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Daily Maverick writes about the buzz in the markets about the announced early retirement of Absa chief executive Arrie Rautenbach (59), who agreed “after engagements” with the Absa board, to take early retirement from the group, effective from 15 April 2025.
Practically, this means the CEO will cease to be the group chief executive officer and an executive director of the Absa Group and Absa Bank with effect from 15 October this year, followed by a six-month contractual notice period which will be served as garden leave. The Public Investment Corporation (PIC), a 5% shareholder, had objected to Rautenbach’s appointment in 2022, saying it had expected the board to have placed the required focus on transformation in the process of recruiting a new CEO. The bank has faced significant challenges over recent years, losing market share to competitors. The Black Business Council of SA (BBC) said it was “disappointed” to see the bank had not appointed a black interim CEO, instead opting to appoint Charles Russon, who will now be the sixth CEO of Absa (on an acting or permanent basis) since 2019. “This demonstrates in clear terms that Absa does not have a proper succession strategy and plan that includes a pipeline of possible succession candidates. The revolving door of white CEOs at Absa is very worrying to the [BBC] and other progressive institutions that embrace transformation,” the council said on Monday. This follows criticism in May when Rautenbach made an internal announcement (that was not well received) to the effect that he would replace Saviour Chibiya as head of regional operations in Africa with Ravin Dajee, who was head of operations in Mauritius. Other moves that were announced at the same time included Deon Raju’s appointment as group financial director, replacing Jason Quinn; Rajal Vaidya as interim group chief risk officer and Christine Wu as chief executive of the everyday banking business unit.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Neesa Moodley at Daily Maverick
- Read too, The job of Absa CEO is becoming an increasingly hard sell, at City Press
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page