The South African National Editors’ Forum (SANEF) is not in a position to speculate as why major banks are closing accounts of Sekunjalo Group, the owners of Independent Media.
In a statement, the editors’ body accused Independent Media of publishing a “misleading” article. The story, headlined ‘Sanef slams banks for stifling media freedom’, also contained “inaccuracies and deliberate misrepresentations to create a false impression that SANEF has taken a position on Standard Bank’s decision to close down the bank accounts”.
Standard Bank is the latest in a long line of financial institutions that will no longer do business with the Sekunjalo Group. These include FirstRand (owners FNB), Nedbank, Absa, Mercantile Bank, Sasfin, Investec Bank, Bidvest Bank and Access Bank.
“Frankly SANEF does not have enough information to venture an opinion, let alone speculate about the merits of the decision,” SANEF says.
Standard Bank, in a statement, says it “applied its risk management principles against which all prospective and existing clients are evaluated and assessed”. And, it says, Dr Iqbal Surve’s Sekunjalo Group were given the opportunity to respond to its concerns in July 2021 … but the bank had not received answers to its queries.
SANEF says its concerns are for “the wellbeing and welfare of journalists whose lives and livelihoods are threatened by a number of challenges beyond their control. In most cases these challenges are not of their own doing”.
It says since the outbreak of Covid-19, “media workers in South Africa have lost jobs and their income as a result of newspapers and publishers buckling under the pressure of a tough economic environment. Others have had their salaries reduced over the same period as companies faced a tough choice of either cutting jobs or reducing salaries to bring down the costs of doing business”.
But, it adds, “SANEF has always been clear that the commercial interests and dealings of media owners are not within the scope and mandate of the organisation”.
Consistent with this position, SANEF is not in a position to speculate as why major banks are closing accounts of Sekunjalo Group, the owners of Independent Media.
“In cases where media owners are clashing with other stakeholders – to the detriment of our colleagues’ livelihoods – ours as SANEF is to sympathise with our journalist colleagues who get caught up in the crossfire.
“SANEF has faith in South Africa’s judiciary. We believe that we have a strong judiciary which is independent and equally capable to mete out justice in a fair and just manner. Any aggrieved party in a dispute should be able to get recourse through the courts.”
