Nedbank to keep Sekunjalo accounts open, pending ruling
The Sekunjalo Group of Companies’ bank accounts at Nedbank will remain open after the Western Cape High Court reserved judgment in Nedbank’s appeal against the interim interdict granted to Sekunjalo in June preventing the bank from closing its bank accounts.
Reserving judgment in the matter, Judge Mokgoatji Dolamo said that because the issues raised in arguments by both sides were weighty and would require in-depth scrutiny, it would probably take about ‘a week or two’ before he could return a ruling, says a Cape Argus report.
‘Parties will be aware that this matter will call for an in-depth interrogation of the matters raised. It is not your run-of-the-mill kind of application.’
Nedbank had sought leave to appeal the judgment passed in June by Dolamo and had argued that the matter was appealable and as such had reasonable prospects for success.
The June ruling said that pending the final determination of Sekunjalo’s main Equality Court application, any of its accounts that had already been closed at the time of the hearing of the application should be reopened with immediate effect.
That judgment also ordered that Nedbank retain the terms and conditions on which these accounts were operating prior to the date of their closure.
In June, Dolamo said that Sekunjalo had indeed established a prima facie case that they had been unfairly discriminated against and that Nedbank had not proved its conduct was not based on one or more prohibited grounds, notes the Cape Argus report.
However, appearing for Nedbank, Alfred Cockrell SC told Dolamo that the interim order should never have been granted in Sekunjalo’s favour as the group had not established a prima facie case of unfair discrimination and that this alone was grounds to allow an appeal.
Nedbank argued that Dolamo’s June decision had forced Nedbank to continue banking Sekunjalo even though it no longer had the appetite to do business with the group.
Sekunjalo’s Advocate Vuyani Ngalwana said there was no need to re-argue the original case and argued that Nedbank had failed to prove its conduct was not based on discrimination.
Article disclaimer: While we have made every effort to ensure the accuracy of this article, it is not intended to provide final legal advice as facts and situations will differ from case to case, and therefore specific legal advice should be sought with a lawyer.
