Absa Group chairman Sello Moloko steps down from a board that has seen much change

Absa Group chairman Sello Moloko’s decision to step down as chairman represents a continuation of a number of changes on the board in recent months.

The bank announced Wednesday that Moloko, who turns 60 in July, will step down as independent non-executive director on July 15, and he will be succeeded by independent board member René van Wyk, who had also been the interim CEO in 2019. 

Moloko intends to work with Van Wyk over the next few months for a smooth transition. Frequent and unexpected board changes to the board often indicates to investors that there might be instability in the management of a company, or different views among them on strategy.

“Moloko, who has led the strategic work of the board, will be handing over the reins for the next phase of leadership and for him to focus on his family, personal business interests, and community commitments,” the bank’s board said in a statement.

Moloko said the board had dealt with several challenges in 2024, and as a result, did work to reposition the group for a more sustainable performance trajectory, which included appointing a permanent chief executive and initiating the restructure of the retail operating model.

“These challenges have prompted me to reflect on the demands on my time. I feel the time is ripe to refocus my attention on my family, my community commitments, and the several personal business initiatives outside the group that I need to drive. This will, naturally, adversely affect my ability to devote the requisite time to a group of the scale of Absa,” he said.

In March, the bank announced Zarina Bassa and Sindi Zilwa had been appointed as non-executive directors, from April 1, 2025. Bassa is also a non-executive director of Gold Fields and of the JSE. Zilwa has almost 30 years as a director and her current board seats include Sibanye-Stillwater, Metrofile and Delta Property Fund.

Last month, Absa announced its seventh CEO in less than 7 years, after Standard Bank’s former deputy chief executive Kenny Fihla was appointed as ABSA CEO. This was after the early retirement of the prior CEO, Arrie Rautenbach was announced on the same day last year that the bank declared a 5% decline in annual headline earnings. And the CEO before Rautenbach, Daniel Mminele, had resigned due to differences with the board on strategy.

Absa's share price barely changed on the announcement of Moloko's resignation slipping by 0.88% Wednesday afternoon to R169.02. In contrast the JSE Bank Index was up by 0.45% at the same time. Absa's share price was 13.3% higher than a year ago.

Van Wyk was interim group CEO in 2019. He re-joined the Absa board, after a cooling-off period, as a non-executive director from August 1, 2020, and thereafter became an independent non-executive director from August 1, 2021.

He is the chairman of the Absa Group Risk and Capital Management Committee, and Credit Risk Committee, and is a member of the Directors’ Affairs Committee and the Audit and Compliance Committee, and was a member of the Board Finance Committee. His committee memberships and chairmanships will be revised upon his appointment as Chairman.

Van Wyk was also a former Registrar of Banks and head of banking supervision of the South African Reserve Bank and retired from that position in May 2016. Prior to that, he was with the Nedbank Group from 1993 to 2011, where he occupied various positions, notably executive director responsible for risk at Nedcor Investment Bank, and CEO of Imperial Bank (a subsidiary of Nedbank).

Van Wyk holds a Bachelor of Commerce, Bachelor of Accounting Science (Hons), Advanced Management Programme (Insead), and is a Chartered Accountant, CA (SA).

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