AS THE Ithala Bank hovers on the brink of closure, the eldest daughter of Inkosi Mangosuthu Mangosuthu, the brains behind the formation of the black-owned bank, hit out at the people allegedly behind erasing her late father’s legacy.
In a candid interview with the Daily News yesterday, Princess Phumzile Buthelezi, who struggled to hold back the tears, said there was a deliberate plot to dismantle her father’s “rich history” by people who harboured hatred towards the late IFP leader, who died due to illness in September 2023.
“What is happening at Ithala Bank pains us as a family. My father worked very hard for that bank. Today, some people still hate my father even though he is no longer around,” she said, with a trembling voice.
Phumzile, also an IFP member of the provincial legislature (MPL) in KZN, said there has been sustained propaganda against Buthelezi stoked by sworn enemies way before democracy in 1994.
Without mentioning names, Phumzile said, “Look at the colleges that were built by my father. They are all defunct as we speak. Look at the airport in Ulundi. The airport has been left to crumble because it was built by my father. There is clear propaganda to erase all the good that my father did,”she said.
Buthelezi has on multiple occasions alleged a conspiracy against him, aimed at erasing her father’s legacy.
The bank, formed in 1958, has 38 branches in KwaZulu-Natal and is fully owned by the KZN government.
Its formation was a much-needed relief for scores of people with no alternative avenues to access loans in the then KwaZulu province, led by Buthelezi as Chief Minister.
However, its operations came to a grinding halt after the Prudential Authority (PA) applied to the High Court in Pietermaritzburg for Ithala’s provisional liquidation due to alleged non-compliance, last week.
Reflecting on his father’s legacy, she said: “It is sad to see an institution like Ithala going through such a crisis.
What makes it painful is that we couldn't spend time with Dad because he was always crisscrossing the country and world in search of funding to build the institutions that we have, such as Ithala.”
Phumzile, who spoke to the Daily News from a hospital bed in Pretoria following an operation, said the “manmade” crisis at Ithala has worsened her health.
“I have been watching the developments on TV and calling people about the matter. I can tell you now that my health has deteriorated a bit due to the Ithala crisis. But we will overcome,” she remarked.
Phumzile hoped Ithala's looming liquidation would be averted.
“It will be a sad day in the history of the country if Ithala is liquidated.”
“Many people will suffer if this bank is allowed to collapse. Our plea is for the government to fight against the closure of the bank. That is what we are hoping for,” she said.
The bank has 257 000 depositors whose lives have been affected by the ongoing crisis.
In honouring Buthelezi, Ithala renamed its Ulundi branch in his name in 2023.
The IFP, the party founded by Buthelezi in 1975, was also dismayed at the imminent closure of the bank.
Party spokesperson Mkhuleko Hlengwa has vowed that IFP supporters would take to the streets.
“Ithala Bank was established to support and safeguard the financial interests of the previously disadvantaged and those excluded by major corporate banks. Any move to liquidate Ithala Bank is a direct assault on the financial security of black South Africans. The Prudential Authority's actions are provocative, and the IFP will respond decisively to defend Ithala Bank,” Hlengwa said in a recent statement.
An economist Dawie Roodt suggested that political interference was among the reasons that led to the crisis at the bank.
DAILY NEWS