JOHANNESBURG (Bloomberg) — South African company Barloworld Ltd.'s appointment of Trevor Munday to the new post of deputy chairman is "racist," said Brian Molefe, chief executive officer of Public Investment Corp., the company's biggest shareholder.Barloworld, which is based in Johannesburg and distributes industrial equipment, yesterday named Dumisa Ntsebeza as chairman, the first black person to take the post in the company's 105-year history. Trevor Munday, who is white and a former deputy CEO of Sasol Ltd., was chosen as deputy.

"This is the first black chairman of Barloworld and they find it necessary to appoint a white deputy because they are not sure about the appointment," Molefe said by telephone from Pretoria yesterday. "It's racist." Munday told Bloomberg News he had no comment to make in response to Molefe's remarks.

South African companies are being pressured by the government to sell stakes to black investors and promote black South Africans to help make up for racial discrimination during the apartheid era. The company needs a deputy chairman to cut the chairman's workload as it reorganises, Barloworld said yesterday in a statement to the Johannesburg stock exchange.

Ntsebeza, Barloworld CEO Clive Thomson and spokesman Sibani Mngomezulu weren't available for comment yesterday.

"The position of deputy chairman has been created recognising the amount of work required to implement the number of announced strategic actions," the statement said.

Barloworld is selling underperforming units and plans to distribute its 72 percent stake in cement maker Pretoria Portland Cement Co. to investors to focus on selling construction gear and industrial distribution equipment.

The company should be trying to reduce management levels instead of increasing them, Molefe said. "I don't see the logic of appointing a deputy chairman," he said. "It just increases the level of bureaucracy of an organisation."

The racism allegation was earlier reported by Business Day.