No bank loans without husband’s consent!

MBABANE — The national constitution says ‘women shall have equal opportunities as men in political, economic and social activities.’

However, some women have discovered that constitution or not, this equal opportunity does not apply to them.
Some of the country’s financial institutions still refuse to grant women personal loans without their husband’s consent.
A number of independently employed women have had their loan applications from as little as E5 000 rejected either because they had failed to obtain their husband’s signature or approval of such a service.

Standard Bank is one of the institutions that require the husbands consent before such a loan is processed.
A consultant at the bank, when contacted on Tuesday, said if a woman is married she definitely has to provide her husband’s contact details and identification.

She said from then on they contact the husband to verify the information and inform him why they are conducting such.
She said should the husband refuse to that then the loan is rejected whether or not it is the woman’s personal loan or that she draws her salary or whatever form of income through their bank.
“Just the other day we rejected a loan application, but in this case it turned out that the client had provided false information about her alleged husband,” she said.     

At Standard Bank there is a form that is specifically designed for the husband to sign called a consent form and in that form the husband givers the permission for the wife to be afforded a specific type of product including the initial limit. As may be within a woman’s affordability as determined by the bank.
“This consent shall be effective until revoked by me,” further reads the form.

The husband is also expected to provide his identity card, date of birth and cell number in the form that must also be signed by an independent witness.
When contacted for comment Standard Banks Marketing Manager Sammy Dlamini requested that this reporter send a questionnaire, which when a follow up was made Dlamini said he was working on it on Friday.
However, there was still no response at the time of going to press.  

The similar applies at the FNB (First International Bank) where the bank officer said married women were required to provide their husbands’ details so they can confirm if the information is true.
The officer said they believed that should the woman or wife fail to settle the loan, the husband would not be shocked when action was taken.

It could not be established which type of marriage this applied to, but it is generally believed that if a woman is married out of community of property or has an ante- nuptial contract then they could borrow this money without having to get their husbands consent.  

However, married women can breathe easily when applying for personal loans at Nedbank and Swazi Bank as those banks said the only requirement was that the woman draws their salary with them and a letter of confirmation from their employer.
They said although the name and contacts of the spouse are required in the loan application form, this was purely for their data emphasising that they are more concerned about whether one is employed.
“We used to have that kind of form but it was scrapped in the late 90s as women were granted more rights,” said the Nedbank employee.

Swaziland Building Society said although they did not give out personal loans, a woman was allowed to apply for an overdraft should she need that service.
“As long as they draw their salary with us then such a service is available and no consent of the husband is necessary,” she said.
Mzwandile Fakudze, the Deputy Chairperson of the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) who was also part of the Constitution Draft Commission (CDC) was asked for a legal opinion.

He said married women ‘could’ have a case given the wording of the Section 28 (1) of the Constitution which states ‘women have the right to equal treatment with men and that right shall include equal opportunities in political, economic and social activities’.
Human Rights Lawyer Thulani Maseko said, in his opinion, married women who are denied these loans on the basis that their husbands had not given consent had a case against such institutions.

He said this also applies under Section 20 subsections 2 and 3 which states that all people should not be ‘discriminated’ against because of gender, race or colour.
Discriminate as defined in the constitution means to give different treatment to different persons attributable only or mainly to their respective descriptions by gender, race , colour, social or economic standing amongst others.         

Lomcebo Dlamini who is the country representative of Women in Law in Southern Africa was reported to be away from the office for the duration of the week.
Her mobile phone had also been switched off since Tuesday and a final attempt yesterday still yielded the same results.