SHAREHOLDERS want to be heard at the SA Reserve Bank's annual general meeting, says one of the shareholders.

SHAREHOLDERS want to be heard at the SA Reserve Bank's annual general meeting, says one of the shareholders.

"It is our meeting where we want to be heard and would like to transact what we are entitled to," shareholder Mario Pretorius said in an open letter to Governor Tito Mboweni yesterday.

This followed a stormy AGM last week, during which some of the bank's shareholders and Mboweni locked horns.

Mboweni became involved in Equality Court proceedings with Pretorius following last year's AGM, at which he told the shareholder not to speak to him like black people were spoken to in the past.

This year, Mboweni once again asked shareholders to be quiet.

Although the shareholders had raised six issues, they were not discussed as SARB's legal team determined that they fell outside of the AGM's ambit.

Pretorius charged that there was no SARB accountability, transparency, inclusiveness or responsibility from the SARB board when it came to shareholders.

Pretorius said he wanted to address a question to the chairperson of SARB's remuneration committee.

He said he wished to ascertain how the committee justified the 14percent raise in remuneration of the Governor, cost to company, to R4,334million a year.

Pretorius said there was presently worldwide sensitivity to excessive remuneration of banking officials.

He said SARB's profit had dropped by 61percent this year and the Governor had received a 42percent pay rise for the past two years.

Mboweni's office was not available for comment. - Sapa