Pityana comes out with guns blazing after victory over Absa
Sipho Pityana, who was removed as an independent nonexecutive director of Absa’s board in November 2021, has won an opening victory in a series of legal battles in which he is engaged with the bank.
On May 10, the high court in Pretoria dismissed an application by Absa to have his request for a judicial review of the bank’s board decision deemed an irregular step. The court also ordered Absa to pay Pityana’s costs in the matter and to grant him access to records of the decisionmaking at Absa board meetings that resulted in his removal.
“In a clear and blatant abuse of our courts, Absa launched a nefarious application asking the court to deem this an irregular step and that the court should dismiss my review application even before it’s heard,” Pityana
2021 the year when Sipho Pityana was removed as an independent nonexecutive director of Absa’s board
said in a statement. “This court action by Ms Wendy Lucas-Bull, the former chair of the board, was the final display of not only her incompetent and unprofessional handling of this matter, but of greater concern even, her lack of honour and integrity.”
Pityana’s statement went on to accuse Lucas-Bull and Absa company secretary Nadine Drutman of assuring him on November 21 that he would be given a copy of the audio recording of the Absa board’s deliberations on his removal.
“Despite this categorical undertaking by these two public officers of the company, presumably legally advised, on behalf of the board, with no objection from any director present at this meeting, Ms LucasBull took the first opportunity to embark on costly measures to deny, not only me, but the courts
access to this record, which is indispensable to its undertaking a competent review of the board’s decision,” said Pityana. “There can now be no doubt that Ms Lucas-Bull was dishonest in making the undertaking to make the recording available. Evidently, she never had any intention of making the record available to either the courts or me.”
Absa said in an emailed statement that it was considering the high court’s ruling and would “take a position on an appropriate way forward”.
“The outcome of this interlocutory application does not, however, materially affect Absa’s position in the review application,” Absa said. “Absa is unable to provide further commentary as the matter remains subject to legal proceedings and we look forward to these being concluded in the courts.”
Lucas-Bull, who stepped down as Absa chair in March 2022, is the nonexecutive chair at Shoprite. Both Drutman and Lucas-Bull indicated to Business Day via Absa’s communications team that they did not wish to respond beyond the bank’s formal statement on the matter.
“Absa is confident with its governance and the approach followed by its board throughout this process,” the bank said in an additional comment to its initial response to Pityana’s statement.
In the meantime, Pityana is awaiting a ruling on his application for board minutes of the appointment of current Absa chair Sello Moloko.
He has two additional cases before the courts: an application challenging his removal from Absa’s board and an application against the Prudential Authority (PA) for allegedly interfering in the bank’s consideration of his candidacy for the chair role.
“Ms Lucas-Bull and her board may have been too eager to please the … Prudential Authority and lost sight of their statutory obligations.”
He has previously accused the PA of improperly causing his candidacy for the role of Absa chair to be rejected. He has alleged that previous PA head Kuben Naidoo held behind-thescenes talks with Lucas-Bull and former Absa CEO Maria Ramos over his candidacy for the role.
Pityana has argued that he was effectively blocked from the Absa chair role over sexual harassment allegations against him — which he has denied — stemming from his time as chair of AngloGold Ashanti.
He has accused Ramos, who replaced him as AngloGold’s chair when he left in December 2020, of tipping off Absa “indirectly” about the allegations by first informing the PA. Pityana has alleged that the regulator, in turn, informed the Absa board, resulting in him not being considered for the chair role.
At the time of publication, the PA had not yet responded to questions and requests for comment from Business Day.