PPC: 'Only Godsell speaks for Godsell'

The relative calm that had settled over the PPC boardroom was shattered on Friday when former CEO Ketso Gordhan claimed that the board was "unsuitable" for its leadership role.

The relative calm that had settled over the PPC boardroom was shattered on Friday when former CEO Ketso Gordhan claimed that the board was "unsuitable" for its leadership role.

This followed a radio interview on Thursday during which PPC executive chairman Bheki Sibiya suggested that the Bobby Godsell might withdraw from the list of nominees for a new board drawn up by shareholders Foord and Visio Capital. Shareholders will vote on December 8 on whether to elect this new board or stick with the old one.

Godsell's withdrawal would have been a significant blow to the activist shareholders, following the withdrawal of Nompumelelo Siswana from the list of nine candidates.

On Friday, PPC took out full-page advertisements in several newspapers attacking Gordhan. The ads, headlined "PPC's Africa growth strategy remains on track", rehashed many of the allegations made by the PPC board and accused Gordhan of making "defamatory" statements, which showed a "complete disregard" for the board.

But on Friday Gordhan told Business Times that the board had wilfully misinterpreted his reasons for wanting to remove financial director Tryphosa Ramano.

In the ads, PPC said Gordhan wanted her out for spurious reasons, such as that "she had a bigger office than him", "she had requested reserved parking", "she refused to participate in a voluntary salary sacrifice scheme", and "was interrogating a loan agreement Gordhan had verbally agreed to".

Gordhan said his reasons for wanting Ramano removed revolved around her management abilities.

He said the board had created a "leadership vacuum" since he left in mid-September. Since then, PPC's value has dropped by R3-billion.

Earlier on Friday, Godsell confirmed that he remained a candidate. When asked to comment on why Sibiya had suggested that he would not stand, he said: "Only Bobby Godsell can speak for Bobby Godsell and I remain a candidate for the PPC board."

He had met Sibiya and "I made a proposal on how I thought the board should handle the situation - I thought the meeting was private".

Godsell said he had been asked by one shareholder if he would accept nomination as a director.

"The shareholder wanted to exercise his rights as a shareholder. It seems like an appropriate thing to do in all circumstances ... particularly appropriate when the company is going through troubled times.

"This goes to the heart of corporate governance," he said .

During the interview with Classic FM on Thursday, Sibiya discussed his concerns about Gordhan, and said he had met Godsell two days earlier.

"In my view he's not as convinced about his acceptance of the nomination as . is articulated by the shareholders who are activists."