Patience Makwele
A Bank Windhoek customer is demanding answers after discovering that she had allegedly been declared dead, her accounts closed and funds transferred without her knowledge.
The customer, who has asked not to be named because the matter is still under investigation, says she discovered something was wrong when she stopped at a shop after work to buy bread and her bank card was declined for insufficient funds.
She had used the account the previous day and had not checked her balance.
After returning home, she logged into her Bank Windhoek app and found that her accounts were no longer showing as usual, including her 32-day savings account. Information relating to her home loan account was also missing.
She contacted the bank’s call centre and was advised to visit her branch the following morning. She was also given contact details for the bank’s legal department.
According to the customer, her subsequent engagements with bank officials revealed that her account had allegedly been flagged as belonging to a deceased person.
“I was shocked because I am alive and I was using the account. I could not understand how they could say I was dead when I was actively using my bank account,” she said.
The customer says her salary was being paid into the account and that she used it for everyday transactions, including buying electricity, paying for her vehicle and servicing her home loan.
She says bank officials told her the account had allegedly been flagged since 2020.
“They told me that the account had been flagged because I, the owner, has been deceased since 2020. What I do not understand is why they only acted now, after all these years, when the account was still being used every day,” she said.
At the time of the incident, the customer says her 32-day savings account contained about N$12 000, while another account held approximately N$8 000.
She says funds were subsequently transferred from her accounts after instructions were allegedly issued through the bank’s legal department.
“After going back and forth and being referred from the legal department, the main branch and property finance… I was told by a worker at property finance that the money had been transferred because they had received instructions from the legal department [their boss] to transfer the money and close the account. I did not give permission for anyone to transfer my money, and I was not informed before it happened,” she said.
“The strangest thing is their boss went out on leave the next day after giving such instructions. They did not allow me to speak to him because he is apparently out of office.”
The matter was resolved the next day and she was subsequently required to return to her branch and open a new 32 days savings account before the funds could be returned.
She says she was told the original account could not simply be reopened because its closure had already been effected.
Financial advocate Kenneth Lyuma said banks should ordinarily have a clear verification process before restricting or transferring funds in connection with a deceased estate.
“First and foremost, they need hard, legally verified proof,” Lyuma said, referring to documentation such as a death certificate and the relevant authority to administer a deceased estate.
He said such documentation should be checked against the account holder’s verified identity and banking records before action is taken.
Lyuma said the reported activity on the customer’s accounts also raises questions about internal controls.
“If an account is actively receiving monthly salary deposits, processing everyday debit orders, and servicing a home loan, it means two completely conflicting realities are happening simultaneously within the bank’s systems,” he said.
He said the circumstances could point to a data-integrity problem or inadequate oversight of manual instructions, although the precise cause would need to be established through an investigation of the bank’s records.
The customer says she provided her identification and account details when she sought assistance at the bank and questioned how she could have been treated as deceased while continuing to use the accounts.
“How do they declare me dead if they did not show me any proof, apart from saying they were instructed by their boss from the legal department? I am the person who owns the account, and I was there in person with my identification documents,” she said.
Lyuma said where an active customer is incorrectly affected by an administrative error, the customer should not simply be left to carry the consequences.
“When a bank makes an administrative error that closes an active account, the correct procedure is to reverse the closure, reactivate the existing account, and restore the audit trail,” he said.
The Windhoek Observer approached Bank Windhoek with questions about the procedures followed to verify a customer’s death before restricting or closing accounts, the documentation required before funds are transferred, customer notification and safeguards against similar incidents.
Bank Windhoek, through its Head of Strategic Partnerships and Corporate Social Responsibility, Bronwyn Moody, said the bank could not disclose confidential client information.
“I have consulted internal stakeholders on your request. Unfortunately, the Banking Regulation Act prohibits us from sharing confidential client information,” Moody stated in an email.
The bank did not provide substantive responses to the general questions about its procedures.
The customer says she has retained records relating to the incident, including banking documents and proof relating to the return of the funds.
She wants the bank to explain how her accounts came to be treated as belonging to a deceased person while she was still actively using them and why she had to open a new account to regain access to money she says was already held in her name.
“What would have happened if I had cash on me and didn’t use my account for 3 days? It would have been very difficult for me to get my money back. I got my money back but this matter needs to be investigated because there could be more Namibians affected therefore I will not leave the matter to rest.”
