South African Reserve Bank Govener Tito Mboweni
A barefooted and irate South African Reserve Bank Shareholder, Mario Prestorius arrived to attend the SARB annual general meeting to raise his concerns about the outragous earnings of South Africa's Reserve Bank Minister.
Whom according to his open letter below is the "3rd highest paid central Bank official in the world", earning 3 times more than, by comparison, Mr Ben Bernanke at the New York Federal Reserve in the USA.
Here is Mario Prestorius's open letter to South Africa's Reserve Bank Minister, Tito Mboweni:
Dear Mr Governor,
I am Mario Pretorius, a shareholder in the SARB.
According to the SARB Regulations, you must chair the annual General Meeting of the shareholders. It is our meeting where we want to be heard and would like to transact what we are entitled to.
At the 89th meeting last Thursday you insisted on a vote before the Annual Financial Statements could be discussed. You promised that there will be an opportunity to pose concerns and questions in the meeting but you most conveniently did not recognise me and most conveniently closed the meeting for your lunch.
I hereby pose my questions and the motions in this open letter to you with the request that they be answered as proof of the King2 corporate governance that the SARB claims to follow without us shareholders having seen any accountability, transparency, inclusiveness or responsibility of the SARB Board to shareholders. In the words of King2 we shareholders ‘were worried about the excessive concentration of power in the hands of management' (Clause 9, Introduction), and nothing we have seen in the last three meetings has shown any movement of the Board or the Chairman of the Meeting away from "the sins of sloth and fear, with an erosion of enterprise and an encouragement of subservience' (ditto)
To the Chairman of the Remuneration Committee
For the record:
How does your committee justify the 14% raise in remuneration of the Governor, cost to company, to R4,334m per annum in the light of the following 7 factors:
1. There is a world-wide sensitivity to excessive remuneration of banking officials;
2. The Bank's profit has dropped by 61% this year and the Governor has received a 42% pay rise for the last 2 years;
3. The Governor is already the 3rd highest paid central Bank official in the world, earning 3 times more than, by comparison, Mr Ben Bernanke at the New York Federal Reserve in the USA;
4. The Governor earns 2,5 times more than his counterpart in Treasury, the Minister of Finance and more that the President
5. The Governor has publicly stated that salaries should not exceed 7% increases;
6. The Governors remuneration is now 21 times more than the total dividends paid to shareholders
7. The Governor having a permanent seat on the Remuneration Committee and the consequent influence, contrary to the recommendations of King2 which the Bank has committed itself to.
Please explain why the Bank has abandoned the principle "That fairness is integral to its judgement and actions' in its Business Philosophy in this year's Annual Report and please highlight how the abandonment of this philosophy has and will impact on the actions of the SARB in light of King2
(some points where removed due to space)
