Communications Minister Mondli Gungubele on Thursday hit back at Postbank's former directors, saying they could face criminal charges. The minister's comments come in a chaotic month that saw the dramatic exit of the bank's entire board, after software glitches left hundreds of thousands of vulnerable people penniless as their grants went unpaid.
Gungubele told News24 he was "at war" with the bank's former board, and accused them of illegally paying a software provider R140 million without following public finance laws. Gungubele's department is responsible for overseeing Postbank.
According to the minister, an initial investigation by financial services firm KPMG had unearthed a slew of irregularities and criminality, with an extended probe now under way. While he declined to name the technology firm linked to his allegations, citing legal reasons, he said the board had now been removed.