“In terms of the foundation charter, the trustees of the trusttherefore only have the discretion of giving the bursaries to black children. White employees who struggle and earn less than R100 000 aresimply excluded, purely on the basis of their race.”
An agreement has been reached between trade union Solidarity andFirst National Bank regarding the bank’s “racial” allocation ofeducation bursaries for employees’ children.
The union said on Monday that during talks between DirkHermann, deputy general secretary of Solidarity, and FNB CEO MichaelJordaan, it was agreed that the bank would include whites in thetransaction if the law allowed for such a step.
“The legal teams of FNB and Solidarity will meet in mid-Januaryto see if a solution can be found for the dispute,” said Hermann in a statement.
He said the agreement came after 400 South Africans laidcomplaints against FNB about the bank’s support programme, whichexcluded whites.
“Our talks were very amicable. Jordaan explained that the supporttrust was part of a larger black economic empowerment transaction.
“He told us that their legal advice was that whites could not be part of such a transaction,” said Hermann.
Solidarity’s opinion was that no law required that only blacks be helped in that type of BEE transaction.
“There are many examples of whites being included in suchtransactions. It was agreed that FNB would, if allowed by legislation,allow white employees who earn less than R100 000 a year to be part ofthe programme,” said Hermann, adding that although it was not yet theend of the road, good progress had been made.
In the November edition of FNB’s newsletter, Treetalk, the bankoffered financial support to children of African, Indian, Colouredand Chinese employees earning less than R100,000 a year.
“White employees who struggle and earn less than R100 000 aresimply excluded, purely on the basis of their race,” Hermann said.
Jordaan explained that the bursaries were in fact awarded byFirstRand through a black economic empowerment transaction. In terms ofthe transaction, a trust was established in 2004 with the aim ofsupporting the education of black children.
According to legal advice obtained by FNB at the time regardingthe transaction, those who benefit from black empowerment mustexclusively be black.
“In terms of the foundation charter, the trustees of the trusttherefore only have the discretion of giving the bursaries to black children.
“The decision to award bursaries rests with the trustees of thetrust, and not with FNB,” said Jordaan.
He said FNB did have a variety of other bursary schemes as wellas educational support programmes in which all staff membersreceived support according to merit.