Chairperson, hon members, the Bill before us seeks to ensure that the Postbank provides the "unbanked" masses of our people and lower-income South Africans with a complete range of financial services which are free of the obstacles they face at traditional commercial banks. For many years the UDM has been calling for the development of a strategy that bridges the resource allocation imbalance between South Africa's most developed parts and the rural communities, especially the poor ones.
The establishment of the Postbank will not only facilitate access for the poor and the rural communities to banking facilities but will also play an important role in bridging the digital divide between the aforementioned communities. Nothing can delight us more than seeing an increasing amount of resources being spent on bringing services close to our people. We also hope this project will teach commercial banks a thing or two about the role their failed Mzansi Account project was intended to play. The UDM supports the Bill.