'Old Mutual playing old tricks'

Johannesburg - Labour department director-general Jimmy Manyi is planning to grill London-listed life insurer Old Mutual plc over the restructuring of Kuseni Dlamini's job.

Dlamini is the first black executive to head the group's South African operations since its inception 164 years ago.

Manyi has been forced to show his hand after eyebrows were raised about the alteration of Dlamini's reporting lines.

Dlamini, who took over as managing director of Old Mutual South Africa (Omsa) earlier this month, reports to Paul Hanratty, Old Mutual plc's new head of the long-term savings division, instead of reporting to Julian Roberts, the chief executive of Old Mutual plc.

When Hanratty headhunted Dlamini from Anglo American, he was the supremo at Omsa and reported directly to Roberts.

Manyi said: "I am very disappointed with what appears to be a second-guessing of a seasoned black executive like Kuseni. Kuseni has more responsibilities than Paul used to have. Kuseni should be reporting directly to the chief executive (Roberts) of Old Mutual plc.

"We will ask for an urgent meeting with Old Mutual plc to seek clarity."

A prominent member of the Black Management Forum (BMF) said he viewed the change in Dlamini's reporting lines as Hanratty's way of running Omsa from his London office.

"Who was Paul reporting to before Kuseni was appointed? If the answer is Julian Roberts why have they changed the reporting lines now?" said the BMF member, who asked to remain anonymous.

"If they appointed a white person to the job the reporting lines would have remained the same."

Besides running the South African business, Dlamini is also responsible for handling the emerging markets portfolio, which encompasses the rest of Africa, Latin America and Asia. This portfolio was previously never part of Hanratty's job when he was the managing director of Omsa.

Esme Arendse, the spokesperson for Omsa, said there was nothing sinister about changing Dlamini's reporting lines as they were in line with Old Mutual's new strategic approach.

"One of the key conclusions of the group's strategic review, as announced in March, was to bring all the group's long-term savings businesses into a single operating structure to unlock value through closer collaboration," she said.

"Therefore Skandia, Omsa, and US Life were grouped together into a single long-term savings division under the leadership of Paul Hanratty, who was appointed chief executive for long-term savings."

This means Dlamini and Jonas Jonsson, the chief executive of Skandia European Retail; Bob Head, the chief executive of Skandia Wealth Management; Bertil Hult, the chief executive of Skandia Nordic and Christopher Chapman, the chief executive of Old Mutual US Life will all report to Hanratty.

- City Press