The FF Plus today taught the EFF a lesson on race relations and truth in the parliamentary portfolio committee on trade and industry after it was stated that white people ‘own’ the banking sector in South Africa, Adv. Anton Alberts, the FF Plus’ parliamentary spokesperson on trade and industry, says.
Adv. Alberts says the committee dealt with the BEE Commission’s report on transformation in the banking sector when Floyd Shivambu, deputy president of the EFF, laid all the mistakes in the banking sector at the door of white people and said that all the banks are owned by white people.
According to Adv. Alberts, he immediately repudiated Shivambu and told him that he was spreading untruths.
“I put it to the chairperson that, at most, it could be stated that some white individuals own shares in the banks.
“Shivambu mentioned one wealthy white banker to substantiate his claim. The truth is, however, that the majority of shares are held by foreign investors and local institutional investors, and not white people in general.
“The chairperson of the committee, Ms. Joanmariae Fubbs, agreed that there shouldn’t be any generalisations. She also said that there are an increasing number of poor white people who should not be ignored.
“I told the committee that this type of generalisation has a polarising effect on the country, and that people of all races should be careful to make negative generalisations about people of a different race. It creates an environment where people are pitted against each other.
“It was said against the backdrop of the BEE Commission not even being able to provide proper facts about the real state of transformation in the banking sector. The BEE Commission acknowledged that it had never had any access to BEE information in the economy because the department of trade and industry has never undertaken any research about this.
“The BEE Commission only now started to do research, and will issue a report about this by next year. One of the Commission’s officials, Mr. L Sthetho, testified that the information which they have is not factually correct.
“It serves as proof that Shivambu was thumb-sucking facts merely to lash out at white people,” Adv. Alberts said.
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