#RacistBanksMustFall Calls for Legislative Reforms Amid Global Debanking Debate
image: Daily News
by Kelebogile Matlou
The #RacistBanksMustFall movement has welcomed a new US initiative to curb politically or religiously motivated account closures, urging South Africa to adopt comparable measures. The announcement comes after US President Donald Trump revealed plans for an executive order that would ban banks from using reputational risk as a reason to close accounts.
This follows allegations that major US banks, including JPMorgan and Bank of America, discriminated against Trump and his supporters after his presidency. Debanking, broadly defined, is the withdrawal of banking services from individuals or organisations, often justified by compliance or regulatory concerns. In the US, there is no guaranteed legal right to a bank account, leaving customers vulnerable to such closures.
In South Africa, scrutiny has fallen on institutions such as Nedbank, which closed nearly 200 accounts in 2023. Critics argue these actions often target politically outspoken individuals and entities. One of the most high-profile cases is that of the Sekunjalo Group, which alleges its accounts were closed to silence dissent.
image: Daily News
#RacistBanksMustFall leader Crown Prince Adil Nchabeleng claims local banks have engaged in similar discriminatory behaviour, citing businessman and media mogul Dr Iqbal Survé as an example. Survé’s companies reportedly lost banking services due to reputational risk linked to his political influence and media ownership.
Nchabeleng hailed Trump’s executive order as a positive development and insisted that South Africa urgently needs safeguards to prevent such practices. “For long now, the banks have been doing as they wish,politically inconvenient individuals and society’s most vulnerable are among those most affected,” he said.
