In 2014, a former high-ranking official at the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) released a book that shocked many by calling the country’s entire banking system a "colossal fraud" . Stephen Goodson, who served as a non-executive director at the bank, claimed that the institution was actually designed to benefit private bankers while keeping the public in "debt slavery" . Looking back at his account, we see a story of hidden history, massive financial scandals, and a call for total reform. The Warning from the Past The sources describe how the SARB was founded after World War I, largely based on the advice of a foreign financier named Henry Strakosch . At the time, critics in the South African Parliament warned that giving private banks the power to create money was a "retrograde step" that would eventually lead to the "enslavement of the workers" . These early critics argued that a State Bank , owned by the people, would have provided inter...
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