AB Bank Rwanda has apologised and suspended two senior expatriate managers following the leaked private e-mail correspondences in which Anne Gossner and Marijana Grujic proposed a ‘monkey officer’ job title for a Rwandan employee.

In a written statement exclusively sent to The New Times, yesterday evening, the bank said it "stands for non-discrimination and clearly distances itself against any form of racism.”

"Accordingly, AB Bank Rwanda takes the raised allegations of racism extremely serious. The bank is looking into all details and will examine the background and possible consequences of the said incident,” reads the statement.

AB Bank came under extreme public scrutiny after a story on the leak was published by The New Times, yesterday, with some readers calling for protest against the racist attack on staffer Jean Maurice Akheem Bwitonzi after he rejected a demotion and paycut.

"The two senior managers, Anne Gossner and Marijana Grujic, are suspended pending further resolution. AB Bank sincerely apologises for all inconvenience and distress caused,” the statement says.

Gossner is the bank’s chief credit officer, while Grujic is chief operations officer.

Profiles of both women had by last evening been removed from their employer’s web site page of employees, in Berlin.

Germany envoy angered

The German Ambassador to Rwanda, Peter Fahrenholtz, in an interview, yesterday, condemned the alleged racial sentiments and called for severe punishment of those involved.

"Racism is a most terrible and despicable ideology that belongs to the dust bin of history,” said the envoy, adding that it was in his country’s foreign policy to fight racism anywhere in the world because it’s inexcusable.

Amb. Fahrenholtz also revealed that he had talked to AB Bank officials and asked them to investigate the background events that could have led to the ‘monkey’ references, whether expressed as a joke or not.

"There have to be consequences because racism is an unforgiveable form of discrimination that must be severely punished to ensure it doesn’t happen again,” the envoy said.

He also juxtaposed racism to the kind of the discrimination that climaxed into the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in which over a million people were killed.

AB Bank, which operates as a micro-finance institution in the country, was established in 2013 and is owned by International institutions with the Germany-based Access Microfinance Holding owning majority stake of its shares.

Other institutional shareholders include the German Development Bank (KFW), International Finance Corporation (IFC), and the Netherland Development Finance Company (FMO).

Central bank speaks out

The National Bank of Rwanda (BNR) also expressed concern over the leaked racist remarks, promising its own investigation.

"BNR is very much concerned and is looking into the issue,” the central bank’s communication office said in a statement yesterday.

BNR is the regulatory and supervisory authority of the local banking and microfinance systems, non-bank financial institutions including insurance industry, pension schemes as well as the payment systems.

The central bank holds bilateral meetings with top managers of each of the banks on a regular basis to discuss their general operations and other developments in the financial sector.

Incidentally, AB Bank managers and central bank officials are scheduled to meet today and the leaked ‘monkey e-mails’ are expected to feature in the meeting.

According to a source at the central bank, after reading both the leaked e-mails and the article that was published in this newspaper yesterday, AB Bank officials involved in the scandal were contacted for an explanation.

It wasn’t clear whether the bank officials had issued any form of response to the central bank’s concerns by press time, but Françoise Kagoyire, BNR’s director for bank supervision, said all concerns on the bank will be discussed in today’s meeting.

AB Bank was granted an operations licence in 2013 and commenced commercial banking services in the same year. By June 2014, the bank reportedly had over 4,000 deposit accounts and more than 1,300 loan accounts with a loan book that exceeded Rwf1 billion.

Police call

Meanwhile, Police have urged the public to report cases of racial and other forms of discrimination to facilitate investigations.

Celestin Twahirwa, the Police spokesperson, said although in principle Police are supposed to investigate such incidents, whether reported or not, it’s always better when victims file a complaint.

"Even in this particular case, the alleged victim is yet to make any complaints; we encourage people to report such incidents in order to give the police a starting point,” said Twahirwa.

The Police call comes amid reports from sections of the public that racial discrimination could actually be widespread in several private enterprises.

"If those experiencing racial abuse are choosing to keep quiet, then it’s hard to ask what Police are doing about it,” Twahirwa said.

Racism criminal

According to Police, racism is a punishable offence under the laws of Rwanda. It’s regarded as an act of discrimination under the Penal Code and includes practices such as apartheid and other inhuman and degrading practices, based on racial discrimination, which give rise to outrages on human dignity.

Sources at AB Bank told this newspaper that the expatriate managers, in an act of saving face, visited the bank’s branches yesterday morning and apologised to staff, saying they were not racist.

Meanwhile, the fate of the racially abused staffer, Bwitonzi, remains unknown as he awaits the outcomes of the bank’s investigations. The bank accuses him of leaking the scandalous e-mail exchanges, a charge he vehemently denies.

Nyarugenge District labour officer Jean Marie Rusezerang said Bwitonzi has filed a complaint against his employer and that the office will listen to both parties and help them reach an amicable solution.

"We have Akheem’s side of the story but we don’t have that of the bank. We have to investigate after which we will call both parties and help them discuss a solution and counsel them where necessary,” Rusezeranga said.

editorial@newtimes.co.rw