BRUCE WHITFIELD: Looking for calm, Absa appoints an insider as boss

BRUCE WHITFIELD: Looking for calm, Absa appoints an insider as boss

Arrie Rautenbach. File photo: SUPPLIED Absa has appointed an insider as full-time CEO for the first time since 2006. Banking sector and Absa veteran Arrie Rautenbach will take over from interim CEO Jason Quinn. Quinn returns to the finance director role he held until the departure of former Reserve Bank deputy governor Daniel Mminele, who resigned in April 2021, 15 months into his tenure.

The bank will hope that Rautenbach’s appointment will bring some much-needed stability to the leadership of the group, which also had a boardroom bust-up late last year leading to the departure of Sipho Pityana, who had expected to succeed outgoing chair Wendy Lucas-Bull.

Mminele has moved on to new appointments including the chairpersonship of Alexander Forbes and head of the presidential climate finance task team, and has steadfastly declined to comment on the reasons for his departure beyond the official statement, which simply read: “The parties have not managed to achieve alignment in relation to the group’s strategy and the culture transformation journey.” Pityana has been far more vociferous about his exit and appears ready to slug it out in court.

Pityana, lauded for his role as president of Business Unity SA and standing up against the state capture of the Zuma administration, remains adamant he was unfairly denied the job as Absa chair and is challenging his board dismissal. The Absa board fired him in November 2021, months after he claimed the banking regulator had blocked his nomination as chair. This came after allegations that he’d resigned as AngloGold Ashanti chair following claims of sexual harassment against him.

He claimed that former Absa CEO Maria Ramos informed the Prudential Authority about the allegations when it was considering his suitability to chair the Absa board. Ramos succeeded Pityana as AngloGold Ashanti chair.

Things got messier when Pityana openly challenged the regulator’s decision, and after he gave a presentation to the Absa board in which he defended his right to challenge the Reserve Bank, it took the decision to remove him on the basis that he had failed to conduct himself “in the interests of Absa”. She dutifully warned me that the banking sector was fragile and confidence was critical Leadership at Absa has long been hotly contested.

It was a Friday morning in 2006. There had been a rumour that Absa was on the lookout for a new CEO. Its candidate, my well-placed source assured me, was Ramos, the Transnet CEO […]

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