Former President Jacob Zuma’s son, Duduzane, faced the same fate. His accounts were shut in 2015. He had to leave South Africa—not because of guilt, but because he couldn’t buy bread, pay rent, or catch a taxi. Matshela Koko, former Eskom Interim CEO, watched as his entire family was blacklisted by banks. His crime? Defending coal over renewables..Opposing the prevailing narrative. Refusing to bow.

In court, his legal team revealed the truth: not one member of his family can access a bank account. Not one. In a democracy.

This is not about corruption. If it were, the same rules would apply to the Steinhoffs, the Tongaats, the EOHs—white-led corporations whose corruption drained billions. Yet their doors remain open, their bank accounts untouched. The pattern is unmistakable. This is about race. This is about power. This is about fear.

Banks were never meant to be ideological police. They are service providers. Their job is to hold money—not to hold democracy hostage.

We must say it plainly: reputational risk is a scam. It is undefined, untested in court, and entirely subjective. It allows a handful of CEOs to decide who eats and who starves. Who rises and who is erased. That is not banking. That is tyranny.

South Africa cannot allow this to continue. We need new laws—laws that strip banks of the power to punish without proof. We need regulators with teeth. We need a justice system that sees black ambition not as a threat, but as a right.

Because today it’s Sekunjalo, Malema, Zuma, and Koko. Tomorrow, it will be you. The mother who runs a spaza shop. The activist asking the wrong questions. The student who posts the truth on social media.

This is not just about money. It’s about freedom. And freedom cannot exist when access to a bank account is a political privilege, not a human right.

The banks may be silent. But we will not be.

* Sipho Tshabalala is an independent writer, commentator and analyst.

** The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of IOL or Independent Media.