Erstwhile Exxaro CEO Nombasa Tsengwa says her acrimonious exit from the group earlier this year does not detract from her rewarding career with the mining company.
Tsengwa, who replaced Mxolisi Mgojo in the top job in 2023, spent more than two decades with the group, initially under the Kumba banner until its unbundling in 2006. She said the company had “made her” and hailed the group’s succession planning, which allowed her to ascend to the top position.
“I am still very proud of what this organisation called Exxaro is about and what it is still going to achieve in the future. That I left under unfortunate circumstances ... can never taint how great it is to work for that organisation,” Tsengwa told the Mining Insight podcast, in her first public interview since leaving Exxaro.
Tsengwa also told the podcast’s host, Mahlogonolo Mashile, she remains grateful for the growth opportunities the company provided her over the years.
“The hierarchy of things for me is the organisation [which comes first], then my name. It was very important for us to be adult enough to realise that if we continue [fighting] out there, it is not going to be good for what matters the most: the organisation,” Tsengwa said.
“For me that company made me ... it is the best thing that has ever happened to me. It gave me all the opportunities. I could not allow myself to [tell] anyone while I was still hurting. I wish I could have stayed longer because I prepared myself to be a CEO over many years,” she said.
“But I am watching the company from a distance, seeing great people that I have left behind, with the new leader that has come in. Surely, they will move forward with what we built in the organisation. It can only be a success story.”
Tsengwa was suspended in December over alleged workplace and governance issues. She resigned in February after she lost a court bid to have her suspension set aside.
Her resignation letter, which Business Day reported on in February, told of the pain she felt over how allegations against her were handled.
“Based on the way this investigation has been conducted ... just demonstrates that there is a predetermined outcome which I refuse to subject myself further to. It is therefore in God’s will that I resign from Exxaro resources as CEO and a director with immediate effect.”
One of the allegations levelled against her was that of conflict of interest by allegedly advancing the business interests of her late partner’s company, including facilitating payments and purchases from Exxaro.
“I can state with much humility without any fear of embarrassment and thank God that not a single day of these years have I ever put my own interests ahead of those of Exxaro Resources,” her resignation letter reads.
Tsengwa started her career in the mining industry in 2003, when she joined the then Kumba Resources as the GM for safety, health and environment. After the unbundling of Kumba and the inception of Exxaro Resources, she was appointed as executive GM for safety and sustainable development. She held other executive roles, including that of executive head of the coal operations, and MD for minerals business, before ascending to the top job in a carefully managed succession plan.
Tsengwa said the culture at the organisation allowed her to thrive. “I leave that organisation with a feeling of having been given an opportunity to contribute meaningfully to the economy of this country. I found an organisation where there was willingness to not see my agenda, but rather on what impact was. That was the greatest positive I picked up.”
Exxaro in March appointed former Lonmin boss Ben Magara as its new CEO.
With Tiisetso Motsoeneng
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