FNB sacks four employees for ‘political talk and using insulting language’

First National Bank (FNB) has reportedly fired four ANC-supporting employees for “political talk and using insulting language” after the group made several comments about politics and race in the country, including questioning the race of DA leader Mmusi Maimane’s wife, Natalie.

According to Sunday Independent – Siphesihle Jele, Simon Masimula, Sipho Coke and Xolani Nkosiwho – were dismissed as premium bankers at FNB in Inanda, Sandton, after the bank monitored their business emails and WhatsApp group conversations for several months last year.

In one of the emails intercepted by the bank, Linda Mahaye reportedly said: “I’m shocked Mmusi Maimane’s wife is white.”

Jele responded: “White voice, white party, white wife, very soon he will be a Michael Jackson and bleach his skin.”

Jele, in response to an email from Masimula, said: “If we don’t want white people to look down at us, we then should stop the notion that everything white is beautiful.

“Luck or anything good and everything black is associated with ugliness, black sheep, etc, cos (sic) that simply means if you’re almost white then almost beautiful, and if you’re darker then you’re far from being beautiful.”

FNB spokesperson Shamala Moodley confirmed to Sunday Independent the four were dismissed following “a thorough and vigorous” internal disciplinary and CCMA process. They were charged with 10 charges, including “gross misconduct and breach of your duty of good faith towards the bank”.

Moodley said FNB “respects every employee’s constitutional right to privacy and freedom of association”. However, the group believes their sacking was politically motivated.

Jele, 30, claimed the decision to fire them by the bank was unfair and racially motivated, as they were “advocates of transformation within the bank”.

He said he believed they would still be employed by FNB if they had said something negative about the ANC or President Jacob Zuma.

“Life has become a living nightmare for me. I can’t provide for my three daughters and my family back home in KwaZulu-Natal. I paid a heavy price for exercising my constitutionally guaranteed right to freely express myself. I doubt we would have been dismissed if we had heaped praise on Mmusi Maimane and the DA,” Jele said.

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