By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Banking Group Absa axes Sipho Pityana as lead independent director with immediate effect.
In a statement late on Friday, the Absa board said: “Shareholders are informed that the Absa Group and Absa Bank boards have resolved that Sipho M Pityana will cease to be lead independent director of Absa Group and Absa Bank, chairman of the remuneration committee (remco) and, as a consequence, member of the directors’ affairs committee, with immediate effect.
This comes weeks after Pityana took the SA Reserve Bank’s Prudential Authority (PA) to court for allegedly blocking his appointment as Absa Chair.
Pityana alleges that Absa submitted his nomination as chair to the authority, which then through an “informal process” consulted with third parties, including with former Absa CEO, Maria Ramos, about whether he was “fit and proper” for the role.
Through these discussions, the authority learned about an allegation of sexual harassment made against Pityana in 2020, while he was chairperson of AngloGold Ashanti.
In December last year, Ramos was named the new chair of AngloGold Ashanti after Pityana resigned. The miner did not provide a reason for Pityana’s resignation.
Pityana, who says the allegation is “false and untrue”, claims that the authority “unlawfully objected” to his nomination as chair.
AnlgoGold Ashanti investigated the allegations, which saw Pityana resign as chairperson. But he claims that a subsequent review of the investigation by Absa found it was “flawed”.
When those revelations came to the fore, Pityana said Absa proceeded to re-elect him as its lead independent director with full knowledge of the allegations. He was re-elected at an AGM that the bank held on 4 June 2021.
Pityana says the PA did not afford him an opportunity to defend himself, and that it also did not object to his appointment as Absa’s lead independent director.
However, after taking the PA to court in October for allegedly blocking his appointment to the chairmanship position at Absa, he revealed that he had left the mining house after allegations of sexual harassment, which he has vehemently denied.
The bank also gave no indication when Pityana took the PA to the court that his axing as a lead independent director might be imminent.
In Friday’s statement, Absa said its board would appoint a new lead independent director and chairperson of the remuneration committee in due course.