Bloomberg reports that Net1 UEPS Technologies’s new chief executive officer, Herman Kotze, said a severance payment to the company’s founder and former CEO who was criticised by the company’s biggest shareholders was justified because they forced him into early retirement.  

Net1 agreed to pay Serge Belamant $8 million (R104.51m) and an approximate 14% premium on more than 1 million shares that he owned after he agreed to step down amid a controversy over the Sassa contract the company holds to distribute billions of rands of welfare payments to 17 million people.  Belamant will also be paid $50,000 a month to consult for the company for a two-year period after his early retirement.  Net1’s second-biggest shareholder Allan Gray said it was outraged and the biggest investor, the International Finance Corporation, said it was frustrated.  Belamant’s three decades of service was taken into account, as was his income that was forfeited due to his early retirement, Kotze said.

• Read this report by Aarti Bhana and Renee Bonorchis in full at Moneyweb
• Read too, Allan Gray not impressed by $8m Belamant severance, at Business Report

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