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First Merchant Bank, which is bidding to take over Barclays Bank Zimbabwe, has torched a storm in Malawi amid allegations of racism at the financial institution.
Newspaper reports from Malawi say staff members are complaining bitterly over racist attacks on fellow members of staff especially by one of the top managers at the bank, Mr Kobus Louw. Mr Louw is the group general manager for Credit at FMB.
The reports say Mr Louw, an expatriate from South Africa has been abusing staff members from the credit department by calling them unpalatable names and shouting at them.
He is said to have been using abusive words like “stupid”, “bullshit” and “monkey” almost every day on staff members. President Peter Mutharika has warned and threatened to deport any foreign employer who failed to respect Malawian employees at their work places in the country. “Any foreign employer who mistreats Malawians in any way, will be sent out of this country, as long as I am President of the country,” cautioned Mr Mutharika.
He added that racism was an evil which destroyed harmony in multi-racial societies.
One of the affected bankers said nobody has reported the abuse to responsible authorities for fear of reprisals as the manager is very senior and is in good books with the owners of the bank. “A number of managers in the department have left the Bank not in search of greener pastures but running away from this man,” he told the Press in that country. “In 2015 when he had just joined the Bank, a very senior member of the department resigned because of the abusive language,” said another source at the bank.
Media reports from Malawi say managers at the bank are complaining they are being treated like they are working as domestic workers and not as professionals. The First Merchant Bank has announced it is in exclusive discussions to buy Barclays Bank Zimbabwe.
The bank said it is in talks to buy out the 68 percent of Barclays Bank of Zimbabwe which are owned by Barclays Plc.
The remaining 32 percent of Barclays Bank of Zimbabwe’s shares are traded on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange. — Business Reporter/Nyasa Times.
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