Sipho Pityana, who was sacked from Absa’s board in November 2021, has accused the bank’s former CEO, Maria Ramos, of “chicanery of the worst kind” after previously alleging that she is the culprit who informed the bank of a sexual harassment allegation against him that ultimately led to his sacking.
In an interview on Tuesday, Pityana told Business Day that Ramos, who replaced him as chair of AngloGold Ashanti in December 2020, had used the allegations of sexual harassment against him as a “Scud missile” to mount a “coup d’état” that resulted in his hasty exit from the board of the world’s third-largest gold miner.
Pityana also reiterated his previous allegation that it was Ramos who informed Absa’s board of the harassment accusation, which ultimately saw the bank opt not to name him as chair in a saga that has subsequently morphed into an ugly legal spat involving the Prudential Authority (PA).
The unseemly drama erupted into the public domain in October 2021 when Pityana announced that he was suing the PA, the regulator of financial services firms, for allegedly blocking him from being considered for the Absa chair role. That resulted in Absa removing him from its boards a month later, saying he had failed to act in the bank’s interests and was derelict in his duties.
Pityana duly responded by filing separate legal papers against Absa alleging its decision to remove him from its boards was unlawful. In the high-profile public spat that ensued, Pityana claimed Reserve Bank deputy governor Kuben Naidoo, who heads the PA, had informally advised Absa board chair Wendy Lucas-Bull, who steps down in March, that he would not support Pityana’s nomination as her replacement.
Naidoo’s supposed concern allegedly centred on a sexual harassment allegation made against Pityana by a senior executive of AngloGold Ashanti, an allegation Pityana denies.
On Tuesday, he again named Ramos as the chief architect of his downfall at both AngloGold Ashanti and Absa. While Ramos has not yet publicly commented on Pityana’s allegations, both the PA and Absa have denied her involvement in events that eventually led to his ousting from the bank’s boards.
“The sexual harassment thing was Maria Ramos’s effective weapon at a coup d’état,” Pityana told Business Day.
Pityana said the allegation was brought to the attention of the AngloGold board only 18 months after the alleged incident was said to have occurred. He also said that instead of advising his accuser to report the matter through the appropriate channels, Ramos “sat on it for weeks” and then deliberately reported it to the company’s board at a time when he was at loggerheads with several of its members.
“It was thrown as a Scud missile in the middle of these boardroom dynamics,” he said.
At the time, Ramos was an independent non-executive director at AngloGold Ashanti.
“The sexual harassment issue from my perspective was used to try and deal with me in the face of all of those issues,” said Pityana. “And suddenly ... that matter is taken and raised in the context of the Absa process ... by the chair of the board of AngloGold Ashanti — Maria Ramos — which clearly is chicanery of the worst kind.”
Asked why he did not institute defamation proceedings against his accuser if the allegations were false, Pityana said that he, his accuser and AngloGold’s board agreed to resolve the matter on a “no-blame basis”.
“The reason I agreed to that was that the company at the time was vulnerable to a takeover and controversy around the board issues ... would have made it even more vulnerable,” he said.
“All three of us made our choices to not take the matter beyond that. It would have been preposterous for me having agreed to leave to conclude the matter in that fashion to then take legal action against the complainant.”
In the meantime, Pityana said he filed legal papers two weeks ago demanding that Absa hand over records of deliberations its board and board subcommittees had regarding their decision to remove him. He also wants a recording of his final hearing with the bank before it announced his departure.
“It’s important for the court to be given a record of the board’s view on the matter,” Pityana said, adding that Absa’s refusal to hand over the information showed a lack of transparency. “The court can’t review a matter if it doesn’t have the information before it.”
While Pityana said he would seek compensation from Absa for what he claims was his unlawful removal from its boards he was also separately seeking damages from the PA.
“In the case of unlawful conduct of the regulator I have every intention to sue the regulator for defamation and damages for their unlawful conduct,” he said.
“If the Reserve Bank says you’re not a fit and proper person that’s a death knell to your career and everything you ever stood for. That’s the most serious assault on anybody’s integrity and standing.”
Absa said it will reserve comment on legal proceedings with Pityana until the court had delivered a judgment.
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