Exxaro said to be suffering exodus of senior leaders

EXXARO Resources had suffered an exodus of senior employees owing to the management style of the coal miner’s CEO of two years Nombasa Tsengwa, said Business Times – a claim that has been rejected by chairperson, Geoffrey Qhena.The newspaper said in a report on Sunday nine top executives have fled the company or were fired or placed on suspension such as the head of Exxaro’s coal operations Kgabi Masia who was suspended last week. Exxaro confirmed the suspension to Business Times.Miningmx has approached Exxaro for comment.Other senior employee departures include Roland Tatnall, who was the MD of Cennergi, the group’s renewable energy business; Vanisha Balgobind, former executive head of human resources; and the person who replaced her in an acting capacity, Hemuna Bhola, said Business Times.Alex de Angelis, executive head of strategy has left the company along with Bathabile Ponu, the chief internal auditor; and Louis Retief, executive head of information management. Andiswa Ndoni, the company secretary, is on suspension, said Business Times. Ling-Ling Mothapo, chief investor relations officer, has also been placed on gardening leave and it is not clear if she will return to work, the newspaper said.Qhena said people left jobs for various reasons, such as moving to greener pastures or  pressing family responsibilities.“If there is a mix of reasons, it is difficult to say ‘Oh, there is a trend that must be addressed’,” Business Times quoted Qhena as saying. “No employer will be happy when people leave, especially when these people develop a lot of experience. When people leave for their own reasons, I don’t think we can say no,” he said.One criticism levelled at Tsengwa is that she had failed to diversify the company’s asset base. Exxaro said in 2021 that it wanted to diversify into manganese, copper and bauxite. It was shortlisted for the Khoemacau copper mine in Botswana, before China’s MMG came out on top last November, agreeing to pay $1.9bn.In October, Tsengwa said the company had targeted a deal in South Africa’s manganese industry, according to Bloomberg News.“We believe that the manganese industry requires a South African champion,” Tsengwa said. Exxaro is aiming to buy “a very good asset or two”, as well as undertake exploration, she said.Tsengwa told Miningmx in March that it could develop more of its coal resources in the event it failed to find assets for diversification. “We still have reserves, such as Thabametsi; there’s a lot of power station coal there,” said Tsengwa in an interview.Miningmx quoted a report by RMB Morgan Stanley analysts Brian Morgan and Christopher Nicholson as saying that were it not for the execution risk around M&A, the Exxaro investment case would be “very strong”.The post Exxaro said to be suffering exodus of senior leaders appeared first on Miningmx.Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Mining.com Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Mining.com