together more than 55 organisations.

The FSCC's National Consultative Forum will be an important meeting in the history of the Campaign. Since the Campaign was launched in October 2000, the following has been achieved:

• Holding of the NEDLAC Financial Sector Summit in August 2002 which reached significant agreements on the transformation and diversification of the Financial Sector in South Africa
• the publication of draft regulations to govern Credit Bureaus in May 2003 by the Department of Trade and Industry
• the discussion by cabinet of a new Co-operatives' Bill and Community Reinvestment Legislation
• The Reserve Bank and government have begun a discussion on access to credit for the poor including the consideration of legislation for co-operative banks
• initiatives by some banks to introduce a charge-free banking card for recipients of welfare grants
• discussion on the Financial Services Charter which is now at advanced stages
• the AVBOB announcement to remove HIV/AIDS discrimination in its funeral insurance policies following mass pressure
• Initiatives by workers to form savings and credit co-operatives including announcements by the SACP, SAMWU and NEHAWU to form their own SACCOs
• Agreement reached at the June 2003 Growth and Development Summit on co-operatives

But these developments are not about to change the capitalist character of the financial sector in our country. Therefore, the campaign has reached an important stage and is facing significant challenges in particular around the following issues:

• Need for mass mobilisation against continuing redlining and for the enactment of community reinvestment legislation
• Ensuring that the boardroom-negotiated Financial Services Charter does not promote narrow black elite economic empowerment
• Mobilisation for a People's Financial Charter
• Implementation of Regulations to govern Credit Bureaux
• Mobilisation against HIV/AIDS discrimination in the financial sector as a whole
• Building of a Workers'/People's Co-operative Bank
• Prescribed Assets
• Workers' Collective and Democratic Control of Retirement Funds

EXTRACTS FROM THE DRAFT ANNUAL REPORT AND PROGRAMME OF ACTION OF THE FINANCIAL SECTOR CAMPAIGN COALITION

Over the next three to five years, the aims and objectives of the Coalition are to:

build a mass social movement and front of people's power for the fundamental transformation and diversification of the financial sector in South Africa ensure that the private financial sector contributes effectively to economic and social development, in particular by

1. Providing sustainable banking services, contractual savings schemes and credit for small and micro enterprise, co-operatives, workers and poor households 2. Supporting higher levels of savings and investment overall 3. Expanding developmental investments that strengthen the economy, create employment, improve the access of the poor to productive assets and housing and/or raise living standards by improving infrastructure or production of basic goods and services 4. Measures to ensure non-discriminatory provision of banking services and contractual savings mechanisms on the broadest viable scale 5. Ensuring that state-owned financial institutions have a well-defined and robust developmental role 6. Contribute to transforming and democratising the concentration of ownership and control in the financial sector through, amongst other things, the consolidation of Postbank as a central pillar of public sector banking 7. The achievement of an enabling environment for co-operative banks and other alternative financial institutions 8. The achievement of a developmental and consumer-driven credit information regime 9. Increasing the capacity and power of all South Africans to afford credit and to pay for financial services 10. Adequate public education and training around economic issues and financial transactions 11. Building a representative labour force in the financial sector, particularly in managerial and professional posts 12. Removal of unfair discrimination in the financial sector 13. Increasing the power of workers in retirement funds including

The above aims and objectives imply the following programmatic tasks:

• Mobilisation of communities, workers and civil society behind the aims, objectives and programmes of the Coalition
• Research, lobbying, advocacy and social mobilisation to ensure the realisation and implementation of the NEDLAC Financial Sector Agreement
• Monitoring of the private financial sector, government and state-owned financial institutions in respect of the above objectives and the implementation of the NEDLAC Agreement
• The mobilisation of communities and workers to build co-operative banks
• Removal of HIV/AIDS discrimination in the financial sector and the development of good practice policies on how to deal with racism, gender discrimination, HIV/AIDS and other forms of discrimination in the financial sector as a whole
• Utilising the constitution to remove unfair discrimination in general
• The outlawing of redlining and the enactment of community reinvestment legislation
• Proposals and action on the transformation and expansion of Postbank
• Increased consumer awareness, power and claiming of rights by consumers in the financial sector, the debt consolidation and management industry, and the micro-lending industry
• Workers' empowerment and mobilisation behind the democratisation and transformation of pension and provident funds including the demand for prescribed assets - Mobilising of human, financial, organisational and other resources to build the capacity of the Coalition and member organisations to achieve the above aims, objectives and tasks.

Mazibuko K. Jara (surname Jara)
Department of Media, Information & Publicity
South African Communist Party
Tel: 27 11 339-3621/2, Fax: 27 11 339-4244, Cell: 083 651 0271
Email - mazibuko@sacp.org.za