Cape Town - AYO Technology Solutions has brought an application for an urgent interim interdict against Access Bank South Africa in the Western Cape High Court after the bank closed two of the company's accounts on May 31.
AYO's urgent application is for access to and the reopening and/or restoration of its accounts.
The legal counsel for AYO has stated that due to the closure of its accounts, money that was deposited into those accounts was reversed and now it has no access to the funds.
"AYO cannot access the money, which runs into millions," said senior counsel Advocate Tanya Golden.
It was also submitted that Access Bank had allegedly breached its customer banking relationship.
Golden told the court the bank's decision to close its accounts, without prior notice, was irrational, unlawful, unreasonable and unjust.
While there was correspondence after the closure of the accounts, the bank stated in its replying affidavit that it had also communicated with Dr Iqbal Surve.
"Dr Surve is not the director of AYO, he is not employed with AYO, he has no say in AYO. He is not a shareholder. AYO is listed on the JSE.
"We don't know what was corresponded (with Surve). AYO was not consulted," Golden submitted.
She further rubbished the claims made by Access Bank that AYO had an account with Nedbank.
"AYO has no other banking facilities. In the matter pertaining to Surve and others v Nedbank, AYO was not a party to this and was never a party to this application. AYO never had an account with Nedbank," Golden submitted.
She said while the bank kept referring to the matter regarding the Sekunjalo Group before the Competition Tribunal, a judgment has not been made in that matter yet.
"Closing the accounts is unreasonable and unjust as it (Access Bank) took media reports about Sekunjalo and AYO to make this decision.
"It had the obligation to investigate these allegations in the media reports.
"You cannot just close bank accounts after hearing adverse things about your client. You have to do independent research," Golden submitted.
She further told the court AYO was heading for destruction and was “hanging on for its life” because it did not have access to these accounts.
Golden asked the court to grant the interim order with costs and costs for three counsels.
Senior counsel for Access Bank, Advocate Adrian Botha said it was a mistake opening the accounts in the first place.
"The bank made sure it would not want to have any clientele/banking with anyone from the Sekunjalo Group.
“The opening of these accounts was a mistake.
"The real fight AYO should be having is with other banks," he submitted.
He said AYO had two accounts and at the time of closure one account was eight days old and the other 21 days old.
"The applicant wants to play fast and loose about when they rely on the (Sekunjalo) group.
"Since May 2021, it was unbanked - on its own version.
"You want to force this bank, which you using for a proxy for all other banks?
"If we rebank you, I am going to terminate you again. Why would you do that?
"This is to tie this small bank to AYO indefinitely. Due to a mistake they want to force us to bank them indefinitely.
"It is too risky (to) get me to bank them and I don't want to have that relationship," Botha submitted.
He said AYO claims to be wanting to pay salaries, and listed dates where at times the company deposited R500 000 or R150 million at a time.
"They say they want to pay salaries. All the money that came in was sent out. One would think during that time they would pay salaries.“
Botha further stated that the Mpati Commission, where the funds pertaining to AYO have been labelled as suspicious, is one of the reasons Access Bank does not want to do business with the company.
"There's all this money floating around, which is allegedly proceeds of a crime or of that nature. If those allegations in the Mpati report are correct we will be facing difficulties. This entails reputational and criminal risk. We do not have the risk appetite for this business. We do not want to do business with you. The message could not be any clearer. The law doesn't compel Access Bank to do business with AYO," Botha submitted.
He called for the court to strike the matter from the court roll with costs.
In her response to submissions made by Botha, Golden rubbished his argument, claiming the bank acted in the same discriminatory manner as other major banks in South Africa had done in their alleged targeting of the Sekunjalo Group.
"The law is the law. No matter how small or big a bank you are, you are subjected to the same law," she submitted.