Survé to sue finance authority for ‘unjust’ raid
Citizen reporter
Following a raid of Sekunjalo Investment Holdings, the offices of controversial businessperson and publisher Iqbal Survé, by the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) and the police, the company said it was launching a lawsuit against the FSCA, accusing it of misleading a court of law.
The statement said Judge Patric Gamble’s decision to grant the application that led to the raid “was based on a gross misrepresentation of the facts and the vital omission of material information”.
The company would take the financial authority to the high court in a bid to get the application set aside, and had instructed legal counsel to “proceed with haste with an extensive damages claim against the FSCA, its acting commissioner, as well as the investigators that participated in the irregular raid on our offices”.
The statement claimed it was unjust that other companies accused of corruption, such as Steinhoff, Tongaat Hulett, EOH and “hundreds of other companies”, had not been raided and yet Sekunjalo had.
In a repetition of Survé’s claims following the raid in one of his own publications, Business Report, the statement accused those involved in the raid of “blatant abuse of power with the specific purpose to achieve private, personal and political agendas”.
“Their draconian actions are a violation of the constitutional rights of the citizens of our country and in particular, black business,” it read.
Minister of Public Enterprises Pravin Gordhan on Thursday hit back at Survé’s accusation that he was behind the search and seizure operation, calling it “malicious, yet nonsensical”.
His lawyer, Tebogo Malatji, said: “Survé has launched unsubstantiated attacks on our client without any evidence or facts.
“He also attacked the judiciary. The chief justice has invited those who make these kinds of allegations against judges to come forward with evidence to prove any impropriety on the part of judicial officers.
“Survé is invited to produce proof of the allegations he has made about the two judges.”
The FSCA said the operation was part of an investigation into allegations of prohibited trading practices (market manipulation) and possible contraventions of section 80 of the Financial Markets Act.