Well, more than 500 creditors - reputable (or lets say so-called "reputable") banks, financial institutions and asset holders with major exposure to the massive bad debt bubble of African Bank are set to lose a whopping 75% of what they're due, according to the business plan Ellerine Holdings published yesterday.
Who's going to jail? Nobody. Who's asking questions about the government bank bail-out? Very few. Who is investigating why so-called reputable institutions were in cahoots with this mess?
And most important of all: How on earth was this R3 billion financial sham and national fiscal shame allowed to happen?
While South African consumers will suddenly, most probably see businesses from Wetherleys to Furniture City and definitely Ellerines close down by the end of the year ("winding down" is the soft financial jargon euphemism word I had to use as a financial journalist), major South African financial institutions are going to lose millions due to the pricking of the debt balloon of African Bank Investment's sick, sick, sick furniture unit.
FirstRand is set to lose R313 million, Standard Bank is in for a loss of R150 million, Investec will lose R120 million, Absa R100 million, Barloworld R109.7 million and Sahara Computers of the Gupta family willlose R3.1 million.
The SABC also has exposure and will lose R500 000.
Add names like Samsung Electronics, Virgin Mobile and several other companies to the list who are not going to get paid.
