HARARE- Hospitality entity RTG has abruptly announced 4 new faces to its main board, 4 months after holding its annual general meeting.
Manase, an executive director with the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has been appointed as a replacement to Sijabuliso Biyam whose retirement was accordingly announced at the AGM in April. Biyam, a banker and CE of Bankers Association Zimbabwe, only lasted 21 months between Nov 2017 and Aug 2019 as a non executive board member and chairman of the ZSE listed company.
His predecessor, John Chikura lasted 4 years as both a board member and the board’s chair after succeeding Joseph Kanyekanye, then a NSSA appointee. The Companies Act allows for non executive directors to hold office for up to 9 years subject to re-election at annual general meetings. Typically directors are voted for and nominated for election and reelection at the AGM.
Other 3 directors, including former CBZ CE Never Nyemudzo, were also fired from the board. The 3 were largely independent and did not represent interests of any shareholder, a factor which could have led to their premature demise.
Never Nyemudzo was appointed to the RTG board in 2018 only to last not more than 1 and half years on the board. Other axed board members were Charity Murandu and Brian Shenje. Charity is the current marketing executive for SeedCo Limited, a seed company while Brian is a Management Consultancy working in an independent capacity.
Their replacements included Priscilla Mujuru, a public heath practitioner with the Ministry of Health as well as a lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe. Another replacement Munhamu Murambiwa is a current director at the National Archives of Zimbabwe.
Kenzias Chibota, who sits on several board where NSSA has a direct interest including FBC and Star Africa, completes the set.
Boardroom wars have headlined RTG’s affairs over the last decade and in most instances pitting major shareholder NSSA and Hamilton’s Nick Van Hoog, the second top shareholder. Appointees of Nick Van Hoog who controls Hamilton and Hamilton investment vehicle a holder of 24.23% of the issued share capital have been blocked or dismissed from the board at the instigation of NSSA.
NSSA however seems to have abrogated its fiduciary duties to nominate board members as the majority shareholder to some section of the government, judging by the CVs of most of its appointees especially the latest set of RTG directors. NSSA was created by act of parliament in 2004 to provide social security to the working populace of Zimbabwe.
In 2017 NSSA took a decision to nominate qualified independent non executive directors in companies it had interests.
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