BL Premium reports that Absa has removed Sipho Pityana as lead independent director roughly three weeks after it emerged that he was suing the banking regulator for allegedly blocking his appointment as chair of the bank.
In a statement on Friday, Absa informed shareholders that its board had decided that Pityana would “with immediate effect” cease to be lead independent director, chair of the group’s remuneration committee and, as a consequence, a member of its directors’ affairs committee. For the time being Pityana will remain a member of Absa’s board. On 25 October, it was reported that Pityana had taken the extraordinary step of taking the Prudential Authority (PA) to court for allegedly blocked his appointment as Absa chair. Pityana filed papers to the high court asking it to declare that the PA, which falls under the auspices of the SA Reserve Bank (SARB) and which regulates the country’s banks, had unlawfully conducted an “informal process” with the boards of Absa Bank and Absa Holdings to block his nomination. In his court papers, Pityana said that through an “informal process” the PA had conducted deliberations about him that involved external parties — in particular, his successor as chair of AngloGold Ashanti (AGA), Maria Ramos — concerning a “false and untrue allegation” of sexual harassment that was made against him in 2020. Upon being made aware of the sexual harassment allegations, Absa commissioned its own independent legal review of the AGA investigation and findings and found that the mining group’s report was flawed. Though Pityana said the Absa board had initially resolved to nominate him, it withdrew that decision after its own investigation when SARB deputy governor Kuben Naidoo indicated that the regulator would object to it.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Thabiso Mochiko and Nick Wilson at BusinessLive
- Read too, Legal wrangle hangs over Absa axing of Pityana as lead independent director, at BusinessLive (subscriber access only)
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