ANC no letters.jpg ANC Statement, 15 February 2017 Competition Commission Decision to Refer 13 Banks for Prosecution The African National Congress has noted the announcement by the Competition Commission that it will take seventeen (17) banks operating in South Africa to the Competitions Tribunal for prosecution on charges of collusion. According to the Commission the banks have, since at least 2007, been fixing prices and market allocation in the trading of foreign currency involving the US Dollar and the Rand; manipulating prices of bids and offers and, amongst others, creating fictitious bids. These acts of corruption have crudely exposed the ethical crisis in the South African banking sector. The act of manipulating the currency is an attack on the constitutional mandate of the South African Reserve Bank to protect the value of the South African currency. The African National Congress takes an extremely dim view of the activities of the listed banks, understanding the banking sector as being instrumental to our quest for economic growth and development. Repeatedly, the country has called all social partners to a social compact, driven by what we had considered a collective goal of inclusive economic growth; albeit in the face of a depressed global economic climate. The profit-driven assault on the South African rand through such collusion and corruption by the banks flies in the face of efforts by the South African nation to prosperity for all. It is further an indication of how the markets are and can be manipulated by dominant oligopolies to cripple its functioning to suit their nefarious agendas. Without a doubt, further raises a question of the extent to which the currency was manipulated with politically motivated intentions. The ANC will closely follow the developments in this case and calls for the Competitions Tribunal to level against the banks the harshest possible sanction where they are found guilty; serving as a deterrent to any other players in any other industries involved in similar activities. With the same vigour and zeal directed at public sector corruption, we must be unrelenting in fighting private sector corruption. The ANC commends the the fortitude of the Competition Commission in exposing the unethical operations of established monopolies in different sectors of our economy. This we say in view of the fact that this probe into the Banks follows similar incidents involving the fixing of bread prices and the collusion of big companies in major construction projects. The ANC calls on government to take to heart the lessons learnt from this expose and move with the greatest urgency to diversify the financial services sector, introduce new players and irreversibly transform this industry in favour of the people and the nation. Issued by the African National Congress Enquiries: Zizi Kodwa, National Spokesperson, 082 330 4910 Khusela Sangoni, National Communications Manager, 072 854 5707 __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 14941 (20170215) __________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.com -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum. To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/yclsa-eom-forum/000001d287b5%249b9c0750%24d2d415f0%24%40com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
