South African journalist Yazeed Kamaldien is out to expose the banks for failing to safeguard clients’ money and for what he describes as acting unethically. But will the banks even notice his protest?
South Africans have become accustomed to poor customer service but journalist Yazeed Kamaldien isn’t taking it lying down. After a run-in with Standard Bank, he’s on a quest to put a spotlight on ethics in banking.
It all started when Kamaldien’s credit card was cloned while he was on a trip to Brazil. After repeated calls to his bank went unheeded, he used his clout as a journalist to take his complaint directly to the bank’s spokesperson and his case finally started going somewhere.
Three months after the crime was committed, Standard Bank agreed to pay back half of what had been stolen. But Kamaldien is a journalist, and a social-media savvy one at that, and he’s set out to #exposethebanks for what he says is unethical behaviour.
Kamaldien raises the question: can we trust banks with our hard-earned cash?
In a short video put together to explain where he’s coming from, Kamaldien has called on people who feel they’ve been dealt with unethically by their banks to tell him their stories.
please share this video: Standard Bank Where’s My Money? #exposethebanks
Posted by Yazeed Kamaldien on Monday, 17 August 2015
“Ultimately, we need to stand up and we need to speak out against businesses when they decide to tell us what they want to do with our money,†he says in the video.
Shot beside a row of Standard Bank ATMs on Sunday night, the video has racked up over 23,000 views on Facebook since it was posted on Monday.
Kamaldien told The Daily Vox he’s only gotten positive feedback on the video.
“People are sending me their stories and I’m exposing that online too,†he said.
He plans to take his case to the banking ombudsman, at which point he’ll no longer be able to talk about the case publicly, and his videos will have to be removed from the internet.
Until then though, he’ll continue to needle the banks with his videos and social media posts. (A new video was posted on Thursday.)
And, he said, even when he can no longer talk about his own case, he’ll still be able to expose other cases of corruption in banking.
“I want ethical behaviour from banks because we see a lot of bullying from banks and corporates. They basically do what they want with our money and give us bad service. I fought for months with Standard [Bank] before getting an unsatisfactory resolution. Banks need to know it’s because of us and our money that they exist,†Kamaldien told The Daily Vox.
