{"id":116910,"date":"2016-03-15T15:57:27","date_gmt":"2016-03-15T13:57:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=116910"},"modified":"2016-03-15T16:03:30","modified_gmt":"2016-03-15T14:03:30","slug":"why-christ-hart-quit-standard-bank","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/116910\/why-christ-hart-quit-standard-bank\/","title":{"rendered":"Chris Hart reveals why he quit Standard Bank"},"content":{"rendered":"

Economist Chris Hart has released a statement<\/a> detailing why he chose to resign from Standard Bank after being criticized on social media for an alleged ‘racist’ tweet.<\/p>\n

Hart was suspended by Standard Bank on\u00a04 January 2016, pending an inquiry into the incident in which\u00a0Hart wrote: \u201cMore than 25 years after Apartheid ended, the victims are increasing along with a sense of entitlement and hatred towards minorities\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Read:\u00a0Unemployment a bigger scar than apartheid: \u2018racist\u2019 economist<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The tweet\u00a0was part of a series of posts, but that particular post drew strong criticism, with users calling on Standard Bank to take action against the respected economist.<\/p>\n

Hart later apologised: \u201cThis tweet has caused offense \u2013 never intended for which I apologise wholeheartedly. Meant to be read in context of slow growth.\u201d<\/p>\n

The economist has not been active on Twitter since January 2016.<\/p>\n

Following his resignation, Hart released a statement saying that, even though he was not guilty of any wrongdoing, after consultation he decided to step away from the position and pursue “alternative opportunities”.<\/p>\n

One opportunity is to establish an investment fund aimed at job creation, as well as consultation jobs.<\/p>\n

Here is the full statement from Hart:<\/p>\n

I voluntarily resigned from Standard Bank in the wake of an unfortunate social media event at the start of the year. Although I have not been found guilty of any wrongdoing after extensive consultation, it is my preference to pursue alternative opportunities.<\/p>\n

One of these opportunities includes the establishment of an impact investment fund aimed at job creation, while at the same time providing enhanced returns at lower risk for investors.<\/p>\n

Another opportunity is in consulting and speaking where some of the challenges facing the South African economy and business community can be fully studied and analysed.<\/p>\n

I am convinced that South Africa remains a high potential country if its socio-economic challenges are successfully addressed through appropriate public policy.<\/p>\n

In addition, I hope to work with CPG and their South Africa Day project, which is aimed at nation building through grassroots community building and upliftment.<\/p>\n

\u200e I strongly believe that a key cause of socio-economic problems is massive unemployment, and that job creation should be at the pinnacle of policy formulation.<\/p>\n

South Africa’s challenges are not insurmountable as long as our Constitution remains intact with the rights and freedoms embodied in it for the protection and benefit of all South Africans.<\/p>\n

My engagement on Twitter is always intended to generate healthy and robust debate. It is also intended that we gain a greater understanding of issues and each other. There is no monopoly on right and being offensive is regrettable and not intended.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Standard Bank said in a brief statement on Monday: “Chris Hart, an Investment Strategist at Standard Bank Wealth and Investment has resigned and has left the employ of the bank.”<\/p>\n

More on Chris Hart<\/h3>\n

Standard Bank to discipline economist for \u2018racist\u2019 tweets<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Black entrepreneur defends \u2018racist\u2019 economist<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

ANC defends white South Africans in racism row<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Standard Bank suspends economist after \u2018racist\u2019 tweets<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Economist Chris Hart has released a statement detailing why he chose to resign from Standard Bank after being hit by a social media storm arising from one of his tweets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":116914,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[1859,26,499],"class_list":["post-116910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-chris-hart","tag-headline","tag-standard-bank"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116910"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116910\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":116930,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116910\/revisions\/116930"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}