Nokuthula Nhlabathi of the village of eZindophini in Eshowe, northern KwaZulu-Natal, together with other small business owners, spent the entire week travelling the 300km return trip to the Ithala Bank headquarters in Durban.
This after the local branch of Ithala could not explain why they could not access their funds from the ATM or bank tellers.
“We have R86 000, which belongs to the business saved in Ithala, and it can’t be withdrawn.
“For the past week or two, we haven’t been able to conduct any business because we can’t access funds from Ithala Bank or any of its ATM’s,” said Nhlabathi.
We’re devastated because nobody seems to have the answers. When we couldn’t find joy, we escalated the matter to the head office. They too are clueless.
“Our lives have been turned upside down. Government is playing with our livelihoods,” Nhlabathi explained.
Nhlabathi is the chairperson of an agricultural cooperative selling live chicken meat and eggs, running it together with the other three local women.
Through an Ithala R50,000 loan, the four women were able to purchase a plot of land, turning it into a thriving chicken business.
However, according to Nhlabathi, the closure of Ithala will be a hard blow to the business, which has employed five local youth permanently.
“Ithala is the only bank we use to save the proceeds for the business. We also use the same account to pay salaries. It’s a depressing situation.
Ithala cannot be allowed to die with our money inside. Besides, Ithala is the only bank that is truly sympathetic towards the poor blacks and those in the economic periphery.
“The bank is the only one which came to our rescue when the other banks
refused us a loan,” she further told Sunday World.
The Prudential Authority (PA) of the SA Reserve Bank has filed for the provisional liquidation of Ithala SOC Limited at the Pietermaritzburg High Court.
The move affects about 257,000 Ithala depositors.
Since the liquidation application, desperate consumers lined up in various Ithala branches wanting to access their monies with no luck.
Simon Shelembe, a farmer running a small-scale sugarcane and citrus fruit farm in the rural village of Gingindlovu, says the farm employs 10 workers permanently, while an additional five are seasonal.
“I’m shattered and out of words because I can’t access my money. The only communication I got was to wait for a call from the bank authorities. It’s just a waiting game.
“I now have to go to other financial institutions and borrow in order to be able to pay my workers. I also need other additional funds for operating expenses,” he said.
Ithala Bank has been operating under an exemption granted by the Minister of Finance.
It was established in 1958 as a development finance agency owned by the former KwaZulu homeland administration.
Musa Zondi, the minister for economic development and tourism, explained this week that depositors should not panic and that their money would not disappear into thin air.
