{"id":872338,"date":"2026-08-27T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=872338"},"modified":"2026-08-27T13:06:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T11:06:13","slug":"new-ceo-for-major-south-african-bank-that-plans-to-retrench-1200-workers-and-close-90-branches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/banking\/872338\/new-ceo-for-major-south-african-bank-that-plans-to-retrench-1200-workers-and-close-90-branches\/","title":{"rendered":"New CEO for major South African bank that plans to retrench 1,200 workers and close 90 branches"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

African Bank has confirmed the appointment of Zweli Manyathi as its Group CEO, who takes on the role on a permanent basis amid a series of struggles facing the bank. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

African Bank confirmed that Manyathi, who was appointed interim Group CEO in March, has received approval from the Prudential Authority to become its permanent CEO. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He joined the bank’s boards in September 2022 as an executive director and Chief Executive: Business & Commercial. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He brings over 40 years of experience across retail, business and commercial banking to the top job. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was CEO of Business and Commercial at Standard Bank, where he oversaw strategic direction and contributed to financial service delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before this, he held numerous executive and senior positions, including CEO of FNB Branch Banking and CEO of FNB Corporate Banking. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The board said that it is confident that he possesses the requisite knowledge, skills, experience and qualifications to fulfil the responsibilities of CEO. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The appointment supports continuity within a strategically critical executive role and aligns to the group\u2019s broader leadership continuity and succession planning framework,” it said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The Board has previously considered executive continuity requirements within the context of succession planning and as such Mr Manyathi was an immediate successor to the Group CEO role.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He holds a Bachelor of Commerce Honours in Financial Management from the University of South Africa. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also completed a Senior Executive Programme (SEP) through both Wits\u2019 and Harvard\u2019s Business Schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also studied at a Professional Development Programme (PDP) through the City University of New York. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group said that he brings extensive strategic leadership and execution capabilities, as well as turnaround experience, which will be essential given the group’s struggles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

1,200 employees and 90 branches at risk<\/h2>\n\n\n
\n
\"\"<\/a>
Zweli Manyathi – African Bank Group CEO<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

The bank recently announced that it is contemplating a massive restructuring, which could impact 1,200 employees and see 90 branches close across South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bank said it is contemplating a Section 189A retrenchment process following a net after-tax loss of R624 million for the six months ended March 31 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group said that costs were outpacing its risk-adjusted revenue. Although the group said it is exploring all cost-saving avenues, it also said it has reached a point where it has to review staff costs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s planned initial public offering, which would reduce the South African Reserve Bank’s stake in the bank, has also been pushed back to 2030 amid heightened costs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group has been on a large-scale acquisition drive over the last several years, with billions spent on companies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It acquired Business Bank, Grindrod Bank, for R1.5 billion; Ubank\u2019s assets for R80 million; and Sasfin Capital Equipment Finance and Commercial Property Finance Businesses for R3.25 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It did, however, pull out of a deal to acquire Eskom’s R5.7 billion Home Loan book, which would have marked its entrance into secured lending, as it focused on its other completed acquisitions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group also faced a sudden leadership upheaval when its former Group CEO, Kennedy Bungane, abruptly\u00a0resigned\u00a0in March amid poor performance and a financial reporting error. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bank faced criticism from the Prudential Authority after a controversial loan within the group\u2019s own subsidiaries attempted to increase its capital adequacy ratio.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trade union SASBO has slammed African Bank’s premature announcement of its contemplation of the Section 189A consultation process, as well as the announcement’s public nature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSASBO views the manner in which this process has unfolded as unacceptable. Retrenchments are not merely a business exercise; they have profound consequences for workers,\u201d SASBO said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

African Bank has confirmed the appointment of Zweli Manyathi as its Group CEO, having held the role on an interim basis since March. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":856702,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"posted","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"2092945484566388987","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2188147975338935","_sma_instagram_post_id":"18389463073162655","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[961],"tags":[4762],"class_list":["post-872338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-banking","tag-african-bank"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=872338"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872338\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":872347,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872338\/revisions\/872347"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/856702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=872338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=872338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=872338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}