Survé hits out at Sygnia’s Wierzycka

After days of uncharacteristic silence following the leaked resignation letter from Ayo executives covered in the weekend newspapers, Iqbal Survé’s newspapers have hit out at Sygnia chief executive Magda

Wierzycka via Survé’s brother-in-law, Khalid Abdulla.

On Tuesday, Survé’s Business Report carried an article based on an affidavit written by Abdula, who is CEO of Survé’s investment holding company, African Equity Empowerment Investments (AEEI).

Abdula alleges that Wierzycka “threatened to continue to write negative stories about Sekunjalo, AEEI and its associated company, Ayo Technology Solutions” unless they sold their Sygnia shares back to her at a discount.

“I’ve made a couple of attempts to buy back those shares,” Wierzycka said in a radio interview on Tuesday afternoon.

“They have rebuked me every single time. The last exchange we had was when I offered to buy back the shares at market rates. They refused and the next thing I hear is I’m charged with extortion.”

A subsequent Tweet from Wierzycka indicated that what she initially regarded as a joke had turned ugly.

“Every time I’ve been critical of Ayo Technology, [Survé] has published stories in Business Report about me being a subliminal racist and, consequently, I’m already suing him for defamation,” Wierzycka said.

Until Tuesday’s attack on Wierzycka, Survé’s newspapers had been uncharacteristically quiet in responding to weekend reports based on a leaked letter in which former Ayo CEO Kevin Hardy and chief investment officer Siphiwe Nodwele listed their concerns before they resigned.

Among the suspicious related-party deals the former executives objected to was an attempt to pressure them into loaning R400m of the R4.3bn that the Public Investment Corporation invested in Ayo’s initial public offering to Survé’s 3 Laws Capital.