The Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) is reviewing its policies, including those on remuneration, as it battles to retain skilled staff, with nearly half of the group’s executive committee made up of acting appointments.
The state-owned IDC in its annual report published last week raised concerns about senior staff turnover, saying it prompted the board to “vigorously support the culture transformation interventions driven by management” as well as review remuneration and related policies to ensure the IDC remained an attractive destination for top talent.
The group’s new CEO, Mmakgoshi Lekhethe, said her priority was to make permanent appointments in the leadership team. She acknowledged that retaining talent was challenging, with commercial financial services groups poaching its employees.
Lekhethe said that all staff acting in key positions had been with the IDC for more than a decade and worked across various divisions and sectors.
“The knowledge that they bring to exco is very helpful in us achieving our mandate,” Lekhethe said. “We are losing the best of our best to investment firms and commercial banks. In terms of capabilities of the existing team, I am fully satisfied that they have the expertise and capabilities to support my work while I conclude the filling of existing vacancies.”
Some of the key roles filled in an acting capacity are COO; chief risk officer; head of industry planning and project development; head of manufacturing; head of mining, metals, infrastructure and energy; and the executive responsible for strategy and corporate affairs.
Lekhethe took over the reins at the IDC in February, replacing Tshokolo Nchocho, who stepped down at the end of 2023. She previously served as the Treasury’s deputy director-general in charge of asset and liability management.
Lekhethe has her work cut out for her after the group reported a plunge in net profit for the 2025 financial year. Group profit for the year to end-March plunged from R7.5bn in the previous year to R329m, with the loan book ending the year in bad shape with impairments up to R21.3bn from R19.5bn.
The IDC said its financial performance in the 2024/25 financial year was affected by domestic and global pressures, including geopolitical tensions, port congestion and transport inefficiencies. It has also flagged concentration in the investment portfolio as a key risk.
Despite the poor performance and in keeping with its developmental mandate, the IDC increased disbursements to “priority” groups, more than doubling funding to black industrialists to R23.4bn from R10bn in the previous reporting period.
It has since the inception of the black industrialist scheme in 2013 disbursed R52.2bn to black industrialists, with R30.5bn in debt, R5.4bn in equity and R7.9bn in items such as guarantee facilities. The IDC said the scheme had created about 50,000 jobs since inception.
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