Sekunjalo to take Mpati Commission report on review
SEKUNJALO Investment Holdings chairperson Dr Iqbal Survé yesterday announced that the group would take the report of the Mpati Commission of Inquiry into Impropriety in the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) on judicial review.
“We definitely are to take that on review. We did not take it on review simply because of the fact that there were no adverse findings,” Survé said.
He made the statement when he appeared before Parliament’s standing committee on finance yesterday, where Sekunjalo made a presentation on the Mpati Commission’s report.
Survé took up the challenge when Deputy Finance Minister David Masondo suggested that those who were unhappy with the findings of the Mpati Commission should take legal action.
Survé also said it was important to inform the committee’s chairperson that, in the 25 years of its existence, the Sekunjalo Group had never been found wanting.
“It has acted with absolute integrity. Even the Mpati Commission was forced to say – in the body of the report – that we have never been corrupt or fraudulent,” he said.
Addressing the committee earlier, AYO Technology Solutions chairperson Wallace Mgoqi said the commission relied heavily on evidence from unreliable witnesses.
Mgoqi said: “The commission made findings without supporting evidence. While the commission made no adverse findings against any entity within the broader Sekunjalo Group, there were statements in the report which implied improper conduct or wrongdoing with no supporting evidence in the body of the report.”
He said the commission had also perpetuated an unsubstantiated narrative that was intended to harm the Sekunjalo Group, AYO, Independent Media, Sagarmatha Technologies and every company within the group.
Mgoqi further maintained that the Mpati report dealt with the investments made by the PIC in the group, yet no adverse findings were made.
He went through each of the PIC’s investments in the individual companies and disputed several references made by the commission in its report.
Survé, meanwhile, indicated that Sekunjalo did not have an adversarial relationship with the PIC, and pointed out that it was not only the PIC that invested in the group’s companies.
“The fact that we are here is because of media reports that led the president to set up the commission,” he said, adding that its terms of reference were misconstrued.
He also told MPs that the PIC had lost R200 billion in investments in other companies, but it has not shown the same consistency in seeking to recover the money. “We are a victim of a targeted campaign. There are hidden hands,” he said.
Survé urged the PIC not to be part of the racist, targeted campaign under any circumstances, and that Sekunjalo looked forward to engaging the PIC in a productive manner to safeguard the funds of pensioners.
PIC chief executive Abel Sithole denied they were targeting personalities. “We deal with transactions on a case-by-case basis,” he said.
Masondo said it was the National Treasury’s view that those who were unhappy with the commission’s findings have recourse to legal action.
“They can challenge this legally – that is, the findings of the Mpati report. We don’t think this platform and ourselves can amend the findings, or set aside the Mpati Commission report,” he said.