Text of Barbara Hogan's letter of resignation from the board of Hosken Consolidated Investments Ltd. October 26 2014
To the Chair and Directors of HCI,
I hereby resign from the Board of Directors of HCI as I cannot associate myself with certain recent developments within the HCI GROUP concerning the Chair, Marcel Golding. I am uneasy with the proposition that the discontent with Marcel's leadership can solely be attributed to the alleged unauthorized trading in Ellie's shares.
Whilst the latter requires investigation, I am mindful of the briefing that Yunis Shaik gave me when he claimed that SACTWU, a significant shareholder in HCI, had lost patience with the editorial practices of eTV, citing the failure to give prominent coverage to Minister Ebrahim Patel's economic pronouncements, as an instance of such dissatisfaction.
The fact that SACTWU later refused to approve any restructuring proposals which would have separated the media interests of the company from HCI, thereby enabling SABIDO to separate from HCI with Marcel at the helm of the former, (a restructuring endorsed by the HCI Board) reinforces my unease.
I am appalled at the unprofessional way in which the process to inquire into the Ellie's trading matter has unfolded. That a sub-committee of the HCI Board, that was appointed to inquire into the merits of the allegations, took it upon itself to take such drastic actions, such as the suspension of Marcel Golding as CEO of SABIDO, a subsidiary of HCI without even a formal report to the HCI or SABIDO Boards, or even providing documentation in support thereof, is unacceptable to me.