(Reuters) – South African climate protesters on Friday disrupted Sasol’s annual shareholders’ gathering, forcing the petrochemicals company to cancel the meeting.
Sasol, the world’s biggest producer of fuels and chemicals from coal and gas and a major carbon emitter, has been criticised by activists for not doing enough to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The company plans to cut its emissions by 30% by 2030.
A group of protesters holding banners saying “coal kills” and “rapid transition to renewable energies” stormed the stage, shouting “Shame on Sasol” and drowning out CEO Fleetwood Grobler’s presentation, according to footage from the event posted on social media platform X, formerly Twitter.
“Once it became clear that the protesters would not accommodate the effective participation of other shareholders, cancelling the meeting became the only prudent option, as the chairman was inhibited from effectively communicating with the shareholders present,” Sasol said in a statement.
The company said it would advise shareholders on how it would proceed after the disruption.
Ahead of the meeting, institutional shareholder Old Mutual, which holds a stake of 3.08%, expressed dissatisfaction with Sasol’s performance in pursuit of its climate targets. Old Mutual said it would vote against Sasol’s climate report at the AGM and recommended other shareholders to do the same.
In a Nov.13 response, Sasol said it was “perplexed” by Old Mutual’s decision, which it insists was “premised on inaccurate and, to some extent, misleading information”.
Earlier on Friday, Sasol named its Executive Vice President of Energy Operations and Technology Simon Baloyi as President and CEO effective April 1, 2024. Grobler, who has been CEO since 2019, will remain with the company as an executive advisor until Dec. 31, 2024.
(Reporting by Nelson Banya; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)
