Johan Burger was ‘surprised’ by ANC’s summon to Luthuli House

Johan Burger, the former CEO of FirstRand, has become the second heavyweight banking executive to say he was summoned by the ANC to its Luthuli House headquarters over the bank’s decision to shut down Gupta family-related accounts.

Burger, who testified at the State Capture Commission of Inquiry on Tuesday, detailed how he received a call in 2016 from the ANC’s economic subcommittee chairman Enoch Godongwana about FNB’s decision to cancel Gupta-family bank accounts over suspicions of money laundering.

FNB, which is a subsidiary of FirstRand, had decided to close, among others, the accounts of Tegeta Exploration, TNA Media, Sahara Computers — the business entities owned by the controversial Gupta family.

Burger said on April “18 or 19” 2016, he received a call from Godongwana to attend a meeting at Luthuli House, which would also be attended by the ANC’s former Secretary General Gwede Mantashe. He told Godongwana that he was “out of town” and suggested that he would be available in the following week, preferably on a Wednesday.

Burger later established that the purpose of the meeting would be to discuss FNB’s closure of Gupta accounts, as Godongwana told him that the ANC was in the process of meeting with Standard Bank, Barclays Africa (now Absa) and Nedbank about the same matter.

“I was surprised by the call and the purpose of meeting…In my 32 years of banking experience, it’s the first time ever receiving a request from a political party to discuss a bank-client relationship. I didn’t expect any third party to question this relationship,” said Burger.

Godongwana later told him that “there was no longer a requirement for the meeting at Luthuli House”, for reasons which Burger doesn’t know.

Asked by advocate Refiloe Molefe, acting for the inquiry, if it’s normal for a bank to get a call from a political party about its clients, Burger says it was “unexpected.” “I wouldn’t expect to get a call from a political party about the bank-client relationship.”

Burger’s testimony followed the bombshell revelation on Monday by Ian Sinton, the head of compliance at Standard Bank, that senior ANC members and two ministers attempted to pressure the bank to keep the Gupta-linked accounts open during a meeting at Luthuli House. The two ministers are former mineral resources minister Mosebenzi Zwane, a known Gupta-family lackey and labour minister Mildred Oliphant.

The meeting was also attended by Standard Bank Group CEO Sim Tshabalala. Sinton said Zwane made several threats to Standard Bank, including the ruling party taking away its banking license if it didn’t reverse the closure of the Gupta-bank accounts.

The big four banks decided to close the Gupta-linked accounts because they were suspected of carrying out money laundering activities. SA’s highly regulated banking sector has an obligation to comply with regulations that prohibit suspicious banking transactions.

IMC meeting

An inter-ministerial committee (IMC), which made up of Zwane, Oliphant and then finance minister Pravin Gordhan, was set up to probe the closure of the bank accounts.

Burger said he refused to participate in the IMC meeting to be held on April 25, 2016, as his numerous attempts to seek clarity about the purpose of the meeting went unanswered. “FNB would not debate bank-client relationships with the IMC, this would be illegal…We could talk about the banking regulatory framework but not the client relationship,” said Burger.

The inquiry continues tomorrow with the testimony of Nedbank Group CEO Mike Brown.