Is it privilege?
Mark Lamberti and the essence of a business
● Adila Chowan, who successfully sued Imperial CEO Mark Lamberti in a race and gender discrimination suit in the high court, claims that she cannot find full-time work because her former boss has given her negative references.
In addition, she says that while Lamberti has apologised for his actions in public press releases, he has not contacted her to personally apologise.
Lamberti this week resigned from Eskom’s board, to which he was appointed in December, and his position as a director at Business Leadership South Africa hangs in the balance.
Last month the High Court in Johannesburg found that Chowan’s dignity had been impaired when Lamberti labelled her an employment equity candidate who needed four years in development before taking on a Csuite role.
Later, he allegedly told one of his direct reports that he did not believe Chowan had what it took to be a chief financial officer, although he had promised that she would have a senior role in the company in 12 months from the time of their conversation.
This was despite the fact that she was 42 years old at the time and had acted as the CFO numerous times and is a chartered accountant.
She had been recommended as CFO by another group executive, but the role instead went to a white hire after the job was put out to an extensive executive search once Lamberti joined the company.
Only white men were shortlisted for the role. When Chowan remarked that she didn’t like the shade of a car assigned to her, the man who got the job told her “the colour of the car suits your skin”.
This week she told Business Times: “[Lamberti] has not apologised to me and in his public apologies you have to ask what he is apologising for. He has given me negative references and destroyed my career.”
Lamberti denied he had given Chowan negative references. He said he had received a single request for a reference which he had passed on to a colleague to handle.
Chowan said she had been able to find only contract work since her suspension from Imperial when she complained about racial and gender discrimination.
She said she was happy with the judgment and considered it a fair reflection of what had happened. “It shines a light on what happens in corporate South Africa and lots of people have come to me for advice [after the judgment].”
The court has yet to decide on a final financial damages claim for Chowan, but it has awarded costs against the company. In his judgment, Judge Pieter Meyer found that: “There are ample public policy reasons in favour of imposing liability. The constitutional rights to equality against unfair discrimination are compelling normative considerations.
He has not apologised to me and in his public apologies you have to ask what he is apologising for Adila Chowan
“There is great public interest in ensuring that the existence of systemic discrimination and inequalities in respect of race and gender be eradicated. As blatant and patent as discrimination was in the days of apartheid, so subtle and latent does it manifest itself today.”
Lamberti denies that the court found race or gender discrimination, but he apologised for the impairment of Chowan’s dignity.
Imperial’s investor relations manager, Esha Mansingh, said: “Mr Lamberti deeply regrets that his comments were upsetting to Mrs Chowan. It was not his intention to insult or demean her in any way and he apologises unreservedly.
“Imperial is very different to Imperial five years ago. In all employee forums and events, Mr Lamberti always focuses on driving and improving employment equity and transformation at all levels.
“Today only one of [his] five direct reports is a white male, 51% of 137 chartered accountants employed by Imperial are from previously disadvantaged groups and 40% of these are female.”
A recent study by Bain & Company found that in 2017, 31% of South African companies had no female representation in senior leadership roles.
A census by the Businesswomen’s Association says only one in 10 South African CEOs are women and only 2.2% of listed companies are led by women.
A 2016 Grant Thornton study found that women hold less than a quarter of senior management positions and 39% of local businesses do not have any women at all in leadership positions.
Adrian Saville, CEO of Cannon Asset Managers, said: “What we’ve learnt from all the recent issues in corporate South Africa is that it is all good and well to tick boxes and fill in scoreboards, but the essence of a business is different from the image of a business.
“Are companies saying one thing and doing another? Transformation is not just the look of a business, but its essence, belief and conducted inside.
“The message from the judgment goes well beyond Imperial Group. It tells us that South Africa, 25 years on, is yet to square up to the urgency and imperative of transformation on its boards and executive rows.”
Terry Oakley-Smith, MD of Diversi-T, said that in her experience “it’s very difficult for white men of a certain age to make the changes [to workplaces]. Generally, they do not have diverse social networks to assess people who are not like them, and so white men, who dominate the top and senior management levels, are not that comfortable with black people.”