Absa faces R2.25 billion apartheid bill: report
The latest edition of the Mail & Guardian reports that a leaked report from the office of the Public Protector makes recommendations that Absa bank repay a R2.25 billion bailout it received during the apartheid era.
Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s report found that billions of payments made to the Bankorp group of banks – which was later acquired by Absa – were irregular, and ordered that they be paid back into the fiscus.
Further recommendations include that president Jacob Zuma set up a judicial commission of enquiry into the apartheid-era looting of the estate.
The report, which was seen by the Mail & Guardian, is preliminary, and was sent to Absa, the South African Reserve Bank and National Treasury. Mkhwebane told the paper that her office is still awaiting feedback from all the parties implicated.
Absa responded to the report by saying that it was regrettable that an incomplete report was leaked before finalisation, and that it gives the wrong impression about the bank.
It said that there were thorough investigations into the Bankcorp matter – of which Absa has evidence – before it finalised its acquisition of the bank, and that the charges of SARB assistance were dropped in 1995.
The bank said it offered confidential evidence to the Public Protector on the matter, but it was not taken up. The offer still stands, it said.
“The Davis panel of experts appointed by former Reserve Bank governor Tito Mboweni found that Absa’s shareholders did not derive any undue benefit from the Reserve Bank’s intervention and as such no claim of restitution could be pursued against Absa,” the bank said in a statement.
Absa has until the end of February to make further submissions on the matter, which it said it will definitely do.
Read: Reserve Bank fines Absa R10 million after money laundering probe
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