The attitude of one of the shareholders at the South African Reserve Bank’s 88th ordinary annual general meeting (AGM) was racist, Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni said on Thursday.
”I shall not permit you to talk to me like whites used to talk to blacks,” Mboweni told shareholder Mario Pretorius.
Pretorius twice told Mboweni he wanted to bring a point of order to the meeting, and when he was not acknowledged he said: ”Shocking,” which prompted the governor’s response.
The meeting was characterised by a belligerent mood.
Another shareholder, Michael Duerr, told Mboweni he wanted to bring to shareholders’ attention the failure to circulate to shareholders important items of special business proposed and on the agenda.
”The omission is deliberate,” Duerr said.
Mboweni found Duerr out of order.
After the meeting, Duerr — who holds 5% of the Reserve Bank’s shares –issued a press statement claiming that, since 1920, the influence of shareholders at the bank had been gradually and drastically inhibited.
”The inherent value of their investment has been undermined,” he contended.
Duerr said the meeting should have been abandoned to give shareholders proper notice of the special business to be discussed as part of the AGM. That business included a discussion of flagrant contraventions by SARB employees.
It appeared these had not been investigated and that no action had been taken ”despite these matters having been brought to the attention of the board”.
Duerr — who is a German national — said he would call an extraordinary general meeting as he was not allowed to speak at Thursday’s meeting.
A shareholder must hold 10% of voting shares to call an extraordinary meeting, according to Johann de Jager, legal counsel for the Reserve Bank, who addressed the media at a briefing following the AGM.
He said Duerr wasn’t permitted to vote at the AGM because the Reserve Bank held the view that he was not a permanent resident of the country. — Sapa