State-owned oil company PetroSA has parted ways with its CEO only two years into his contract under circumstances the company says it will not disclose.
Pragasen Naidoo, a chemical engineer and a former group chief of operations at Petrosa's holding company, the Central Energy Fund, was appointed in January 2020. He was the first permanent CEO since 2014.
Naidoo had three years left on his contract and is believed to have received a large settlement from the company. The chairman of the board of Petrosa Nkululeko Poya said he would not comment on the matter as it was between the employer and an employee. Naidoo also declined to comment.
Naidoo's departure follows the resignation of the board that appointed him. The board, headed by Frans Baleni, a former director of the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA), served for only a year until asked by the CEF to resign because the holding company had plans to restructure the group. CEF then appointed some of its own directors, including Poya, to serve on the Petrosa board.
Petrosa is technically insolvent and has made large losses for several consecutive years. However, it has continued as a going concern in the faith that its turnaround strategy would bear fruit. Over the past year, it has retrenched about 400 staff, mostly on a voluntary basis. 