Board in ‘dodgy’ pension deal

CLAIM: SALA ENTERED INTO INVESTMENT WITH SAMBADA

New pension fund board chair denies ‘any improper relationship’ between them and private equity firm.

More than two years after the SA Local Authorities’ (Sala) Pension Fund board was replaced under a cloud of alleged corruption, an investment deal involving about R340 million, has come under the spotlight.

Allegations of possible corruption have surfaced at Sala Pension Fund, where a former official has been accused of accepting a sponsored trip to Spain after a company secured a multimillion rand deal.

He also allegedly received a SUV as a gift for securing the deal.

Sala is a municipality fund with close to 20 000 members’ assets worth R16 billion

At the centre of the allegations is Sampada Private Equity, which some senior managers at Sala claim entered into a questionable R340 million deal in 2015. The managers, who have requested anonymity, want the deal terminated and the funds returned to Sala.

“Bafedile Mafologele is the CEO of Sampada Private Equity and a shareholder at Umthombo Wealth Asset Managers. After leaving Novare Consultants where he was employed as a director, Mr Mafologele had long fostered a relationship with the then powerful Sala Pension Fund chairperson Mr Bongani Maphanga,” alleges a report compiled by the whistleblowers.

The report accuses Mafologele and Maphanga of hatching the plan in which hundreds of millions of rands were secured for a “private equity” investment in the form of “property investment”.

The report alleges that in 2015 Mafologele set up a private equity company and registered it with the Financial Services Board (FSB), after which he was requested to present an investment proposal to Sala.

The whistleblowers further claim that in August that year a hastily arranged Sala exco meeting sat and agreed to give Mafologele’s Sambada Private Equity R340 million for a proposed “property investment”.

However, a few months later the Maphanga-led Sala board was replaced by the FSB with a section 26 board headed by Jan Mahlangu and Advocate Matome Thulare.

Contacted for comment, Mafologele denied any wrongdoing.

“An extensive due diligence was conducted by Sala’s investment advisors as well as its attorneys or our fund.

“They made their independent findings. We were subsequently appointed. Our appointment was without doubt above board.”

Extensive due diligence was conducted ... Our appointment was above board.

Citing confidentiality, Mafologele would not be drawn to say how much the deal involved.

The whistleblower report alleges that soon after the contract was signed, Mafologele flew Maphanga to Barcelona, Spain, where he watched a match played by Barcelona FC. The report also alleges that Mafologele bought a “sleek Jeep Cherokee” for Maphanga.

Several calls to Maphanga went unanswered and text messages have not been responded to.

However, Mafologele dismissed the allegations: “It is reckless to even suggest that I would fly anyone to anywhere for their pleasure. Again this further illustrates my point, that the person making these allegations has absolutely no clue on how asset management works.”

Even though managers at the fund want to act to recover the money, Mahlangu, the new Sala board chairperson, denies any wrongdoing at the fund. “We specifically record that we are not aware of any improper relationship between Sala and Sampada”. – ANA

Bafedile Mafologele Sampada Private Equity CEO