Shareholders take Sasol execs to task
PORTENT: STAKEHOLDERS DEMAND ANSWERS
AGM turns into a brutal trial for directors, with investors poking holes in the company’s reports.
AGM becomes an inquiry into Sasol’s environmental and labour practices.
Sasol’s recent annual general meeting started off sedately enough, until group chairperson Mandla Gantsho attempted to limit questions. Judge Kathy Satchwell let rip at the board for trying to wrap things up to retire for lunch. “This is the one opportunity in the year for shareholders to ask questions … you can stay where you are until we are done.”
Gantsho asked for a moment of silence for the four Sasol workers who died in the last financial year. When Satchwell again got the microphone, she asked whether any director had visited the injured, attended the funerals of the deceased, and whether they would donate their bonuses to improve safety.
Shareholder activist Theo Botha questioned why Sasol’s key performance indicators gave such a low weighting to fatalities. The group said weightings were higher at the operational level.
Company secretary Vuyo Kahla said senior managers visited the scene of all fatalities and assessed what can be done to help the deceased’s families.
Joint chief executive Stephen Cornell said Sasol now tracks the severity of injuries and has introduced stringent safety rules to prevent further deaths.
Lower rehab costs
Christine Reddell of the Centre for Environmental Rights asked why the 2018 financial statements reflect a R1.4 billion rehabilitation cost reduction and whether this was approved by the department of mineral resources. In response, Sasol said the figure had been adjusted downwards due to legislation changes, a revised discount rate, and new rehabilitation methods.
Reddell challenged this, asking what legislative changes Sasol was referring to and to see for herself the methodology applied. Environmentalists worry that rehabilitation funds are always seen as a ready source of cash by companies in need.
Vague on climate change
Tracey Davies of shareholder activism group Just Share, stated that after power utility Eskom, Sasol is South Africa’s biggest greenhouse gas emitter. “Sasol is therefore significantly exposed to climate transition and liability risks.”
Davies said the integrated report only mentions climate change in the context of other environmental sustainability risks and is vague on improved disclosure.
“These reports do not mention that all credible modelling shows that Sasol’s Secunda plant must be decommissioned long before 2050 if South Africa is to meet its climate commitments, and that Secunda is therefore at serious risk of becoming a stranded asset,” she said Sasol disputed the latter point. One activist asked why Sasol was such a renowned air polluter, a claim challenged by joint chief executive Bongani Nqwababa: “We comply with World Health Organisation guidelines on air, so I would want to see your stats. It’s not the case.”
Asked what Sasol is doing to clean up the Vaal Triangle’s contaminated water, Kahla said it’s engaging with the SA Human Rights Commission to solve this.
Friends of the Earth Mozambique asked why Sasol, after 16 years there, has only created 300 permanent jobs.
Nqwababa said 96% of its staff in Mozambique are locals and it has also built 15 schools and clinics staffed by people on a living wage.