Nedbank probes its employees’ accounts

MBABANE – Employees of Nedbank were this week left shocked when two officers came to their work station and demanded to see print outs of their bank accounts.

Some of the stunned workers are alleged to have consulted with both the police and the Home Affairs Ministry as they felt uncomfortable with what they viewed as invasion of their privacy.

“We were not advised on the coming of the two officers who demanded answers on certain issues regarding monies held in our accounts,” said one employee who spoke on condition of anonymity in fear of victimisation.

Managing Director of Nedbank Swaziland, Ambrose Dlamini, said his bank was investigating activities by their employees, in a bid to understand certain things and conduct of their employees, “nothing less and nothing more”.
He told Swazi News yesterday that since the beginning of the week, they had two people from their mother company in South Africa who were tasked to conduct an internal investigation on all transactions of their employees. Dlamini started with registering his objection on how the issue found its way to Swazi News, alleging that the matter was very much internal to have found itself in the newspaper.

“We are conducting an internal investigation to ascertain certain activities within our bank. The two are employees of Nedbank South Africa as you might know that we are owned by Nedbank South Africa. This issue was very internal such that the two also took part in interviews where we asked certain questions from our employees, so there was nothing sinister with that. The only issue could be that they came to the country without the relevant paperwork, otherwise they acted within their mandate,” said Dlamini.

Secretary General, of Swaziland Union of Financial Institutions Allied Workers Union (SUFIAWU) Vincent Ncongwane said they were taken by surprise when they heard that two unknown people ordered their members to submit their bank statements.

“Our members were ordered to produce their bank statements and also state where their money was coming from. It then happened that one of the workers asked the two gentlemen as to who they were and what was the purpose of their coming to the country and it was at that stage that they called us.

We then took up the matter with the immigration department seeking clarity on whether such can be done and they have not yet come back to us. If the bank wanted to probe staff does it mean that locals cannot be engaged and do the exercise,” said Ncongwane.

He said they have no problem with internal investigations but they must be done in a dignified manner not in a way that would humiliate their members.