Richard Tomes has resigned as the long-serving MD of PPC, the JSE-listed cement and lime producer, it emerged on Friday.

Tomes resignation is the latest high-profile departure after CEO, Ketso Gordhan, stepped down because of differences of opinion with the board of directors last month.

Gordhan said the board had rejected his bid to let a senior manager go. The senior manager had been accused of hindering the firm’s growth strategy.

He had been the driving force behind the company’s African expansion strategy, which saw an aggressively expansion into parts of the continent including the DRC, Zimbabwe, Rwanda and Ethiopia.

PPC said Bheki Sibiya, the non-executive chairman, would be bestowed executive duties until the search for the new CEO is completed.

At the time, the company’s share price sagged 7.14 percent to R30.18 soon after the CEO’s departure was announced. However, the famous CEO has suggested that he may fight to get his job back.

“I have received significant feedback from shareholders, as well as colleagues. I feel encouraged to engage in some shareholder activism,” City Press quoted Gordhan as saying. Gordhan is the biggest individual shareholder in PPC, with about 1.4 million shares.