Standard Bank unjustifiably withholding my funds

Pathetic from Standard Bank. On the 26th of September I received a VAT refund from SARS into my Standard Bank business account. The account was promptly frozen and I was asked to verify the source of funds. I quickly got in touch with SARS and submitted all the documents to Standard Bank a week later. Since then I have been in and out of Standard Bank to get this resolved to no avail.

Today was my final straw! After calling SARS to get in touch with the bank to verify proof of funds, I was informed that SARS does not share taxpayer information with third parties and that I should head to the branch and call SARS for verification whilst in the branch. I made my way to the Fourways Crossing branch in Fourways and spoke to the Business manager named Phumulani. Phumulani proceeded to tell me that SARS was investigating the matter and they were in fact the ones freezing my account, which is ridiculous because I have been to SARS several times since the start of this debacle and according to SARS, the money was released to Standard Bank. Phumulani went on to insinuate that was a ********** nature to the source of funds - I'm not sure if my being black and foreign has anything to do with his suspicions of me engaging in ********** activity.

After asking him to call SARS to verify the proof of funds, he told me that the case was being handled by a special branch that conveniently does not have a contact number. He told me he has been in email communication with this clandestine division of SARS and they informed him that they were investigating the matter. Ofcourse when I asked him for proof of this correspondence as it my help my case, he told me that the communication was internal and privileged. Yet I, the taxpayer, I'm told by SARS that the issue is with Standard Bank and not them.

It has been almost a month and I would like Standard Bank to deal with issue immediately or I will be forced to take escalated action. I believe I have been patient enough with your never ending processes.

Additionally on the day the account the frozen, the money in my account was transferred to the Fourways Crossing Branch without my consent. I'm not sure if it is even legal for the bank to transfer money out of my account top one of their branches.