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Former Bank Worker Barred After Asking Clients for Money

Thapelo Jan Baloyi once held a position of trust.

As a financial planner at Standard Bank’s Secunda branch, he was meant to help clients manage their money and plan for the future.

Instead, an investigation found that he was secretly using client relationships from the bank to ask for personal loans and bribes. This got him booted from working for the bank.

The Nonsense He Was Getting Up To

It started with a WhatsApp message in July 2024.

One of Baloyi’s clients, known only as TG, became uncomfortable when he asked her to lend him one thousand rand.

She never sent the money, but she did report the incident to the bank. That report triggered a deeper investigation that uncovered an unsettling pattern. The investigation revealed that he had been going around to bank clients asking for loans and more.

One client even paid him R17 000 after he promised to help her daughter find work at the bank. The job never happened, and the money was, of course, never returned.

Consequences

After the investigation revealed all this (and some missing bank equipment) Baloyi did not deny receiving some of the money.

He instead said he was running a consulting business and that clients knew they were paying him personally for his services. He also claimed the “lost” bank laptop was not taken or removed intentionally and promised to replace it (you can guess if that ever happened).

When he later had the chance to explain everything properly, he missed deadlines and gave conflicting reasons as to why and what had happened. When the Financial Services Tribunal reviewed all the facts, it concluded that Baloyi had abused his position, had taken advantage of clients, and showed no sign of remorse. His application to challenge the bank’s decision was dismissed.

He is now no longer allowed to work in the financial industry.

Its Best To Be Wary

If you are contacted by someone claiming to work for the bank or a Debt Counsellor or PDA, be wary if they ask for money (or ask you to change bank accounts).

Never give people on the phone one time pins or passwords. Do not be in a rush to give whoever calls sensitive info. Often scammers rely on trying to stress you or rush you into giving them such info. If they genuinely work for the bank or PDA they will not require such information from you. They should already have it on their system.

It can be a wise strategy to end such calls and rather go online to the website of the organisation and find their official communication email addresses or phone numbers and message them via those platforms.

Don’t believe everything you hear on the phone just because someone says they work for the bank.