‘No pressure’ with PIC loan

The Public Investment Corporation (PIC) yesterday denied a weekend media report that its loan of R210 million to Afric Oil was granted as a result of improper pressure.

PIC head of corporate affairs Deon Botha said in a statement the Sunday Times had ignored written responses supplied by the investment manager and relied on rumour in writing a story claiming it had emerged that Cooperative Governance Minister Zweli Mkhize, the former treasurer-general of the ANC, had demanded a R4.5 million kickback for the facilitating the loan.

The report also claimed that the CEO of SacOil, to whom Afric Oil sold a 71% interest, “is a close ally of the PIC CEO Dan Matjila”.

Botha said: “The newspaper fails to provide any evidence to show that Kgogo is ‘a close ally’ of the PIC CEO. To its readers, it presents hearsay, rumour and innuendo as fact.

“The PIC emphatically rejects this allegation.”

He said the PIC had no problem with Afric Oil’s exit and had made this plain in its correspondence with the paper last week.

The paper failed to publish these explanations but, instead, chose to place more reliance on allegations from anonymous “sources with intimate knowledge” that Mkhize “twisted Matjila’s arm to approve Afric Oil’s loan application”.

The PIC has no knowledge of any “facilitation fees” that were required to be paid to any parties as part of the transaction.

Mkhize has strongly denied the allegations.

“I have never facilitated the said loan negotiations nor have I sought any ‘facilitation fee’ from the said company. It is extremely unacceptable and mischievous for my name to be dragged into a matter that I have nothing to do with in this manner,” he has been quoted as saying.

Botha said the Sunday newspaper had previously committed to ensure more accurate reporting.

‘Regrettably, in this instance, it appears there remain some concerning flaws in its editorial processes,” he said. – ANA