[LISTEN] ANC: Not saving VBS ‘would reinforce black stereotypes'

The ANC has urged authorities not to fuel stereotypes that black people cannot play a substantial role in the financial sector.

The Prudential Authority’s liquidation of VBS Mutual Bank will be heard next Tuesday in the High Court in Pretoria.

“VBS Mutual Bank should be rescued because the delinquency of a few individuals should and cannot be the justification for closing down our country’s only back run bank,” says spokesperson, Nonceba Mhlauli.

President Cyril Ramaphosa also expressed his dismay at the closing of the bank – adding that they are looking at ways to save it.

Mhlauli says the caucus believes that the country will take three steps back if the bank ceases to exist.

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“We believe that the liquidation will undermine government’s efforts to transform and divert the financial sector.

“The liquidation of VBS will reinforce racial stereotypes that Africans cannot run banks, and that they cannot run entities or participate in the financial sector.”

The South African Reserve Bank’s Kuban Naidoo warned those who wanted to keep the doors open of the bank.

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“We accept that the collapse of VBS is a failure – we genuinely hope that someone will apply for a banking licence if they want to take over VBS they will start on -372 and will take them twelve years to break-even.”