JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Kumba Iron Ore chairperson Fani Titi is to step down from the board of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed mining company from September 30 and will be replaced by Dr Mandla Gantsho, who has been appointed as chairperson designate.

Gantsho will join the board on August 1 and will succeed Titi on October 1, after a handover period of two months.

CEO and founder of Africa Rising Capital, an investment and advisory business, Gantsho is a nonexecutive director and chairperson of Sasol Limited and Impala Platinum.

He is also a member of the divisional board of Rand Merchant Bank, a division of FirstRand Bank Limited.

A chartered accountant by profession, Gantsho, 55, has spent some 15 years in leadership positions within development finance institutions, both in South Africa and internationally, and Kumba says he brings a wealth of experience of multi-sectoral development throughout the African continent. In addition, he has extensive board leadership experience on a number of listed and unlisted corporations, the iron-ore mining company says in a release to Creamer Media’s Mining Weekly Online.

Titi said he was pleased to have played a part in contributing to a great South African business that would continue to make a significant contribution to the South African economy and to the communities in which Kumba operates.

He said Gantsho would work with a leadership team ably led by Kumba CEO Themba Mkhwanazi to build on the significant progress already made by the business.

Gantsho emphasised the mining sector’s role as a driver of economic growth, which he described as being pivotal in creating sustainable employment and downstream opportunities for business and entrepreneurial development.

Gantsho’s directorships have including the South African Reserve Bank, Development Bank of Southern Africa, Afrocentric Investment Corporation and CIC Energy South Africa.

He holds several degrees, including a PhD and an MPhil from the University of Pretoria, an MSc from George Washington University in the US, a BCom (Hons) and a CTA from the University of Cape Town and a BCom, from Walter Sisulu University, formerly the University of Transkei.