Independent Media has condemned the decision by Standard Bank to “debank” it, declaring it a “direct attack on media freedom”, by which I assume they mean the freedom to invent stories about decuplets.
In this case, however, I’m not sure it’s as simple as branding Independent the villain and Standard Bank the hero.
Of course, it’s hard to feel any sympathy for the so-called media group or, indeed, for the current international poster boy for the new right-wing panic around debanking, Brexit snake-oil salesman Nigel Farage, who recently found himself given the old heave-ho by Coutts bank in the UK.
Both have knowingly lied, over and over again, vilifying critics as they trashed reality to make a pile of money. Both have proved themselves entirely willing to break their own countries and screw over their poorest compatriots if it got them closer to power and the free cash that comes with it.
It’s also pretty rich for either Farage or Independent owner Iqbal Survé to whine about being refused service by a private corporation.
As a conservative, or at least someone on the political right, Farage must, by definition, support the right of private enterprises to make their own rules, without interference from government watchdogs like the one being set up to probe the matter.
For his part, Survé was quoted by IOL on Wednesday, declaring that it was “clear to us that Standard Bank is acting on political instruction”. And yet, as someone whose platforms regularly publish Russian and Chinese propaganda, he has made himself a mouthpiece of politicians who regularly freeze or even confiscate the fortunes of private individuals on trumped up charges. Surely what’s good for the Russian or Chinese goose is good for the South African gander?
Having said all that, however, the fact remains that debanking is a fairly disgusting practice for the simple reason that it is so fantastically hypocritical and insultingly dishonest.
The Zondo commission proved the extent to which South African banks aided and abetted state capture. Standard Bank was specifically named in the final report, happily accepting hundreds of millions in dodgy deposits without ever flagging transactions that were, according to experts, blatant money-laundering.
This is to say nothing of the second tsunami of corruption and theft that swept through this country once Jacob Zuma was gone, courtesy of the looting of Covid funds and contracts. Unless Digital Vibes and the PPE looters got paid in cocaine and bitcoin, it’s a safe bet that all that money went through at least one South African bank.
I’m sure that Standard Bank’s lawyers and reputation launderers would insist that debanking Independent is a step towards making amends, and perhaps if this story goes away quickly enough, most people will forget. After all, middle-class South Africans seem to have a remarkable ability to play down or even ignore corruption in the private sector, even as they denounce it the public sector.
To me, however, the stink of hypocrisy makes it hard to look away.
After all, it’s all very well debanking odious clients now, but where was all that moralistic zeal when Farage was punting his xenophobic lies about Brexit? Where was Standard Bank’s outrage when the Guptas were pumping millions through it?
Banks are perfectly entitled to serve whichever customers they choose. They’re also entitled to run whatever reputation-laundering campaigns they wish. But I can’t help feeling that Farage and Survé, both highly public and controversial figures, are being offered up as sacrificial victims, while far nastier people move far dirtier through the same banking system, without a murmur of alarm from anybody.
If only I could feel an ounce of sympathy for either of them ...
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