Whether it’s due to something toxic in the water at Sasol’s glitzy R2bn global headquarters in Sandton, or just unbridled arrogance in its decision making, the petrochemical company can’t seem to stay out of trouble.Investors are well aware, to their wincing dismay, of the disasters that befell the Lake Charles $12.9bn chemicals project in Louisiana — Sasol’s worst-ever blunder. The ethane cracker it built was the company’s most ambitious project, but it backfired spectacularly — leaving unprecedented levels of debt, sparking a share price rout and claiming the scalps of at least two CEOs.On October 27 2014, when Sasol announced it would go ahead with Lake Charles, the share price was R550; today it is 80% lower, at R110. And the big losers are SA’s pension funds, which were almost uniformly invested in Sasol.Only now, it turns out that the man who led Sasol into Louisiana — Canadian David Constable, who served as CEO between July 2011 and May 2016 — is still going to be closely inv...
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