Morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the thirty-fifth annual general meeting of ordinary shareholders of Absa Group Limited. Before I make my opening remarks, may I request that should any shareholder have questions around the annual general meeting notice, the 2021 integrated report, the 2021 annual financial statements, the 2021 report of the Social Sustainability and Ethics Committee or any other matter which is tabled at this meeting, please send your messages now via the shareholder platform by selecting the Q&A icon at the top of the screen and then typing in your message within the chat box at the bottom of the messaging screen, and then thereafter, press Send. Shareholders require an invitation code to access the shareholder platform, and this will have been provided in advance upon online registration through the Computershare Virtual Meeting Services shareholder platform. This is at https://meetnow.global/za. You access this by clicking on the Absa logo. I shall either respond or direct the question to the appropriate respondent. We will try and group the questions by themes. All questions will be visible but may be answered as a collective where the questions are similar. Shareholders are also referred to the virtual shareholders user guide, which is available in the documents folder once the meeting has been accessed from the Absa AGM 2022 shareholder portal to participate in shareholders. The user guide would have been emailed to shareholders after they have received their access credentials. Ladies and gentlemen, it is my pleasure to address you as Chairman for the first time at an Absa Group AGM. I joined the Absa board on the first of December as a non-executive director and chairman designate. I must say I have spent a significant amount of time then getting to know Absa's leaders, its people and its operations in South Africa and elsewhere on the continent better. I have since done my first country visit, and I'm looking forward to our chairman's conference in Kenya in July. The engagements over the past six months have confirmed my belief that Absa is a group with significant potential. As I've come to interface with the business, I have been excited by the caliber of people that work at Absa. I have been immensely impressed by the business acumen, passion, and conviction, not only amongst the Exco members but also the next level of leadership in the group. I also have admiration for the collective leadership that has steered this large ship through the rough seas in recent years. While the COVID pandemic persisted for a second year in 2021, global economic recovery momentum and sub-Saharan growth was more robust than expected. This was buoyed by accommodative policies, higher commodity prices, and multilateral support. In South Africa, which remains Absa's largest market, the economy grew by 4.9%. Incidents of looting and rioting in parts of the country in July last year highlighted the deep rooted vulnerabilities and emphasized the urgency of structural reforms. The likelihood of further significant incidents of civil unrest have been commented on by others. There remains much to be done to address the significant impediments to faster growth in South Africa. To this end, we are encouraged by the governing party's recent policy papers that suggest that the private sector play a greater role in the economy, particularly as we all see and feel the great effect of the energy sector constraints. This is not only true in South Africa, but for sub-Saharan Africa. In commenting on the economic outlook shock brought about by the Russia-Ukraine conflict last month, the director of the IMF's African department recently said that looking beyond the current steady set of crises, decisive policy is needed to enable economic diversification, promote regional integration, and unleash the private sector's potential in the region. Banks play a key role in the economies of any region, and I'm optimistic that Absa is taking its rightful place as a role player in the economic growth and development of our various markets across the continent. A crisis of another sort also hit South Africa with the Easter floods in KwaZulu-Natal. Not only does this remind us of the risks posed by climate change and the precarious position we are all in, it also gives us an opportunity to think more deeply about those issues in trying to balance the need for environmental sensitivity and carbon neutrality with the importance of extractive industries to the economies and social fabric of our African societies. The crisis in KZN has allowed us to come together with our communities to show that we are an active force for good. Absa rallied its resources to assist with immediate needs such as water supply, and we've also waived excesses or excess fees on insurance claims. We also allocated ZAR 10 million, which will go towards longer-term efforts to restore and rebuild social and other infrastructure. Looking at Absa's performance, the last couple of years have been testing and many challenges will remain. However, Absa have proved resilient, not by default, but through deliberate and decisive action. The group delivered a strong financial and operational performance in 2021 as earnings were 14% higher than the pre-COVID levels. Our return on equity more than doubled to comfortably above our cost of equity. We entered 2022 with strong momentum in our balance sheet and pre-provision profits. Absa's 30% total shareholder return, the highest since 2014, was comfortably ahead of the FTSE/JSE All Share Index. Lastly, the group's common equity tier one ratio strengthened to 12.8, which is above our board target range. Strong capital levels enabled the group to resume dividend payments with a 40% payout ratio for our final dividend. This robust performance is testament to the strength of the leadership team that was led by Jason Quinn as Interim Chief Executive Officer with Punki Modise as Interim Financial Director. They were supported by a committed executive committee who remained focused on the task at hand to ensure a robust delivery of our strategy. Employees across the organization have demonstrated an exceptional ability to respond and adjust to change with speed. We are very grateful to our staff. We refreshed our strategy last year, reanchoring it to our 2018 game plan. We have five priorities which include being a diversified franchise with deliberate market-leading growth, being the primary partner for our clients, being a digitally powered business, being a winning, talented, and diverse team, and being an active force for good in everything that we do. While pursuing our growth strategy, we remain mindful of the economic operating context and the need to hold capital at the upper end of the board target ranges. We announced that we will implement a new broad-based BEE transaction as a further demonstration of our commitment to transformation. However, geopolitical risks and share price volatility resulted in the revision of our implementation timetable. We look forward to picking this up and implementing a broad-based structure. Essentially, this will include our employees, enabling them to share in the benefits of the company's growth potential. We're pleased that Absa returned to level one BEE status last year, even in the absence of an ownership transaction, with significant traction in areas such as skills development, preferential procurement, socio-economic development, empowerment financing, and access to financial services. This despite the challenging operating context. Within Absa, we have made progress at several levels in the organization, but there is work to be done in terms of race and gender transformation. We have engaged with important stakeholders, including several Black business organizations, explaining our transformation imperative, how important it is to the board and the executive, and our approach at ensuring that we achieve this particular imperative. In our engagement, we indicated our commitment to be able to demonstrate significant progress at senior levels within the next 18-24 months. As part of our strategy refresh last year, we elevated ESG further as a priority from our 2018 plans. We prioritized the six UN Sustainable Development Goals for our group. Given its importance, we included sustainability in short- and long-term management incentives in 2021. Within the environment pillar, managing climate change risks and opportunities are a key focus. We aim to firstly become Africa's leader in sustainable finance. We were the first South African bank to publish an ESG-related financing target, and we are South Africa's leader in financing renewable energy to date. Secondly, we are proactively incorporating climate change into our business. We established sustainability as a key risk and are rolling out an environmental and social management system in our approval process. We've also measured physical risk in our agri and real estate lending, which account for approximately 40% of our total loans. As we work towards a 2050 net zero carbon emission target, we recently announced a target for fossil fuel lending over a short, medium, and long term. We also started measuring our absolute indirect or financed emissions, initially in the agri and real estate. Within our social pillar, inclusive finance is a key focus area, and we are championing inclusion and being there to support our customers where they need us most. As part of our intent to be an active force for good in everything that we do, we continued to build on numerous skill development activities that Absa supports across our various operations in Africa. Last year, our citizenship disbursements totaled ZAR 195 million, comprising 65% community investments, 30% charitable donations, and 5% commercial initiatives. In South Africa, 86% of our ZAR 16 billion of local procurement was with broad-based BEE suppliers. Let me now turn to board and executive matters. Now, being fairly new to the board, it is clear to me that lessons learned during the past year have not been taken lightly. The need for alignment between management and the board is vital in every aspect, and I can give you the assurance that we're fully aligned on the group's refreshed strategy and the priorities as I have mentioned them. In November 2021, the board welcomed John Cummins as an independent non-executive director. John brings a wealth of banking, risk, and treasury experience. Mark Mason stepped down from the board on 31st January 2022. I understand that Mark's insight into banking, risk, and financial matters were invaluable, and that he exhibited the highest levels of skill and diligence. We wish Mark well all the best in his future endeavors, and we thank him for remaining on as chairman of our Absa Securities UK board. On 31st March this year, Ms. Wendy Lucas-Bull stepped down from the board as chairman. Having completed a maximum nine-year tenure. Wendy's role in Absa's separation from Barclays to become a standalone financial services provider cannot be understated. Of course, her near decade-long chairmanship would have required managing many challenges as she led the board during an increasingly difficult and volatile economic and policy environment. Wendy left Absa on solid footing, and I look forward to building on the work that went before me. The appointment of Arrie Rautenbach on the twenty-ninth of March will provide the continuity and stability necessary to consolidate our purpose and strategy. Arrie's track record in business performance and his ability to deliver on group objectives position him ideally for the task. Jason has resumed his position as group financial director, while Punki was named interim chief executive of RBD, and she will remain on the group executive committee. Arrie and the board are fully aligned on the principle of delivering financial results, and driving transformation, diversity, and inclusion across all levels, within the group. In conclusion, while the operating environment is challenging and uncertain in many cases and may worsen as the many and varied effects of the Russia-Ukraine conflict ripple through the world, I'm optimistic about the prospects for Absa, given its potential momentum, clear alignment on strategy, a committed leadership team, and focus on our people, our customers, and our communities. We are well-positioned for growth and would like to continue on this journey with you, our shareholders, our stakeholders. I would like to thank you for your attention. At this point, we will now move on to the formal agenda. Chair, it's Nadine. I just got a message from a couple of shareholders saying that they were battling to ask questions through the system. If I could just ask that we pause for a few minutes, and I just want to double-check. Obviously, they need to be given an opportunity to do that. If we could just take a leg stretch for a couple of minutes and just if Computershare could just put the holding screen on perhaps, and then we'll revert in five or six minutes. I'll get a cue from you, Nadine. That's fine. Sure. Thank you. Thanks, Chair. Sure. Ladies and gentlemen, we are just experiencing some technological challenges with the questions portal with Computershare. While Computershare fixes the portal, my suggestion is that we continue with the resolutions, and then we will. In the meantime, also, the questions can be sent by email to Nadine Drutman, who is our Company Secretary, and also to Alan Hartdegen, who is the Investor Relations. I think the same questions can be sent maybe on the portal and just to ensure that the questions also reach us, if you can just send them to either Nadine or Alan. We will make sure that we answer the questions. Hopefully, by the time we get to the end of the resolutions, the Computershare system will be back alive to enable us to be able to deliver the questions. My apologies for that. Let's move on to the formal AGM agenda. Ladies and gentlemen, kindly note that the proceedings of this meeting are being recorded and broadcast via live webcast. With me in attendance are the Chairman of the Social, Sustainability and Ethics Committee, Francis Okomo-Okello, via webcast. The Chairman of the Group Audit and Compliance Committee, Tasneem Abdool-Samad, here with me. The Chairman of the Group Risk and Capital Management Committee and Group Credit Risk Committee, René van Wyk, via webcast. We also have the Chairman of the Group Remuneration Committee, Rose Keanly, via webcast. We also have the Lead Independent Director, Nhlanhla Mjoli-Mncube, via webcast. We have with me, next to me here, the Chief Executive Officer of Absa Group, Arrie Rautenbach. Also accompanying me here in Johannesburg is the Group Financial Director, Jason Quinn. Also we have the Company Secretary, Nadine Drutman with me. Tasneem Abdool-Samad is available to answer any questions on the report of the Group Audit Committee. Francis Okomo-Okello is available to answer any questions on matters pertaining to the Social, Sustainability and Ethics Committee, as required in terms of the Companies Act. Rose Keanly is available to answer any questions on matters pertaining to the Remuneration Committee. Representatives of the external auditors are attending the AGM via the live webcast and will respond to questions relating specifically to the 2021 audit. Ranesh Hariparsad and Victor Vega represent Ernst & Young Incorporated. Heather De Reuck and Riaz Morad Mia represent KPMG Inc. At this point, I would like to acknowledge and thank Ernst & Young, who retire as the group's auditors after many years of providing safe assurance of the group in a highly professional manner. Thank you to Ernst & Young. Members of the media will be attending the AGM via the live webcast. They will be attending as in a guest capacity as opposed to a shareholder capacity and will therefore not be able to pose questions during the course of the AGM. The Absa Group Media Relations team will facilitate responses to their questions following, at the conclusion of the formal proceedings. It is important to allow us to finalize the voting and have the results audited before the outcomes are communicated. Shareholders will have received the integrated report, the notice of the annual general meeting, and the audited, condensed, consolidated financial results. These were all available on the website from the seventh of April 2022. In addition, a further SENS was issued on the twenty-fourth of May, reminding shareholders of the details as to how to join the meeting using the virtual channel. We understand from other AGMs held recently that the medium of posting questions rather than being able to ask them verbally was an issue that had come. We plan to move back to the physical AGM as soon as possible or, at the very least, a hybrid format. For now, however, we have selected this virtual format, which will enable shareholders to ask questions through the chat or via email as suggested earlier. We assure you that all the questions that are received will be read out by the Company Secretary and answered to the best of our ability as the board and executive. We have 11 resolutions to be voted on before shareholders at this meeting today. Namely, six ordinary resolutions requiring support of more than 50% of the voting rights exercised. Two non-binding advisory vote on the company's remuneration policy and remuneration implementation report. Three special resolutions which require 75% support. I turn to the meeting agenda. The business of the meeting is to consider the resolutions that I have mentioned. The notice of the annual general meeting was sent to shareholders within the prescribed period by the Companies Act. I will take the notice of this meeting as having been read. Okay. Once again, shareholders are reminded to please send their questions via the platform by selecting the Q&A icon at the top of the screen. Questions can be sent to either Nadine or Alan. As mentioned previously, the external auditors are in attendance to respond to questions relating to their audit. Sorry, there's a problem. Chair, I just wanted to indicate we do have some questions that have started coming through, so when you're ready for those. I think we just decided that we're gonna carry on with the resolutions, Nadine, and then we'll deal with the questions. Sure At the end. Voting on all resolutions will open at the start of the meeting on the shareholder platform. Once the voting has opened, click on the Vote icon that is displayed at the top of the screen. From here on, the resolutions and voting choices will be displayed. To vote, simply select your voting direction from the options that are shown on the screen. A confirmation message will appear to show you that your vote has been received. To change your vote at any point in the meeting, just click on the Change Vote link and simply select another direction. The voting can be performed at any time during the meeting until I have declared at the end of the meeting that voting on all resolutions has closed. At this point, at that point, your last choice will have been already submitted. Shareholders are encouraged to capture their votes for resolutions at their earliest opportunity of voting to ensure that these have been recorded in the event of a technical interruption or a break in your connectivity. Voting results for each resolution will be displayed after the voting has closed. For the purpose of the virtual voting process, I appoint scrutineers who are representatives of Computershare Investor Services (Pty) Ltd. These are our company's transfer secretaries. We shall now proceed with the business of the meeting and voting on the resolutions. The full audited annual financial statements, and a summarized form of the Absa Group Limited, including the reports of the directors, the external auditors, the group audit and compliance committee for the year that ended the 31st of December 2021, have been published to shareholders and are available on the company's website at www.absa.africa. I hereby present the said audited financial statements and the reports aforementioned to this AGM, as required by Section 33D of the Companies Act. Are there any questions on the shareholder platform regarding the annual financial statements? Chair, I'm just having a look to see if there's specific questions on the annual financial statements. Just give me one sec. Chair, there's nothing specific at this stage on the annual financial statements. Thank you. You know, in the absence of specific questions from shareholders, I declare that the meeting has noted the annual financial statements together with the report aforementioned. We now move to present the report of the Social, Sustainability, and Ethics Committee. The Companies Act requires the Social, Sustainability, and Ethics Committee to report through one of its members to the shareholders at the AGM on matters within the committee's mandate. The report is included in the 2021 Environmental, Social, and Governance report on pages one to two and is accessible on the company's website. Francis Okomo-Okello, the chairman of the Social, Sustainability, and Ethics Committee, is available to take any questions that you may have on the report. Are there any questions on the shareholder platform regarding the Social, Sustainability, and Ethics Committee report? Chair, there is a question. It's a combination question, so I'm just gonna read it out. I'd like to ask questions, raise issues, and propose resolutions around the cell captive insurance business of Absa as it relates to investigations. Question one, do the directors and shareholder confirm that cell captive's policyholders be treated fair as per the 2013 review document issued by the FSB, the further development of the regulatory framework that is currently in draft form as a code of conduct? Second question. Do cell captive beneficiaries like the Exxaro employees in the fund-based policy have the same protection under policyholder protection rules as the other policyholders in normal insurance products? Three, could the social and ethics chairperson engage with me to resolve some of the issues in the investigation into the 1.6% disabled people that resulted in a 12% termination in Exxaro, please? It seems not aligned. And then, yeah, I'm just questioning whether there's a lot on Exxaro. I'm just wondering whether there is a question that was actually intended for Exxaro rather than ourselves. It does talk about Absa being the cell captive insurance or underwriter in Exxaro, though, but quite specific to Exxaro. Disability cell captive insurance Exxaro Resources. It was found that Absa is the cell captive insurer/underwriter in the Exxaro group disability income protection fund-based cell policy. In the environmental, social and governance report of Exxaro, it was reported that only 1.6% of Exxaro's employees are classified as disabled, yet 12% of employee terminations are reported due to disability. This ratio seems to indicate an intolerable reputational litigation and commercial risk. Talks about the fund rules from 2013 indicates that a certain number of people in receipt of benefits under the policy deemed as being employed can't count towards the 1.6%. Extremely high 12% termination of disabled people excludes those in receipt of disability benefit. Refers to the product of Absa clearly seems not to address the needs of employees. On the other hand, the employees are not provided for protection under the consumer protection legislation, I presume. Chair, that's quite a long one, but around the same theme around our cell captive insurance products and specifically for Exxaro and related to disability protection. I think given the detailed nature of the question, maybe I can just ask Jason to give it a fair shot, and then Francis can, I suppose that matters pertain specifically to Exxaro. Then Francis can kind of deal with how we deal with the cell captive matters. Thank you, Chair, and thanks for the question. As a first instance, we do operate an insurance business that does provide life and disability protection to our customers. The standards that we apply there are global best practice with respect to conduct and ensuring that our customers understand the risks that are protected and those that are not. We constantly evaluate that, both through internal and external evaluations and, of course, considerable regulatory oversight. That part of our business that provides such cover has paid out significant claims over the last two years, especially in light of the distress that COVID created. We've built significant actuarial liabilities to cover the payment of such claims. In fact, our approach over that period has to be very proactive and rather go and look for claims and ensure that customers are aware of the protection that they have. We've received very few complaints in that regard. The matter of cell captive is an interesting one. The cell captive that we operate, to my knowledge, is for our self-insurance purposes. I'm not aware of the matter related to Exxaro and its conduct with its employees, and I'd suggest that such questions would be better directed towards Exxaro. Francis, you wanna comment maybe just broadly on, you know, our adherence to standards as regards cell captives? Yeah. Chair, we do look at conduct risk in most of our meetings, both in the banking space as well as the insurance space. We receive detailed reports on conduct risk and how that is being managed. We have formally adopted the conduct standards as is required, for instance, by the banking legislation. As a committee, we are satisfied that our systems of governance around conduct are satisfactory and that issues affecting customers, whether they are banking customers or insurance customers, are adequately dealt with. Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Francis, for that. Nadine, are there any further questions on this? Yes, Chair. There's actually a similar one from the same shareholder, Mr. Yakoris Tutui. So I think I will read out sort of part of it, but I think it's the same, similar concerns. It refers to the product of Absa clearly seems not to address the needs of employees. On the other hand, the employees are not provided protection under the consumer protection rules. Does not exist proper oversight by Absa. It talks about policyholder protection rules. It talks about Guardrisk pioneering the cell captive concept in South Africa, but that this is a dangerous and risky insurance business not yet fully regulated. Talks about the registrar relying on the integrity of directors under the Long-Term Insurance Act, and various specific provisions. Again, back to the employees of Exxaro, so being quite specific in that regard. Chair, you know, I would suggest that possibly we move on to the next question on the basis that we can take this offline with the shareholder concerned, you know, having regard to the similar nature of this question. Yeah. I think it's a matter that we, you know, would ask management to take offline specifically to deal with it, with Exxaro. You know, because, you know, we've not. I think, as Jason indicated, he's unsighted or the company is unsighted as far as that is concerned. Maybe the next question, Nadine. Nadine, still there? Yeah. I am, Chair. 26. We're just loading it. Are you loading the question, Nadine? Yes, Chair, I've got it. I'm just releasing it so it's visible to everyone. This relates to oil and gas. It's going now. You should see it in a second. Right. Can you see it now? No, not yet. Hold on. This is from Larina Paschini. I'm hoping you can all see it now, Chair. Unfortunately, it's not coming through onto the screen. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Maybe you can read it out. Yep, I will do. Okay. I think it should be there now. Okay. The question is, Absa has set targets for its exposure to the oil, gas, and coal sectors as a percentage of total group loans over the short, medium, and long term, stating that it views this as an important first step in setting a net zero carbon target for the group. No doubt the bank is aware that a net zero carbon target requires absolute carbon emissions to be decreased on a timeline aligned with the goals of the Paris Agreement. We note also that the bank has calculated and disclosed its exposure to emissions from its lending to the real estate and agriculture sectors but has set no strategy or targets for decreasing these emissions. When does the bank plan to firstly calculate and disclose GHG emissions for their entire loan book? Secondly, set a strategy and short, medium, and long-term absolute contraction targets for its financed GHG emissions from its exposure to coal, oil and gas, as well as the remaining sectors of their loan book, particularly those that account for the greatest exposure to GHG emissions. Chair, that's the end of the question. I'm hoping it's visible to you there. No, it's quite a lengthy question and kind of fairly difficult to follow, but I suppose Francis should. Will you take this one or I think we'll also try to answer it on our side. I think it's quite a substantial piece of work to calculate financed emissions in our group lending activities. We find that data is a bit of a challenge. We took the first step in the process of calculating our overall Scope three greenhouse emissions last year. This we did in partnership with one of our engineering consultants. We did calculate our indirect emissions from our agri and real estate lending using the PCAF methodology. We will continue to add additional sectors. In the meantime, you know, we set our targets to reduce our exposure to fossil fuels in the short, medium and long term. You know, our targets are fairly ambitious. They're more ambitious than that of our government's integrated resource plan. We certainly, I think, will, in the fullness of time, be able to do further work in integrating other sectors to give further science to our computation. I guess maybe also Francis can come in here, I mean, from the social and ethics committee. Yes, Chair, thank you very much and thanks for the question. As we work towards a 2050 net zero carbon emission, we recently announced targets for our fossil fuel lending over the short, medium, and the long term. As the chairman has mentioned in his remarks, the targets that we are setting in the short, medium, and long term are fairly ambitious. Actually more ambitious than the targets that are set in the country's South Africa's integrated resource plan. Our approach here basically is to engage with our customers and help them manage the transition that is expected into green energy. We work together in a supportive manner with them just to ensure that they get all the support that is required. Chair, we recently published oil and gas mining and an updated coal financing standard, as we also set targets for our, you know, lending on fossil fuel. We recognize that this is work in progress and that we would be reviewing our targets periodically. We are satisfied that directionally we are moving in the correct trajectory. Thank you, Chair. Thank you. Thanks, Francis. Nadine, any more questions? Yes, Chair. We've got one on coal. I'm just reading that one out. One on coal. Coal. The coal standard. This is from Robin Hugo. We note from the bank's recently updated coal standards that it has now excluded funding of new coal-fired power plants, but that it remains open to financing new coal mines. We also note that you justify this decision on the basis that you believe coal continues to drive economic and social development by providing reliable, safe, and affordable energy, which is fundamental to socioeconomic and industrial development. Coal is the most intensive fossil fuel and the biggest contributor to global climate change. Climate science is absolutely clear that coal must be urgently phased out if there is to be any chance of limiting global average temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Please explain how you arrive at the assessment that coal is reliable, given regular load shedding, safe, given high levels of pollution and the recent deadly air court decision, and affordable, given the continual increases in electricity tariffs and the legal requirement for major expenditure to comply with emission standards. Effectively the question is: Please explain how you arrive at the assessment that coal is reliable, safe, and affordable, given all these challenges. Chair. Yeah. Look, I mean, I think one thing that's clear, I mean, before I hand over the question to Jason, is that, you know, our exposure to coal has reduced quite significantly, you know, by 72%. Obviously, you know, maybe before I can come back to, you know, giving my perspective on things, maybe I should allow Jason to give context. Yeah. Thanks, Chair, and thanks for the question. Yeah, absolutely. Our coal exposure reduced significantly last year by 72%, to a very low level in the context of our balance sheet. Although it may increase this year, it remains half our 2020 peak and a lot lower than our competitors' targets that they've set for 2030. We also aim to reduce our coal financing to significantly lower levels than our peers. We also think it's important to help clients transition rather than just exclude companies with high emission sectors. Lastly, you would have seen in our coal financing standards under which we'll no longer finance any coal-fired power stations, which is a change from our 2020 standards. To the rest of the question, yeah, look, I think coal-fired power stations are heavy CO2 emitters, but then South Africa's existing power system is very carbon intensive. Over 80% of Eskom's power comes from coal. Coal power is necessary to keep the lights on, so to speak. The other side of the equation is, of course, related to the risks of load shedding, which is a significant headwind in our economy, as we know. To counter all of this risk, we are financing renewable energy at a significant scale. We're the largest funder of government's renewable power programs, and we funded 5 GW of capacity cumulatively to date. In the last round 5, our clients already were successful with 21 out of 25 initiatives. I'll also remind shareholders that we do have that partnership with AREP, which we think will be the largest Black-owned renewable power fund, which brings the dimensions of transformation into this equation as well. Significant efforts from our side to offset the risk of coal but ensure continuity of power supply. Thank you for that. Yeah. Some of the questions as to why we have been load shedding are quite difficult for us to be able to answer competently. You know, it's probably an area that we would want to kind of steer clear of. Are there any further questions, Nadine? Now we can see the questions. I think the questions are coming onto the screen now. That's the one we just answered. Yeah, we just answered this one. Yeah. Okay. If there are no specific questions from shareholders on this one, I declare that the meeting- Chair, sorry, I'm interrupting. There is one, sorry, that's come through, regarding client and NPS. I'm just gonna call that one up now. Clients and NPS. Yeah. The net promoter score and measures of client health. It's a shorter question. This is from Stefan Swanepoel of M&G. The question is as follows. I think it also relates to the report of the social and ethics committee. Measures of client health such as the Net Promoter Score and the SA Client Satisfaction Index have deteriorated and are now the worst in the sector. This requires urgent attention. What commitments will the board make in terms of timelines to ensure that it is fixed? Thanks, Chair. That's the end of that question. Okay. Yeah. Maybe, Arrie, you wanna deal with that one? Chair, thank you very much, and also thank you for that question. Let me start by saying that customer experience and customer satisfaction is a key focus for us as a management committee as well as a board. What you would see if you look at that our trend and performance has continued to improve over a number of years. Apart from this, we've also got a number of other metrics that we measure as strong as sort of leading indicators. This measurement, together with other measurements, is clearly articulated in all our scorecards. We are looking for improvements in this regard. We've agreed targets with the management teams as well as our board to look for a continuous improvement, you know, as we go into the horizon two of our execution of our strategy. This will stay a priority measurement for us. It is linked to our scorecards. It's also linked to our incentives, and we expect to see a continuous improvement as far as the customer experience is concerned. Look, I mean, it's an important consideration, you know, overall in looking also at the organizational health. It's something that's pretty much on our minds, and it's something that we will ensure we attend to in the shortest possible time. That's the commitment we're comfortable to make because it is receiving attention. Anything else, Nadine? Any other further questions? Yes, Chair. We've got a couple more on this broader social ethics topics. We've got one here that is about race and gender representation. We're saying we commend Absa for its progress made in terms of its race and gender representation at board level since last year. However, we note with concern that neither the race nor gender targets have been reviewed and updated despite already having been met and still being way below a fair representation of the country's demographics. Will the board consider increasing its ambition in relation to its own race and gender targets? Thanks, Chair. That's the end of that question. The issue of transformation is an ongoing matter. The issue of diversity and inclusion is something that we are serious about, you know, coming from board level all the way down inside the organization. We do realize that obviously with the departure of our former chairman, and also with Punki coming off the board that, you know, we've regressed, and it's a matter as we, you know, refresh the board that we will continue to address. It's something that we continue to address and look at and make sure that we remain properly representative both at board level and also within the business. It is just an important imperative. Okay. Let's take more questions, Nadine. Chair, we've got a couple more, but I think we can deal with them a little bit later in the session. We'll do that. Okay, we'll deal with more questions relating to this particular area, you know, later in the question session. Given where we are at, I would like to declare that the meeting has noted the report of the Social Sustainability and Ethics Committee. Now, when it comes to ordinary resolutions, please note that the percentage of voting required to pass the first six resolutions is 50% plus one vote. Let's go onto ordinary resolution number one, which is the ordinary resolution to reappoint KPMG SA as the joint company's external auditors. The group audit and compliance committee recommends, and the directors endorse the proposed reappointment of KPMG with Heather Berrange as the designated auditor as the company's external auditors. I shall now put the motion that the reappointment of KPMG as the company's joint auditors to hold office until the conclusion of the next AGM be approved. Will you kindly indicate your vote in respect of resolution number one on your device. Ordinary resolution number two deals with the appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers, PwC, as the company's joint external auditors. The group audit and compliance committee recommend, and the directors endorse the proposed appointment of PwC with John Bennett as the designated auditor as the company's joint external auditors. I shall now put the motion that the proposed appointment of PwC as the company's joint auditors to hold office until the conclusion of the next AGM be approved. Will you kindly indicate your vote in respect of resolution number two on your device. Ordinary resolutions, 3.1 to 3.5 relate to the re-election of directors, the profiles of whom are to be found on pages 13 to 17 of the shareholders' notice. You are required to re-elect by separate and standalone resolutions the following directors who retire by rotation, but being eligible and who have offered themselves for re-election. These are Rose Keanly, Swithin Munyantwali, Arrie Rautenbach, Fulvio Tonelli and René van Wyk. Based on the outcome of the determinations by the board as to skills, capacity, experience and independence, the board recommends their re-election by shareholders. Voting on all these appointments will be dealt with on an individual basis. Ordinary resolution 3.1, I will now put the motion that the re-election of Rose Keanly be approved. Would you kindly indicate your vote for the re-election of Rose Keanly. Ordinary resolution number 3.2. I will now put the motion that the re-election of Swithin Munyantwali be approved. Will you kindly indicate your vote for the re-election of Swithin Munyantwali. Ordinary resolution number 3.3. I will put the motion that the re-election of Arrie Rautenbach be approved. Will you kindly indicate your vote for the re-election of Arrie Rautenbach. Ordinary resolution number 3.4. I will now put the motion that the re-election of Fulvio Tonelli be approved. Will you kindly indicate your vote for the re-election of Fulvio Tonelli. Ordinary resolution number 3.5. I will now put the motion that the re-election of René van Wyk be approved. Will you kindly indicate your vote for the re-election of René van Wyk. All right. We shall move on to ordinary resolution number four. Ordinary resolution 4.1 to 4.3 seeks to confirm the appointment of directors appointed by separate and standalone resolutions subsequent to the last AGM. The profiles of these directors can be found on pages 13 to 17 of the shareholders' notice. Ordinary resolution 4.1, I put the motion that the appointment of John Cummins be confirmed. Will you indicate your vote for the confirmation of appointment of John Cummins. When it comes to ordinary resolution 4.2, I will hand over to our Lead Independent Director, Nhlanhla Mjoli-Mncube, to put the motion for ordinary resolution number 4.2. Over to you, Nhlanhla. Thanks, a lot, Sello Moloko. Ordinary resolution number 4.2, I put the motion that the appointment of Sipho Pityana be confirmed. Will you kindly indicate your vote for the confirmation of appointment of Sipho Pityana? Thank you. Thank you, Nhlanhla. Ordinary Resolution 4.3, I put the motion that the appointment of Arrie Rautenbach be confirmed. Will you kindly indicate your vote for the confirmation of appointment of Arrie Rautenbach. We shall now go to resolutions. Ordinary Resolution number f ive. Ordinary Resolutions 5.1-5.5 relate to the reappointment or appointment of the Group Audit and Compliance Committee members. The profiles of these members of the individuals concerned are to be found on pages 13-17 of the shareholders' notice. You are required to reappoint by separate and standalone resolutions, the following directors as members of the Group Audit and Compliance Committee of the company. They have been nominated in terms of Section 94(2) of the Companies Act, namely Alex Darko, Daisy Naidoo, Tasneem Abdool-Samad, Swithin Munyantwali, subject to election as an independent non-executive director pursuant to Ordinary Resolution number 3.2, and René van Wyk also subject to election as an independent non-executive director pursuant to Ordinary Resolution number 3.5. The board supports the reappointment of these directors. The voting on these reappointments will be dealt with on an individual basis. Ordinary Resolution 5.1, I will now put the motion that the reappointment of Alex Darko as a member of the company's Audit and Compliance Committee be approved. Will you kindly indicate your vote for the reappointment of Alex Darko? Ordinary Resolution 5.2, I will now put the motion that the reappointment of Daisy Naidoo as a member of the company's Audit and Compliance Committee be approved. Will you kindly indicate your vote for the reappointment of Daisy Naidoo? Ordinary Resolution 5.3, I will now put the motion that the appointment of Tasneem Abdool-Samad as a member of the company's Audit and Compliance Committee be approved. Will you kindly indicate your vote for the reappointment of Tasneem Abdool-Samad? Ordinary Resolution 5.4, I will now put the motion that the appointment of Swithin Munyantwali as a member of the company's Audit and Compliance Committee be approved. Will you kindly indicate your vote for the appointment of Swithin Munyantwali? Ordinary Resolution 5.5, I will now put that the appointment of René van Wyk as a member of the company's Audit and Compliance Committee be approved. Will you kindly indicate your vote for the appointment of René van Wyk? Ordinary Resolution number six is regarding the placing of the authorized but unissued share capital under the control of the directors. In terms of the company's memorandum of incorporation, shareholders of the company have to approve the placement of unissued ordinary shares under the control of directors. The existing authority granted by the shareholders at the previous annual general meeting expires at the end of this annual general meeting unless renewed. The directors wish to seek a renewal of this authority at this annual general meeting. It should be noted that the directors have no current plans to make use of the authority, but are seeking its renewal to ensure that the company has maximum flexibility in managing the group's capital resources. I therefore propose that the resolution to place a maximum of 5% of the unissued ordinary shares or the maximum number of authorized but unissued ordinary shares from time to time under the control of the directors to be issued as and when suitable situations arise be passed and put to the meeting. Would you kindly indicate your vote in respect of Ordinary Resolution number six on your device. Then we'll get to non-binding advisory votes. The King IV Report on Corporate Governance for South Africa 2016, widely known as King IV, recommends, and the JSE Listings Requirements requires a listed company to table its remuneration policy and implementation report for separate non-binding advisory votes by shareholders at the AGM. These votes enable shareholders to express their views on remuneration policies adopted on their implementation. These resolutions are of an advisory nature only, and the failure of either one or both of them will not have legal consequences relating to existing arrangements. Even though these resolutions are non-binding, if the remuneration policy or the implementation report or both are voted against by 25% or more of the voting rights exercised, the board will, as recommended by King IV and as required by the JSE, implement certain measures, including an invitation to dissenting shareholders to engage with the company. The company's remuneration policy and implementation report are included in the 2021 remuneration report and are accessible on the company's website. We shall now go to the first non-binding advisory vote, which is vote number one. The non-binding advisory vote endorsement of the company's remuneration policy. I will now put the motion of a non-binding advisory vote number one to endorse the company's remuneration policy for voting. Would you kindly indicate your vote in respect of non-binding advisory vote number one on your device. Non-binding advisory vote number two relates to the company's remuneration implementation report. I now put the motion of a non-binding advisory vote number two in respect of the company's remuneration implementation report for voting. Would you kindly indicate your vote in respect of non-binding advisory vote number two on your device. Thank you. We shall now come on to the special resolutions. Now please note that the percentage of voting rights required to pass these resolutions is 75%. Special resolution number one deals with the remuneration of the non-executive directors for their services payable from the first of June 2022. It is a requirement of the Companies Act that non-executive directors' remuneration be approved by way of a special resolution. Full particulars of all remuneration and benefits paid to the directors during 2021 are included on page 43 of the 2021 remuneration report. I shall now put that the proposed remuneration of the non-executive directors, as reflected on page 7 of the shareholders' notice payable from the first of June 2022 to and including the last day of the month preceding the next AGM, be approved accordingly. Will you kindly indicate your vote in respect of special resolution number one on your device? Special resolution number two is a special resolution to authorize the company to effect a general repurchase of shares if such a need requires. The special resolution is for a general authority to permit the company or any subsidiary of the company to buy back not more than 5% of the shares as at the 31st of December 2021. Please note that although the JSE permits share repurchases of up to 20%, the company limits the percentage of any possible general repurchase of shares to 5%. Note further that this authority will only be used if circumstances are appropriate. I shall now put the motion that the special resolution be passed. Kindly indicate your vote in respect of special resolution number two on your handset. Special resolution number three is regarding financial assistance to a related or interrelated company or corporation in terms of Section 45 of the Companies Act. Section 45 of the Companies Act regulates the provision of loans or other financial assistance by the company to certain categories of persons, which include a related or interrelated company or corporation and/or a member of a related or interrelated corporation. The Companies Act stipulates that the company may provide such financial assistance provided that the shareholders of the company have passed a special resolution within the previous 2 years. The effect of this resolution will be to allow the company to the extent permissible in terms of the Companies Act to provide financial assistance to the said categories of persons. I shall now put the motion to authorize the company to provide direct or indirect financial assistance as defined for purposes of Section 45 of the Act. Will you kindly indicate your vote in respect of special resolution number three on your handset. Ladies and gentlemen, that deals with the resolutions, the 11 resolutions that I had indicated. As indicated earlier on, when we had pitches from Computershare, I did promise that we will do a Q&A here. Nadine, if we can invite more questions from the shareholders. We do have several questions, Chair. There's also a statement from the PIC that was sent through that we've posted and should be available. I'm gonna read it out. They did ask us to make sure it was read out. The PIC appreciates the engagements it has had thus far with the chairperson and CEO of Absa regarding the level of transformation, and would like the AGM to note that we will continue to monitor the progress in this regard as it relates to the advancement of women and racial diversity at board and executive levels. In addition to that, we look forward to getting the transformation targets and timelines, which must be integrated into the remuneration policy with dedicated weightings for transparent monitoring. It was a statement, Chair, but you may want to comment on that. Yeah. Nadine, we note the statement from the PIC and appreciate their input. As we all know, they have engaged with us and we've had a few constructive engagements with the PIC. We certainly continue to be committed to our transformation journey. We do note that and appreciate the challenge. Thanks, Chair. The next one is, if I can carry on, I think it's the question from Robin Hugo. Your integrated report indicates that five Absa board members have climate change and environmental expertise but fails to identify which directors these are. We are also unable to identify these skills from an examination of the biographies of these expert members and an online search of their backgrounds. Please could you indicate which board members have been identified as having these skills and how this expertise is evaluated. Chair, I do have. If you don't mind, I've just got that, you know, I'd like to propose an answer to that question in terms of the five members. The five staff, maybe. Okay. It was, at the time, Wendy would've been one of the five, Robin. We have Jason, we have John Cummins, Ihron Rensburg, Nhlanhla Mjoli-Mncube, and that is the five. In terms of process, there's quite a detailed process that we go through in terms of evaluation, and I certainly take the point that we could possibly describe this in our disclosures. Obviously we look at qualifications and professional designations, any certificates done, et cetera, et cetera. We look at experience, so the types of roles and experience gained over the years. You know, directors in particular roles, either executive or non-executive, which would be taken into account. Involvement and participation, for example, in climate-related forums, and business forums for other categorizations, et cetera. Obviously command of the subject, keeping up their knowledge to date, and attending training and continuous professional development, awareness of policy and the regulatory landscape related to climate issues and sustainability, et cetera. Chair, that would be the answer to that particular question. If I may go on, unless one of the board members would like to add to that. I think it's a very good answer, Nadine, because I think a lot of it is based on the experience and how we interface and contribution from the said board members. We can give you know, maybe more color you know, at the next annual report in terms of how we assess. Another one from Robin Hugo is related to the oil and gas standard. That one is available to the members to read and to the shareholders. It's quite lengthy. I'm gonna go through it. Absa's newly released oil and gas standard states that Africa could become one of the largest growth regions for liquefied natural gas because of our vast natural gas resources, and this being seen as a transition fuel. It also claims that oil and gas are important for economic development, and that as a pan-African bank, involvement in oil and gas upstream and midstream activities within the African continent will remain strategically important. This position is not supported by climate science. On the other hand, you claim in your TCFD report that your strategy is aligned with the Paris Agreement. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the International Energy Agency both make clear that new oil and gas projects will be fatal to the goals of the Paris Agreement. Multiple studies, including by the International Institute for Sustainable Development, Oil Change International, TransitionZero and the National Business Initiative, show that gas is not necessary for poverty alleviation, energy security or development in Africa. Why does Absa not acknowledge these studies, and what is your evidential basis for claiming that new oil and gas development is not only important for economic development, but aligned with the goals of the Paris Agreement? Why don't you take this one, Jason? I'm happy to. Thanks, Chair. Thanks for the question, Larina. As a founding signatory to the UN's Principles for Responsible Banking, we've committed to align our operations with the Paris Agreement. In our new ESG strategy, we've committed to set an ambitious net zero target. Francis covered that earlier. We are aware, of course, of the IEA and IPCC's recent reports. The comments should also be seen in the context of the targets we recently published in our TCFD reports for our fossil fuel exposures, including oil, gas, and coal. We aim to reduce our exposure to fossil fuels materially over the medium term. Also, in our oil and gas financing standard, there are numerous exclusions. For example, greenfield projects involving exploration for oil and gas reserves, where repayment of facilities is purely based on cash flows from the exploration assets. As mentioned earlier, we strongly support moving Africa's energy mix to renewables, where we aim to be Africa's sustainable finance leader. To date, we've been South Africa's largest funder of renewable energy, like I mentioned earlier. A bit more color on that would be, for example, in our targets, we see renewable financing being five times more than fossil fuels by 2040. Currently, already renewables are 74% of our energy funding. I also mentioned that, you know, gas exposures peak at 0.6% only of our loans by 2030 and then decline materially by 2050. Thanks, Chair. Thank you, Jason. Sorry, I'm trying to read. This is about transformation. What progress was made in representation of disabled? That question from Mr. Jacobus Du Toit is on transformation and on disability as well. What progress has been made in representation of disabled people on board and executive level as per the Employment Equity Act? Can we adopt a level of representation? I presume the question is about can we set targets for representation of disabled people on board and at executive level. I think across the business we do set targets for disabled people. One of the things that often companies encourage people, and I think it's the same with Absa, is to encourage even some of the people that have disabilities to come out. I think we from the perspective of transformation, it is a measure that we continually would like to address, you know, when the opportunity arises. Yeah. Chair, then the next one is about the meeting format itself. I think you did address this up front in your opening address, but obviously we have had some difficulties. "Computershare's virtual AGM platform has the functionality to allow shareholders to ask questions verbally, which allows more meaningful engagement with the board and executives. However, Absa has chosen not to allow for this functionality, instead requiring shareholders to submit written questions. As has been demonstrated, this was not a smooth process. Please, can you explain why you don't want shareholders to ask verbal questions given that this functionality is available and used in other company AGMs?" That's from Greer Blizzard. Yeah. As I indicated earlier on, we do intend to move to an in-person or even a hybrid scenario where we can allow people to ask questions. You know, in our view, it's probably based on previous experience, it's been more efficient and better organized to be able to read the questions and make sure that, you know, we understand the questions. You know, we found that this functionality did allow us to be able to do that. I think going forward, we will move to a dual medium. Unfortunately, today we had the tech issues with Computershare. That's unfortunate. You know, it's something we didn't anticipate. Okay. We do have another question relating to cell captives linked to the original sort of Exxaro question. Again, we're gonna take that offline with the shareholder concerned. It does go through, you know, similar questions that were posed earlier. Yeah, definitely. I think Jason and Harry will deal with that. We'll take that offline. Anything else, Nadine? Chair, I'm just checking the platform to make sure that we haven't left any out. If you could just bear with me for two minutes. Chair, I'm comfortable we've covered the various questions raised by the shareholders. No, thank you, Nadine. As indicated earlier, you are able to change your vote on any of the resolutions at any point. If you wish to do so, please do so now. The voting will close in the next two minutes. We'll wait until the results of the votes on each of the resolutions are displayed or we're ready. Let's give you two minutes to finalize your voting. Chair, I think just for the sake of clarity, what we will do is we will share the additional questions raised by Mr. Du Toit, in the event that people are concerned, just to share that there are, you know, along similar lines as those indicated before. I think if we can just ask Venan to reflect just before we go to the vote, if we can just put up those last couple of questions regarding the disability and the Exxaro and cell captive. Thanks, Chair. I see we've got the results here. Maybe, we just go through the results and then Venan can put the questions. Sure. Wrap up afterwards for the benefit of everyone before we close the meeting. The results on the votes or on each of the resolutions has been displayed. I'll read them out. I'll read vote four. Ordinary resolution number 1.1 voted for 99.65%. Ordinary resolution 2.1 voted for 99.98%. Ordinary resolution 3.1 also passed 92.7%. Ordinary resolution 3.2 also passed 99.6%. Ordinary resolution 3.3 passed 94.98%. Ordinary resolution 3.4 also voted for 99.98%. Ordinary resolution 3.5 passed 94%. Ordinary resolution 4.1 passed 99.97%. Ordinary resolution 4.2 passed 97.86%. 4.3 passed 99.66%. 5.1 passed 96%. Ordinary resolution number 5.2 passed 99.1%. Ordinary resolution 5.3 passed 98.88%. Ordinary resolution 5.4 passed 99.95%. Ordinary resolution 5.5 passed 67.56%. Ordinary resolution number six passed 89.52%. The non-binding advisory vote number one passed 81.45%. The voting for the non-binding advisory vote number two is 58.85%. The special resolution number one passed 97.03%. Special resolution number two also passed 99.8%. Then special resolution number three passed 95.66%. The resolutions pass, obviously. There's a requirement in terms of non-binding advisory vote number two. We didn't make the 75% threshold, and there's a process of engaging shareholders that we have to undertake. This relates to the implementation report. The results will, after this, be announced on SENS, so that the public can also get the benefit of knowing the results of the AGM. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for the engagement. Oh, sorry. Before we close the meeting, we did promise that we would post the questions that were asked relating to policyholder protections as they relate to cell captives. The questions are similar in nature, as Nadine had indicated. As promised, the management team will engage with the shareholder to understand and be able to provide further clarity on this particular matter. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes the Annual General Meeting, and I really thank you for your attendance. It is Friday. I know some of you are driving out to beautiful locations. Please drive safely, fly safely, and enjoy your weekend. Thank you very much.