JSE ’finds no evidence’ for Zille’s insider trading claim
DA leader Helen Zille’s surprising allegation that insider trading at Telkom led to the company’s shares touching R80 last week has attracted the attention of at least one regulatory body.
Zille made her remark after President Jacob Zuma revealed in his state of the nation address that Telkom had been chosen as the ‘‘lead agency” to partner the government in rolling out its national broadband project.
In her newsletter, SA Today, Zille said: ”This had, of course, been on the cards for a long time — long enough [for] those in the know to buy Telkom shares at R12 each and see them surge to a fiveyear high of R78.39 per share last week. As usual, those on the inside track would have seen their investments soar more than six times in value.”
The Financial Services Board confirmed that it was conducting an informal inquiry into Zille’s claims.
“We are aware of the allegations but we have not received any formal complaint from anybody. At this stage we have not logged a formal investigation but we are informally looking into the allegations,” said Solly Keetse, head of the FSB directorate of market abuse.
Tembisa Marele, a spokesman for the FSB, said the regulator had proactively initiated conversations with the JSE ”to establish if their market surveillance department has picked up on any irregular trade in Telkom shares ahead of the [state of the nation address]”.
Marele said the JSE replied that it had found no evidence of anyone close to the government buying Telkom shares before Zuma’s address. Zille would not be drawn to further comment on Thursday.
“I'm not going to go into any more detail. It’s all in my newsletter. I’m in London and this phone call is costing me a lot of money,” she said.
In her newsletter, Zille said the fact that Telkom did not win the contract through an open tender, as required in the constitution, was “yet another example of how so many connected cadres win government contracts”.
She said Telkom was given special treatment and was allowed to lobby a forum of director-generals without other competition.
Shortly thereafter Telkom was announced as the preferred supplier at the cabinet lekgotla.