JOHANNESBURG, (The Southern African Times) — South Africa’s African Bank has begun to restructure its business following the outbreak of COVID-19, and more than one third of its employees will be affected, the bank said on Tuesday.
“The COVID-19 outbreak and the associated protracted lockdown intensified the dire state of the economy. Given the financial pressure faced by our customers, the bank has recorded a reduction in sales as well as collections, which has created excess capacity across the different business units,” said the bank in a statement.
The automation and digitalization of processes, while increasing efficiency, has led to redundancies and duplication of functions, which need to be reduced, it said.
“It has therefore become imperative to restructure the bank and hence enter into consultations, which may lead to the loss of jobs,” it added.
The bank anticipated that 1,269 employees of the current 3,728 total will be affected, among whom approximately 25 percent will lose their jobs at the end of the consultations.
Negotiation with Sasbo, South Africa’s influential financial trade union, and other stakeholders on how to start the retrenchment is ongoing, according to the statement.
