Johannesburg – Sasol has said that it regretted the largesse extended to former joint chief executive Bongani Nqwababa and Stephen Cornell that apparently broke trust with its shareholders.
Sasol chairperson Sipho Nkosi told the group’s annual general meeting on Friday that the board acknowledged the criticism on the separation arrangements for Nqwababa and Cornell.
“We profoundly regret the impact our actions have had on the goodwill and trust extended to us by our stakeholders despite the utmost good faith that informed our approach to this matter,” said Nkosi.
“We are reflecting on measures to take to assure our stakeholders of our commitment to restore confidence in the way we implement the company’s remuneration policy.”
Shareholders questioned why Nqwababa and Cornell received golden handshakes of R14-million and R21-million respectively, despite cost and project overruns at the Lake Charles Chemicals Projects (LCCP) in Louisiana in the US.
Executive vice-president for advisory and assurance Vuyo Kahla to the AGM that the golden handshakes were awarded to resolve the LCCP issues.
“Part of that rationale, and most importantly was to ensure that the company could get speedy resolution, ensure there was a termination in order to enable a reset within the company and its leadership, and it assessed other risks that could have been imposed on it by any litigation related to that,” said Kahla, adding that the company would avoid a similar situation in the future.
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