Newly appointed Barclays Group executive chairman John McFarlane made a top-secret visit to South Africa last week, ahead of Wednesday's news that he'd led a coup to unseat group CEO Antony Jenkins. His visit followed a meeting with Jenkins, at which the CEO was informed of the board's decision to let him go, just three years into his tenure. The pace of the turnaround at Barclays had been too slow for the board's liking, and it was keen to appoint a CEO with a greater sense of urgency.McFarlane visited South Africa to alert local regulators of the imminent changes, and to reassure the Reserve Bank that the CEO's departure did not signal any major change in group strategy. In other words: McFarlane has no immediate plans to flog his group's controlling 62.3% stake in Barclays Africa.But Jenkins's replacement is a warning to Barclays Africa management to improve their performance. Local investors have been critical of Barclays Africa relative to its peer group and many will be eager to share those sentiments with McFarlane. In 2014, Barclays Africa underperformed the Banks Index by 9.48%, and in 2013 by 27.97%.mini_story_image_hleft1Investor criticism was such that, 18 months ago, Jenkins felt the need to publicly voice support for CEO Maria Ramos's leadership. In October 2013, he said he hoped to work with her for "many years to come". With Jenkins's tenure cut short for tardy performance, it is clear that the group under McFarlane, who became chairman just two months ago, has a new sense of urgency.At the World Economic Forum Africa gathering in Cape Town recently, Jenkins seemed content to bide his time on the Barclays Africa business, describing it as "one of the four core businesses of the Barclays global strategy". He said he remained confident of "future" growth.But Scottish-born McFarlane, known in UK media circles as Mack the Knife, does not have Jenkins's patience. The career banker, who ran ANZ (the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group) for a decade and also worked at Standard Chartered and Citibank, is known for shaking up businesses soon after he joins them. That Jenkins's sacking took the markets by surprise is strange.McFarlane did not act alone. He took over a board ripe for change. With the Barclays share price languishing at six-year lows, the deputy chairman, Sir Michael Rake, said a "new set of skills were required" at the helm. "I reflected long and hard on the issue of group leadership and discussed this with each of the non-executive directors. Notwithstanding Antony's significant achievements, it became clear to all of us that a new set of skills was required for the period ahead."story_article_right1Barclays became the fourth European bank this year to dump its CEO. Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse and Standard Chartered all named new bosses amid mounting investor frustration about low returns. It's not that Jenkins did anything wrong. He just wasn't doing enough right quickly enough to satisfy his board.Jenkins spent much of his time cleaning up the multiple investment banking indiscretions that occurred on the watch of his predecessor, Bob Diamond. He, too, had quit in a hurry, nearly three years to the date of Jenkins's sacking and a week after the bank was fined a record amount for its role in trying to manipulate inter-bank lending rates.While Diamond was an investment banker who downplayed the importance of retail banking, Jenkins was the opposite - a retail banker who seemed to have difficulty relating to the more adventurous culture of investment banking.McFarlane is understood to have had a constructive visit to South Africa. He endorsed the plans of the Barclays Africa management team chaired by long-term banker Wendy Lucas Bull and run by Ramos, whose tenure has been difficult.Ramos, who cut her teeth in the National Treasury as director-general and ran Transnet, was parachuted into Absa in 2009 at the height of the financial crisis. The job was never going to be easy. Her tenure has been characterised by lower returns and multiple senior management changes as she sought to put her stamp on the business.It's hard to make a like-for-like comparison of the business Barclays bought in 2005 and the one it controls today. For starters, Barclays sold its Africa operations to Absa to form Barclays Africa, increasing the size and scale of the business and positioning it to capitalise on what analysts believe will be a period of sustained high growth in sub-Saharan Africa. It has added management complexity and altered the cost base.Still, it's less efficient than its rivals. It runs a cost-to-income ratio of 56.8%, similar to Nedbank's, whereas it costs Standard Bank 54.5c to generate 100c of income, and FirstRand 50.8c.story_article_left2The group is considerably less profitable now and its return on equity has fallen from 27.4% to 16.7% last year. By comparison, FirstRand reported return on equity of 24% to December 2014.The head of global equities at Sanlam Investment Management, Kokkie Kooyman, points out that returns in pound terms from Barclays Africa have been poor."Barclays Africa has not done very well for Barclays," Kooyman said. "The management team has a bit of time to up its game while the focus is on Barclays Capital, but they are going to have to improve returns."Whether the board under its reinvigorated leadership will have the same level of patience as exhibited by its predecessors remains to be seen.Banks are notoriously complicated businesses to run and operate in one of the world's most regulated industries. The result is that they are finding it increasingly difficult to make money. A combination of regulatory pressure, consumer activism and technology-led efficiency drives has made pricing between the banks keener. The slow South African economy has been anything but supportive for deal-makers, and profits in corporate and investment banking have been harder to come by.If the Barclays board makes the wrong choice with its next CEO, Ramos and her team might just outlast the lot of them...