THE South African Communist Party has joined calls for Barclays subsidiary Absa to pay back millions of pounds worth of illicit apartheid-era “lifeboat loans.” ]

In a statement on Wednesday night, the party joined the ruling ANC’s Women’s League and Youth League in demanding that the bank return the money with interest.

Absa, one of South Africa’s “big four” banks, is accused of pocketing 1.5 billion rand (£90 million) of state cash in the guise of a bailout for the Bankorp group, which it bought in 1992.