Finance Minister Enock Godongwana has asked South Africa’s big banks to open accounts for social grant recipients who are currently banking with Ithala Bank so they could continue to get paid while the historic KwaZulu-Natal state owned institution tries to fend off a liquidation application by the Prudential Authority (PA).  This is according to Godongwana’s letter to Mary Vilakazi, the chairperson of the Banking Association South Africa, dated 17 January 2025 and seen by African Times. The letter was written…

Ithala SOC Limited (Ithala Bank), the historic financial institution founded by the KwaZulu homeland government to fund black entrepreneurs during the apartheid era, has slammed the Prudential Authority (PA) ‘s application to have it under provisional liquidation.  The PA is a division of the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) that oversees the operations and compliance matters of banks and insurance companies in the country. In a statement on Thursday (January 16), the PA said its application in the Pietermaritzburg High…

The Prudential Authority (PA), an entity of the South African Reserve Bank tasked with monitoring banks, has fined Capitec Bank R56 million for failing to comply with some provisions of the Financial Intelligence Centre Act (FICA), mainly enacted to prevent money laundering. The PA accused the bank of failing to comply with certain provisions of the FIC Act 38 of 2001. The fine was announced on Friday last week through a press statement.  “The sanctions consist of seven cautions, one…

The South African Reserve Bank (SARB) has made a U-turn on its initial stance that its full report on the theft of $580,000 at the Phala Phala Wildlife Farm in Limpopo was too confidential for public release. This came as two suspects – Namibians Imanuwela David (39) and Froliana Joseph (30) – appeared in Bela-Bela Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday concerning the controversial robbery at President Cyril Ramaphosa’s farm in February 2020.  They have been charged with conspiracy to commit housebreaking with…

Unemployment is one of South Africa’s biggest tragedies. Statistics South Africa’s Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) for the first quarter of 2023 has painted a grim picture of the youth unemployment rate in the country, which increased by 1.1 percent to 46,5 percent this year.  Around 11% of workers who should be working are unemployed. Up to 70% of young workers, between the ages of 15 and 24 years, are unemployed. Over 30 million South Africans live below the poverty…

The implications of South African Reserve Bank (SARB) decisions on workers and black South Africans are significant, considering the history of financial exclusion and discrimination that has affected the majority black population in South Africa. The lingering effects of apartheid-era policies continue to impede the economic advancement of black individuals and businesses. Of particular concern is the indifference of the central bank towards the plight of marginalised communities.  On May 25th, the SARB’s monetary policy committee (MPC) raised the repo rate for the tenth…