Shoprite investors turn on Wiese

Shoprite investors have voted against the remuneration of its top executives. They heard that CEO Pieter Engelbrecht received R29.9m over the past year, an increase of almost 12% from the previous year. The minimum wage in the retail sector is R28.25 per hour – or about R5 500 a month. Shareholders holding 49.89% of ordinary Shoprite shares also voted against former chair Christo Wiese as a director. A report on the Fin24 site notes that Wiese helped to grow Shoprite from a small supermarket chain with eight stores to the pan-African food retailer. He retired as chairperson last year, after shareholders holding 61% of shares voted against his re-appointment as a chairperson at the 2019 AGM. He was a close associate of disgraced former Steinhoff CEO Markus Jooste. Wiese lost more than R23bn after Steinhoff all but collapsed in 2017 amid extensive corporate fraud. Wiese was the only one of the Shoprite directors that faced serious dissent – with almost all of the other directors scoring support of above 96%.