JOHANNESBURG - Fred Roux, one of South Africa's more prominent mining men, was sacked as chairman of Impala Platinum by its board of directors at a meeting yesterday, ahead of Thursday's annual general meeting. Roux - who holds degrees in science, an MBA and a PhD - released a statement on the matter, and attached an e-mail sent to him this past Sunday by Niall Carroll, apparently in his role as CEO of Royal Bafokeng Holdings, which earns untold millions a year in the form of royalties from Impala, and separately ranks as the biggest shareholder in Impala.

The Bafokeng, a relatively small tribe in terms of numbers, are sometimes known as "the richest tribe in Africa". Carroll, no Bafokeng, shares in the largesse. While Carroll's e-mail refers to an apparently personal relationship between Impala CEO David Brown and Mark Willcox, a director at Mvelaphanda Resources, and other Mvelaphanda entities, Roux focuses more on certain of his chairman's comments in the 2009 Impala annual report, where he was overwhelmingly frank, referring, as a sample, to Impala's "underwhelming" production performance during the financial year to 30 June 2009.

In his e-mail to Roux, Carroll advises that he has spoken to three of Impala's four biggest shareholders, and most of Impala's non-executive directors. Then Carroll takes the swine, real or imagined, by the tits, real or imagined, and kicks Roux in the head: "given the developments of the past few months, however, I believe it is time for you to step down as chairman of the board in favour of Khotso Mokhele", an Impala non-executive director.

Carroll bled with charity, advising Roux that "we have no desire for this issue to become contested and in the public domain. I would suggest that you announce at the AGM that you will be stepping down as chairman at the end of December 2009, thereby allowing for a smooth and managed transition, with no reputational taint to anyone". Roux, of course, gave Carroll the proverbial fat middle finger, choosing to be sacked rather than resigning. Carroll tells me that Roux released the Carroll e-mail in an "inappropriate manner".

The Impala debacle has not touched Roux's reputation. Carroll knows about the issue of reputation, all right. During 2001, Carroll, as an executive of Deutsche Bank, Johannesburg, featured heavily in the Rand Commission hearings. The rand absolutely crashed during the closing months of 2000; Kevin Wakeford, then CEO of the South African Chamber of Business, publicly accused Deutsche Bank of deliberately speculating against the rand.

Urban legend had it that trading screens at Deutsche Bank in Johannesburg had screensavers stating "F*** THE RAND", but let's not get into that. The commission had a limited mandate, and Deutsche Bank made some kind of a settlement, a big one, with the South African central bank. For attempting to blow the whistle, Wakeford was fired as CEO of SACOB.

Roux has been sacked for blowing some kind of whistle. In his annual letter to shareholders, he referred to "difficulties associated with managing in the present-day environment of enlightened democracy" in South Africa. Roux discussed the need to seek a buy-in from the workforce, difficult as it was; "the situation is somewhat exacerbated by an entitlement attitude that now seems pervasive in our society, and leads to unrealistic expectations which often are difficult to meet".

Speak your mind in South Africa, and be damned. In his statement, Roux puts it so: "I have to concede, however, that the relationship between David Brown and me has been under a measure of strain recently. This was probably because, in my recent chairman's letter to shareholders, I did the unthinkable and actually criticised the Implats executives for a sub-standard performance during the past year. Basically, "over-promising and under-delivering". Fred Roux, we salute you.

Write to Barry Sergeant: barry@moneyweb.co.za