Looking past the bank’s new white boss

THE appointment of Johan Burger to succeed Sizwe Nxasana, the outgoing FirstRand CEO, has been criticised as anti-transformation.

But Nxasana says: “The decision to appoint him as my successor is exactly what the group needs at this point in time, given the skills we require.”

He says the criticism ignores “the pipeline we have built from a transformation standpoint” throughout the FirstRand group.

Half of FNB’s executive committee is African, he says, as is 40% of the executive committee at WesBank and 47% of FirstRand’s executive committee.

“So we’ve created a pipeline to make sure we’re addressing transformation and addressing what the needs of the business at this point in time are.

“Of course people are going to criticise us, but we’ve done quite a lot in making sure we create a pool of people who have the potential to take over as we go forward.”

He concedes that the number of women, and African women in particular, at senior levels is “way below our own internal plans” in spite of the fact that equal numbers of male and female graduates are hired.

He says this is because “work patterns” in corporations around the world make it more difficult for women to hold senior positions.

“They just have not changed, and they disadvantage women.”

Senior employees are expected to work long hours, and this is difficult for women when they start having families.

“There is still a culture that says you have to be in the office till late and then you have to go and socialise together. These practices may not be conducive to promoting women.”

Companies have not done enough to create “accelerated development programmes” for women who want to resume their careers after discharging their “child-rearing responsibilities”.

In spite of this, there are more women, especially African women, in senior positions at FirstRand than when he took over five years ago. —