The ‘no whites’ letter that rocked one of South Africa’s top entrepreneurs

Dis-Chem co-founder and former chief executive Ivan Saltzman has cut all operational and directorship ties with the company he ran for 48 years.

This may seem like a strange decision to many people. However, an event three years ago can be seen as a pivotal moment in the business leader’s career.

Ivan Saltzman and his wife, Lynette, started Dis-Chem as a small pharmacy in 1978, offering discounted medicine and non-pharmaceutical offerings.

The model was successful, and in 1984, they opened their second store. This store was equally profitable, which fuelled their aggressive expansion in the nineties.

By 2016, the company opened its 100th store, and the business was generating a revenue of R15.5 billion.

On 18 November 2016, Dis-Chem was listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), with 101 stores in South Africa and two partner stores in Namibia.

Everything was going well. The company continued to grow, acquired numerous other retailers, and expanded into new sectors.

Saltzman proved to be an exceptional entrepreneur and retail leader, building Dis-Chem into a household name across South Africa.

However, a fateful letter to Dis-Chem senior management on 19 September 2022 changed his life at the company he founded.

In the latter, Saltzman placed a moratorium on the appointment of white individuals. This included external appointments and internal promotions.

This followed a review of Dis-Chem’s Employment Equity profile and its BBBEE verification process. He said their transformation remained inadequate.

Solidarity chief executive Dirk Hermann posted the latter online, which caused swift backlash from business leaders and politicians.

The pushback was so severe that the board responded, saying it regretted the wording and tone of an internal memorandum. “It did not reflect our values,” it said.

The Dis-Chem board added that it did not follow the correct internal vetting processes, and steps have been put in place to avoid a repeat.

The next results presentation was a tense affair, where all executives, including Ivan Saltzman as CEO, read prepared statements and nothing else.

Something had broken in Saltzman and the company. The entrepreneurial zest was gone, and it was now the compliance experts running the show.

Ivan Saltzman cuts ties with Dis-Chem

Shortly after the ‘no whites’ debacle, Ivan Saltzman and his family started to sell their shares and reduce their responsibilities at the company.

Saltzman stepped down as Dis-Chem’s CEO at the end of June 2023, less than a year after the incident, handing over the role to Rui Morais.

He transitioned to an executive director and deputy chairman role, which meant he remained operationally involved in the company.

Over the next three years, the Saltzman family sold a significant percentage of its Dis-Chem shares.

In 2021, before the mess started, Ivan and Lynette Saltzman owned 453 million Dis-Chem shares. This was multiple times what the other directors own, put together.

By the end of the 2026 financial year, this shareholding was reduced to 35 million. This is less than 10% what they owned in 2021.

Their son, Saul Saltzman, reduced his shareholding in Dis-Chem from 6.7 million shares in 2021 to 349,000 shares at the end of the 2026 financial year.

This was only part of the Saltzman family’s withdrawal from the company. They all resigned from their executive roles.

In July 2022, before the fateful September 2022 letter, Lynnette Saltzman stepped down as executive director to focus on a new role in the beauty category.

Saul Saltzman stepped down as an executive director in February 2026 and resigned as a non-executive director of Dis-Chem on 17 July 2026.

Ivan Saltzman retired from his executive role on 30 June 2026, ending his operational involvement in the company, which he founded 48 years ago.

He was appointed as a non-independent non-executive director on the Dis-Chem board on 1 July 2026.

However, on Friday, 24 July 2026, the company announced that he had resigned from his position as a non-executive director, effective immediately.

This means that, for the first time since the company was founded in 1978, Ivan Saltzman and his family have no executive or director roles at Dis-Chem.

Although there were likely many reasons for the Saltzman family’s decision to withdraw from the company, the September 2022 ‘no whites’ debacle played a role.

It changed how the company operated, and the behind-the-scenes boardroom and legal drama are not conducive to an entrepreneur.

This was a good example of the burden that comes with a company going public, like on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE).

It is never long before the founder is stripped of control and the power is transferred to bureaucrats, lawyers, and corporate governance specialists.