Two senior Portnet executives have resigned within days of each other. Joint CEOs Neil Oosthuizen and Philip Venter have given notice of their intentions to leave their posts.
Venter, who is Portnet CEO: Operations, told FTW last week he had resigned as a career move. He is to take up the post of executive director at WBK, the Western Cape agricultural cooperative.
He also confirmed that Oosthuizen, Portnet's CEO: Management, had resigned. He said the resignations of two senior staff was a coincidence.
Venter could not say whether Portnet would continue with the practice of having two CEOs at the helm. A decision to split the company was taken in late 1993.
However, the system met with union resistance, Venter said. The change of government in 1994 also meant parastatals began a period of restructuring that made it difficult to implement the dual management system in full.
Venter said it was still too early to speculate over a replacement.
Portnet is a division of Transnet, the parastatal that is struggling to come to grips with privatisation.
Transnet chairman Prof Louise Tager has come out strongly against privatisation, in contrast to government's commitment to selling off state assets.
Several weeks ago Minister of Energy & Mineral Affairs Pik Botha said foreign capital could be used to finance the expansion of SA ports.
Transnet has also encountered problems with its pension fund, currently facing a deficit of more than R14bn. The huge deficit makes it extremely unattractive to investors.
