UNFAIR TREATMENT BY FIRST NATIONAL BANK

We are Eastern Cape Transport Tertiary Cooperative an organisation that represents the public industry in the Eastern Cape. Our organisation is 100% black owned.We have 188 subsidiary companies. We have been clients of FNB ever since 2012 when we started our businesses. Over the years we have been motivating our subsidiary companies to open up their bank accounts with FNB reason behind being the services that we were receiving from FNB and their user friendly systems that they use. Last year in 2020 we app**** for Covid-19 relief fund from the department of labour. The DoL delayed the payments to our over 50 000 employees of our subsidiary companies.As a result of the delay our board decisions was that employees should be given an advance of R1500.00 each until such time that the DoL pays the relief fund for the employees and such advance would be deducted from the funds that will be paid by the DOL. The DoL started paying in December 2020 for the funds which were claimed in April to September 2020. We then facilitated payments to employees. We have accounts that are used by our sister companies of which I am a SIGNITORY as the CEO that we have been operating. Those accounts were used to pay for the medical aids, funeral schemes and Providend fund for all our employees. On the 25th June when we were paying the employees salaries for the employees who get paid on the 25th we noticed that all our accounts were frozen by FNB. I then tried to enquire and I was told the accounts were frozen by the ***** Manager whose name is Hlongwane Mongezi who suspected that there is ***** that is happening because of the movement of funds from one account to another. I then tried to get hold of him until I decided to send him an email because he was not taking my calls.After a long day frustration he then told me that the DoL has given him an affidavit and the case of ***** was opened in March which is under investigation about the funds paid to the subsidiary companies of the ECTTC by the DoL. I then asked if there was any court order that he has been supp**** with to freeze the accounts. He said no it's only the affidavit. I tried contacting the DoL national as this was the project from the national DOL and they distanced themselves in this whole thing saying the case was opened by the provincial DoL. I went to the police station to find out about the case.I was then given the contact numbers of the investigating officer who also told me that he knows nothing about freezing the accounts. All our 38 subsidiary companies accounts who had accounts with FNB have been closed. But all the other companies who had accounts with other banks were not affected.

As clients of FNB we feel that we have been treated unfairly because as clients of FNB who have been operating accounts with them for more than 8 years we feel we deserved to be treated with dignity in a way that if there was any thing wrong we were suppose to be contacted by FNB instead of being thrown from pillar to post. As I speak all our employees have not been paid and the likely wood is that they will still go home this month end with out being paid. Their medical aids have been suspended since they have not been paid. Ten of them have lost their lives and we cant even claim their funeral schemes because the premiums for the last month were not paid.

The FNB is now busy conducting audit for the DoL whereas the DoL has appointed the Forensic audit companies to audit the companies who have been paid by DoL and we are still waiting for the forensic report which we have never received.

Presently we are moving all our accounts to other banks while compiling court papers to challenge all this in court.

The most unfortunate part is that these were our operational accounts that did not have the money from the DoL only and infact the money from DoL was already paid to its beneficiaries.

We are in a situation were our employees remain unpaid in this unfavourable situation of he pandemic that we find ourselves faced with. Our bills and rent has also not been paid. This is queit unfortunate situation for us as black owned company may be had it been that we were coming from the white privileged companies this would not be happening. May be we would be treated differently. One of the affected account numbers is ***, ***