THE going has been tough for Absa staff since the Barclays takeover in 2005, but the resignation of deputy CEO Louis von Zeuner is one of the biggest shocks yet.
Staff unhappiness and movement is nothing new to what was always going to be a difficult marriage between a first-world English bank with empire-building ambitions and an Afrikaner-dominated, cloistered apartheid-era bank.
The personnel casualty list has grown since Steve Booysen left in 2009 and was replaced by Maria Ramos, a government technocrat. The biggest names to leave under a cloud were those of Jacques Schindehutte and Gavin Opperman, the former because he didn't get the deputy CEO role and the latter because his well-run retail division would be merged with the business banking division, with control effectively going to someone else.
An anonymous source said in 2009 that there was a lot of unhappiness in the Absa corridors downtown, largely due to previous roles being crimped back.
The trend does not seem to have reversed as at the end of January three executive committee members resigned: Alfie Naidoo from ops, Daphne Motsepe and Happy Ntshingila from communications. The fact that only one of them is retiring is telling.
In the past week the big fish, "King Louis" Von Zeuner, joined this list and is going at the end of the year. Absa's exco is down to nine from 12 a year ago, and is the most inexperienced in the country. It is little wonder the share price lost more than 1% on the news - it was trading up before the bombshell dropped.
In an interview with BusinessLIVE on Friday Von Zeuner denied there was any bad blood with either Absa or Barclays.
"When I indicated I wanted to pursue a more non-executive role I was fortunate to be asked for up to 60% of my time by both the Absa and Barclays boards."
Von Zeuner joins Absa exodus
THE going has been tough for Absa staff since the Barclays takeover in 2005, but the resignation of deputy CEO Louis von Zeuner is one of the biggest shocks yet.
Staff unhappiness and movement is nothing new to what was always going to be a difficult marriage between a first-world English bank with empire-building ambitions and an Afrikaner-dominated, cloistered apartheid-era bank.
The personnel casualty list has grown since Steve Booysen left in 2009 and was replaced by Maria Ramos, a government technocrat. The biggest names to leave under a cloud were those of Jacques Schindehutte and Gavin Opperman, the former because he didn't get the deputy CEO role and the latter because his well-run retail division would be merged with the business banking division, with control effectively going to someone else.
An anonymous source said in 2009 that there was a lot of unhappiness in the Absa corridors downtown, largely due to previous roles being crimped back.
The trend does not seem to have reversed as at the end of January three executive committee members resigned: Alfie Naidoo from ops, Daphne Motsepe and Happy Ntshingila from communications. The fact that only one of them is retiring is telling.
In the past week the big fish, "King Louis" Von Zeuner, joined this list and is going at the end of the year. Absa's exco is down to nine from 12 a year ago, and is the most inexperienced in the country. It is little wonder the share price lost more than 1% on the news - it was trading up before the bombshell dropped.
In an interview with BusinessLIVE on Friday Von Zeuner denied there was any bad blood with either Absa or Barclays.
"When I indicated I wanted to pursue a more non-executive role I was fortunate to be asked for up to 60% of my time by both the Absa and Barclays boards."
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