FirstRand Limited - Media Release
FirstRand Limited
(Incorporated in the Republic of South Africa)
Registration number: 1966/010753/06
Share Code: FSR ISIN: ZAE000014973
("FirstRand" or the "Company")
Media Release
FirstRand CEO, Laurie Dippenaar, today announced that the Directors of FirstRand
had agreed to extend Mr Mac Maharaj"s leave of absence for a further two months.
Mr Maharaj has been on three months leave of absence following allegations of
impropriety made against him in the Sunday Times on 16 February 2003.
FirstRand, with the agreement of Mr Maharaj, appointed Hofmeyr Herbstein &
Gihwala Inc to conduct an independent enquiry into the allegations and to assess
the evidence on which they were based. Dippenaar said at the time of the
announcement of the appointment "We are seeking to clarify the uncertainty
regarding the allegations in an objective and transparent manner, while abiding
by the principles of due process and sound corporate governance."
Dippenaar said that the FirstRand Limited Board had considered a progress report
and had requested that auditors, Deloitte & Touche, as part of the necessary
governance process, review the approach followed by FirstRand and attorneys
Hofmeyr Herbstein & Gihwala Inc in the enquiry, so that the final report would
be sufficiently robust. He said that additional time was also needed to
document verbal information and to collate that which had been obtained to date.
Unfortunately the Sunday Times, to date, has not provided any of the information
or documentation on which they based their allegations.
Dippenaar said it was the intention of the FirstRand Board that a final decision
would be taken during July 2003. He said, "finality is necessitated by good
corporate governance and the statutory regulations applying to companies and
banks."
The Registrar of Banks and the Financial Services Board are being kept informed
of the enquiry"s progress and have agreed with the extension of the leave of
absence for two months.
Any decision taken will apply to the Boards of FirstRand Limited, FirstRand Bank
Holdings Limited, Discovery Holdings Limited and any other internal Boards on
which Mr Maharaj serves.
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