SAHA's PAIA request to African Bank prompted them to conduct a fraud investigation, which prevented an anxious lady from paying back R80,000 she had not borrowed.
Rachel, from Tembisa, is a customer of African Bank. Rachel recently began to receive letters from her bank stating that she had borrowed R80, 000 and needed to start repaying this amount.
These letters confused Rachael as she had not borrowed this amount and was in no position to pay such a large sum of money back. Naturally, Rachel was distressed by the situation and sought advice.
At this point Rachel approached SAHA to help her use her right of access to information to gain a better understanding of her financial situation and help resolve the issue at hand.
SAHA submitted a request under Promotion of Access to Information Act, 2000 on behalf of Rachel. It was a request for copies of all:
- loan agreements submitted or allegedly submitted by Rachel
- payments and withdrawals made my Rachel
- correspondence and internal minutes regarding the current status of the loan(s).
The submission of this request had a great impact on the situation.
Bringing the requested documents to the attention of those working at African Bank led to an investigation of Rachael's accounts for fraud. Indeed a number of inconsistencies were found, and it was revealed that fraudulent loans had been taken out with Rachel's details.
African Bank stated, "These accounts have been investigated for fraud and fraud has been confirmed... and two people have been arrested." Consequently the bank no longer requested that Rachel repaid the R80, 000.
Effectively, Rachel's action in making a PAIA request prevented her from paying back money she did not borrow.
Rachel was extremely relieved with the outcome and commented, "I am very happy SAHA obtained this information for me as the bank didn't even tell me what was going on when they found the fraud on my account."
If you would like help in making a PAIA request:
Consult our step by step guideContact the FOIP team at SAHA
