As little as 10 years ago, the notion of an Afrikaans bank climbing into bed with a black trade union would have met with self-righteous howls of outraged indignation. Yet today it causes scarcely a blush that Hosken Consolidated Investments (HCI) – jointly controlled by the allied investment arms of the National Union of Mineworkers and the SA Clothing and Textile Workers’ Union – paid R74m for a 30stake in BFS Capital Limited, part of NBS Boland.

Source: Finance Week