Net 1 Announces the Establishment of Financial Services Ombudsman

Net 1 UEPS Technologies (NASDAQ:UEPS) has announced the establishment of an independent ombudsman, Advocate Neville Melville, who will oversee dispute resolution about the company’s financial services and product sales through subsidiaries located in South Africa.
As quoted in the press release:

Advocate Neville Melville is uniquely experienced in the dispute resolution field, having been appointed as a functionary of the National Peace Accord in turbulent KwaZulu-Natal in the run up to South Africa’s first democratic election. He then established the Independent Complaints Directorate (now IPID) under the Mandela Administration before becoming the Banking Ombudsman, in which capacity he served for seven years. Thereafter, he assisted various ombudsman offices in South Africa and other African countries with setting up their offices, training their staff members, compiling manuals, reviewing their processes and conducting research. For the last four years, he has headed the Consumer Goods and Services Ombud scheme, which is accredited under statute. He is a member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (London).
The services provided by the ombudsman will include receiving complaints from the Company’s customers, including social grant recipients, seeking any outstanding information necessary for a decision and settling the complaints by way of conciliation, mediation, fact finding or decision binding upon the Company. The ombudsman will function independently from the Company’s established query and dispute resolution process.
Advocate Melville will commence with his activities with immediate effect and will attend a community meeting as an independent observer in the Western Cape today, together with representatives from the Company and Grindrod Bank, relating to complaints raised by social grant recipients. The Company expects to publish the ombudsman’s terms of reference, reporting obligations, contact details and a customer service charter before the end of June 2017.

Click here to read the full press release.