Sasol's Davies must go: Inzalo

Johannesburg - Sasol executives may wonder what they've let themselves in for after suffering a roasting at the hands of the petrochemical group's new Inzalo shareholders, some of whom called for the resignation of the CEO, Pat Davies.

The R25.9bn Inzalo black empowerment scheme was unveiled in September and introduced about 200 000 new, previously disadvantaged shareholders to Sasol's register.

A portion of the new shareholders turned up at the group's annual general meeting (AGM) in Johannesburg on Friday and wanted to know whether they'd have to pay for the R4bn-odd fine Sasol faces. The fine is in terms of a ruling by the European Commission (EC) regarding Sasol's position as leader of a wax parrafin cartel.

Gone, then, is the sage nodding and quiet decorum of Sasol's usual AGMs in favour of refreshingly more direct interplay: "Do us shareholders have to pay for the R4bn fine?" someone asked.

When Sasol CEO Pat Davies explained that the company was responsible for paying the fine and that shareholders had suffered roughly a R10 decline in the share price following the announcement of the fine, the shareholder asked if it was not then appropriate for Davies and his senior executives to step down so that their replacements could take better care of shareholder funds.

Both chief financial officer, Christine Ramon, and CEO Pat Davies spent time reassuring unconvinced shareholders that the appropriate measures had been taken.

Theo Botha, a shareholder activist not accustomed to being upstaged, asked whether the risk and quantum of the fine had been adequately communicated to the Inzalo shareholders.

New role for Mokaba

"Why are the presentations only in English, when you have many black shareholders represented in the room?" asked another shareholder.

"You ask us to vote for or against directors but you fail to even provide us with a picture or introduce the directors we are voting on," commented another.

Many black representatives appointed through BEE deals have been criticised for being mere tokens on the boards of listed companies.

Despite the description of "empowered" companies, people point out that the white directors and CEOs who still represent many of these businesses do all the talking at presentations.

The Sasol AGM took a step to dispel that impression when Benny Mokaba, executive director of Sasol, was pressed into a new role as translator.

Mokaba took responsibility for translating shareholder questions for Sasol chairperson Pieter Cox and Davies. Shareholders who had been frustrated by not having the opportunity to voice their queries in a mother tongue suddenly became confident enough to ask the questions they had sought answers for.

Up until this point neither Mokaba nor Nolitha Fakude, the other executive directors represented on stage at the AGM, had uttered a word.

- Fin24.com