Max Gebhardt
Senior management at First National Bank (FNB) are worried about the future of lucrative provincial government banking accounts because its managing director Barry Swart is widely perceived as guilty of nepotism at worst and foolishness at best.
Senior management fears were compounded by calls this week from the South African Commercial, Catering and Allied Workers’ Union (Saccawu) for Swart’s head to roll and for a commission of inquiry to investigate allegations of nepotism within the bank.
The governments banking accounts are due for renewal in 1998. Latest figures from the Reserve Bank show FNB is also losing market share.
Some senior staff believe Swart is bringing FNB’s name into disrepute and he is “misplaced in the current times”.
Swart was censured by the bank last week after an internal investigation found he had given his daughter, Tanya Labuschagne, a contract to help decorate Bank City, FNB’s headquarters in Johannesburg.
The investigation was sparked by anonymous allegations which were circulated within FNB senior management three months ago.
It later emerged his other daughter, Kim Swart, was employed by the bank’s external marketing and communications agency.
Staff at FNB, who spoke to the Mail & Guardian on condition of anonymity, said the knives were now out for Swart. All those canvassed believed Swart should go.
Many see Swart as a major stumbling block to the transformation of the bank and consider him a “bitterende” who won’t join the new South Africa. An allegation also levelled at Swart by the unions.
This, they fear, could see FNB lose its 70% share of the provincial government accounts.
“The board has shown a complete lack of resolve, they should have given leadership without fear or favour. This has placed the whole integrity of the bank under the spotlight,” a senior manager said.
He added that staff were also concerned about the role other senior members in the bank had in awarding the contract to Swart’s daughter and questioned why they had not yet been named.
Swart is described as a “tin-pot dictator” by some staff.
Junior staff members told the M&G they wondered why senior management was not subject to the same stringent disciplinary standards they had to conform to.
“The board has no backbone. This is very demoralising,” one said.
There is also increasing disquiet from within and outside the bank that this could be the start of a rash of allegations of corruption and nepotism at FNB.
There was some concern at senior management level about the awarding of various service contracts by the bank’s tender board.
Others in the banking sector believe there has been a deliberate campaign to discredit Swart and see his role in his daughters’ connections to the bank as no more than “bloody foolhardy”.
Swart has doggedly refused to talk to the media other than with a written statement published in Business Day, in which he said he regretted his “insensitive” action in employing his daughter and acknowledged he had caused the bank embarrassment.
Graeme Rowan, general secretary of Sasbo, the 75 000 strong finance union, said: “He has done himself a disservice that has severely damaged his credibility and reputation in the eyes of the union and the bank’s staff.”
Richard Wilkinson, executive director of the Institute of Directors, said censure by the board (as happened in Swart’s case) was serious and would have been recorded in the company’s minutes. According to Wilkinson, this is far more serious than a letter of warning which the trade unions have been calling for.
At the time of going to press Swart’s office had not yet responded to questions by the M&G.