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Youth affiliated to the South African National Civic Organization Youth Congress in KZN (SANCOYC) have noted the attention seeking and cheap political stunts by the Eskom Board Member and CEO of Business Leadership of South Africa Ms Busisiwe Mavuso. 

We are angered by the unprovoked attack on both ANC eThekwini Regional Chair Mama Zandile Gumede and ANC NEC member Baba Dr Zweli Mkhize.

Her comments were not presented in a fact-based manner but were more political in nature. Moving forward, as the SANCOYC we have no option - we shall ensure that she faces the consequences of her decision of entering the political space.

Importantly, because there is no court of law that has found the two leaders guilty of any form of crime,  we have concluded that Ms Mavuso is part of a group of elites who have been moulded to camouflage white collar crime by attacking black leaders.

Interestingly, one of the members of  Business Leadership of South Africa is ABSA. We all remember that few years ago, former Chief Executive Officer Maria Ramos apologized publicly on behalf of Barclays Africa Group for the bank’s role in a rand-fixing scandal.  In her words she said “we deeply regret that this conduct took place within our organization.”

In addition, we recall that a proclamation was issued for ABSA to pay back approximately R2 billion in misappropriated public funds. It was widely reported that this  proclamation came after an investigation into a report on apartheid-era looting by UK-based asset recovery agency, Ciex, was submitted to the Public Protector for investigation.

We wish to inform Ms Mavuso that as SANCOYC we are exploring the possibility of visiting branches of ABSA – her organization’s member in good standing -  to demand that it “Pay Back the Money.”

Our campaign should be viewed within the context of our mandate as SANCOYC to champion the economic liberation of young dwellers who are living in abject poverty and conditions of squalor. This is because of the economic oppression and economic crimes committed by some of the members of Business Leadership of South Africa.

We want this R2 billion to be reinvested to drive township and rural development with young dwellers being the majority of recipients. In particular, we are interested in rolling out financial literacy programmes across the province within the context of driving economic revolution.

As the SANCOYC we believe that only a financial literate person will be in a position to drive socio-economic development programmes required to uplift millions of our people that leaves in abject poverty.

Financial institutions such as ABSA have branches in various municipalities across the province, our young dwellers shall visit these them to demand this R2 billion.

We are calling upon Ms Mavuso to be available to represent ABSA - the member of her organization  - when we visit one of the branches. She has the opportunity to frown on corruption - and to do so face-to-face with young dwellers not in Zoom, Microsoft Teams or television screens.

In conclusion, we support the recent statement by the ANC in eThekwini Region in which it questioned Ms Mavuso’s silence on the economic crimes committed by the private sector.

According to PricewaterhouseCoopers report, which was cited by the ANC in eThekwini, the following types of crime committed by the private sector – customer fraud, bribery and corruption, accounting/financial statement fraud, cybercrime, asset misappropriation, human resources fraud, deceptive business practices, procurement fraud, tax fraud and money laundering.

Issued by South African National Civic Organization Youth Congress in KZN