Basani Maluleke resigns as African Bank CEO

Basani Maluleke has resigned as the chief executive officer (CEO) and executive director of African Bank to pursue other career opportunities. She will leave at the end of April but will first ensure a smooth hand-over process to interim CEO, Gustav Raubenheimer.

The African Bank board said in a statement it appreciated Basani’s significant contribution in leading the transformation at the bank to become a diversified and investable retail bank, such as developing and rolling out the Omnichannel, a digital experience for customers and employees, increasing the bank’s retail investments and helping to rehabilitate the brand.

Raubenheimer will take over subject to approval by the Prudential Authority. He is currently chief financial officer and board member at the bank.

“We are confident that Raubenheimer will be a safe and skilled pair of hands, together with the rest of the executive team, to steer the group until a permanent replacement is found. We thank him for taking up the interim role as well as the rest of the capable executive team,” Thabo Dloti, chairman of the board, said.

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Basani said she was extremely proud of what they had achieved over the last three years and grateful for the dedication and hard work of staff.

“It has been an honour to serve as CEO during an important phase of the organisation’s transformation.”

Raubenheimer joined African Bank as credit executive in 2012, with experience in banking and financial, and analytical skills from serving as articled clerk at Deloitte & Touche. He also worked for FirstRand Bank, the FNB division’s corporate bank, Nedbank’s credit lab and Absa’s retail and commercial division.

As credit executive responsible for managing credit risk, provisions for bad debt and pricing at African Bank, he was instrumental in identifying the deteriorating performance of the bank’s loan book and alerted management to the situation that ultimately led to the bank being placed in curatorship. He was appointed chief financial officer of the African Bank Group in July 2015.

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