Media boss’ office raided in share trading probe

Independent Media publisher Iqbal Survé’s offices in Cape Town were raided by the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) yesterday morning.

The FSCA is reportedly probing a case involving Survé’s company Sekunjalo Holdings allegedly irregularly share trading against another of his companies, Ayo Technology Solutions.

The raid was confirmed in Independent Media’s Business

Report, who say the FSCA and members of the South African Police Service (Saps) “pounced on the offices of Sekunjalo Holdings and African Equity Empowerment Investment (AEEI) without prior notice and tried to confiscate laptops and computer hard drives”.

Survé was not in the building at the time of the raid.

Business Report quotes Survé at length. The controversial businessperson feels he is being unfairly targeted by the raid, which he called an “orchestrated campaign” against him, a “fishing expedition” and “an intimidation tactic”.

He said the raid represents a “concerted attempt by a cabal” to use state bodies in an attempt to intimidate him.

“We have no problem giving them information relating to Ayo had they simply asked for it,” Survé said.

“This is a desperate attempt to stop us from publishing the truth. Ironically, it is Sekunjalo that lodged a formal complaint with the FSCA against certain well-known hedge funds and asset managers that were trying to bring down Ayo’s share price,” Survé said.

“Instead of investigating that, the FSCA is used to intimidate us into submission.”

Survé has claimed he is being targeted by powerful politicians in an attempt to silence his newspapers into not publishing stories that could damage President Cyril Ramaphosa, Minister Pravin Gordhan and others aligned to them in the ANC and government.

Ayo Technology Solutions was found at the Commission of Inquiry into the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) to have “stretched”, “thumbsucked” and “manipulated” its pre-listing valuation on the JSE.

Survé had told the PIC that he was “not involved in the Ayo listing”. But former Ayo chief investment officer (CIO) Malick Salie told the commission the Ayo team “had various meetings with Survé, who set the tone for the [pre-listing statement] and provided his expectation of the valuation of Ayo”.

Former Ayo CIO Siphiwe Nodwele said in April that Ayo’s valuation was inflated and that, according to his calculations, the company was valued at 5% of the final valuation, which is between R700 million and R1 billion.

“It’s becoming clearer that things are being stretched,” said commission assistant Emmanuel Lediga.

Salie resigned from the board of Ayo in May. He told the commission he was not comfortable in the environment given the “governance issues”.