Cape Town - Sekunjalo Investment Holdings and its group of companies are preparing to go to the Constitutional Court (ConCourt) in a last-ditch bid to keep their companies’ bank accounts open once and for all, after receiving two unfavourable judgments this week.
The Group was in the process of filing an urgent application to the ConCourt for leave to appeal a judgment handed down by the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) on 18 December in Nedbank vs Sekunjalo, which overturned an interim interdict ruling in favour of Sekunjalo, granted in March 2022.
Equality Court Judge Mokgoatji Dolamo had ruled that there had been a prima facie case of discrimination by Nedbank against Sekunjalo, a black-owned conglomerate, in closing their accounts.
The order prohibited Nedbank from terminating the bank accounts held by Sekunjalo chairman Dr Iqbal Survé and 42 associated companies.
However, Nedbank took the matter to the SCA to appeal the interim interdict and this week the court set that aside.
Sekunjalo noted yesterday that the appeal of an interim interdict was unusual in itself. It said the ConCourt action would continue to prevent Nedbank from closing the accounts of its companies.
The Group also sought to assure that a Competition Tribunal decision issued on 19 December would not affect its business operations.
On Tuesday, the Tribunal dismissed an application by Sekunjalo for the further extension of an interim relief order granted on 16 September 2022.
Sekunjalo had brought the interim relief application, claiming that the conduct of various banks, in un-banking them, constituted an abuse of dominance and collusive conduct in contravention of the Competition Act.
The interim relief granted by the Tribunal had prevented three banks (Standard Bank, Mercantile Bank Ltd and Bidvest Bank Ltd) from closing certain bank accounts of certain Sekunjalo companies, and ordered five others (Nedbank Ltd, ABSA Bank Ltd, FirstRand Bank Ltd, Sasfin Bank Ltd and Access Bank Ltd) to reopen certain bank accounts that had already been closed.
In October 2022, Standard Bank, Access Bank and Mercantile Bank filed reviews with the Competition Appeal Court (CAC), which upheld their appeals in July 2023.
The Tribunal stated this week that the appeal of the CAC’s decision by the Sekunjalo Group to the ConCourt did not suspend the legal principles in the CAC’s decision, and therefore did not revive the Tribunal’s interim relief decision.
Survé said yesterday that Sekunjalo has also filed an urgent application at the ConCourt to contest the Tribunal ruling.
Sekunjalo described the two rulings in quick succession as a "brutal" co-ordinated attack on the group.
"It can be no coincidence that the devastatingly brutal rulings by the SCA and the Competition Tribunal with their serious ramifications for the Group, were delivered at a time of year when it is quiet, leaving precious little opportunity to rebut or counter.
"It is also surely no accident or fluke that these decisions follow one on the other in so short a space of time (within a day).
"As noted in our previous statement on the outcome of the SCA, Sekunjalo remains standing, we will continue to trade, we remain resolute in making sure that our truth is told, which is now plain for all to see – Sekunjalo is being discriminated against."
Sekunjalo also noted that accounts held by the Sekunjalo Group of companies with Standard Bank were not affected by either the SCA ruling or the Competition Tribunal decision, as Standard Bank had not yet been granted leave to appeal.