SA trade unions take stand against appointing politician as PIC chairperson

SOUTH Africa’s trade unions have unanimously opposed the current favoured government’s position of a deputy minister of finance chairing the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) board, while calls have mounted for the PIC to invest in projects that promote inclusive economic growth and job creation.

This was revealed yesterday by Yunus Carrim, chairperson of Parliament’s standing committee on finance.

Carrim said in terms of the PIC Memorandum of Incorporation, it was not required that the board chairperson be the deputy minister of finance.

However, he said the unions acknowledged that the minister and deputy minister have to have a relationship with the PIC for a variety of reasons, including the fact that the pensions of public sector workers are in the form of a “defined benefit pension fund”.

“The committee proposes that the minister and deputy minister engage with the trade unions on their proposals in this regard. The committee will take this issue further at the November briefing,” Carrim said.

This followed Tuesday’s briefing by the Government Employees Pension Fund (GEPF), PIC and the trade unions to the committee on the use of public sector workers’ pension funds for investment purposes.

In that meeting the PIC, as per the directive from the Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba earlier this month, published a full list of its unlisted assets, which showed growth of 52 percent to nearly R70 billion in the year to end-March. Gigaba had said his directive was to ensure transparency and further build confidence in the institution.

Stakeholders

In the same communiqué, Gigaba also noted calls by labour unions for a representative of labour on the PIC board. He said he was considering this request and would arrange a meeting with labour stakeholders to discuss the matter.

Sizwe Pamla, the spokesperson for Cosatu, said yesterday that the federation felt the Treasury had too much influence on the PIC and that must change.

“If you want to capture the PIC, you just have to deploy a pliable deputy minister who will then be seconded to chair the PIC board. Parliament as the representative of the people must have a more prominent role in the appointment of the PIC chairperson,” Pamla said.

His views were shared by Fedusa.

Dennis George, the general secretary of Fedusa, said yesterday that it was undesirable for the deputy minister of finance to be the chairperson of PIC as politics grip the decision-making processes at PIC.

“We want the role of the chairperson of the PIC depoliticised and an independent chairperson appointed.

“The other issue is that the current chairperson was implicated in the State of Capture report for his shenanigans while he chaired the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa),” George said.

In September, The Star reported that plans were afoot to oust PIC chief executive Dan Matjila in a “plot” to hijack the institution. The plan, according to The Star’s sources, was for the incumbent chief executive to leave and for an alleged Gupta family appointee to take over. The National Treasury has vehemently denied the allegations and said it supported Matjila.

The Treasury’s assurances of full backing for Matjila have persisted unabated, while some unions have threatened to ditch Africa’s largest fund manager if the speculation of the capture of the PIC proves to be true.

Johan Kruger, the deputy chief executive of Solidarity, said yesterday that the organisation’s members were worried about alleged attempts to capture the PIC.

“We need to get answers to try to reassure them and the public at large that their funds are safe,” said Kruger.