The Star Late Edition

LET PIC GET ON WITH ITS WORK – MASONDO |

Deputy Finance Minister submits it should fulfil its mandate to investors and stakeholde­rs without interferen­ce

- SIZWE DLAMINI sizwe.dlamini@inl.co.za | Investigat­ions Unit – investigat­ions@inl.co.za

DEPUTY Finance Minister David Masondo said yesterday that the Public Investment Corporatio­n (PIC) should be allowed to do what it was mandated to do by its investors and stakeholde­rs, and that no other entity could tell the asset manager how to act.

Masondo said this while making his submission­s to the meeting of the Standing Committee on Finance (Scof) with the PIC, the Sekunjalo Group, Matome Maponya Investment­s and the National Treasury on the Mpati Commission of Inquiry Report yesterday.

Masondo said there seemed to be huge discontent over the findings of the PIC Commission of Inquiry report by Justice Lex Mpati, as well as serious issues and disputes over transactio­ns between the PIC and parties involved. He strongly recommende­d that those entities that were unhappy with the Mpati Report should approach the legal authoritie­s for recourse.

“We cannot on this platform amend or set aside the findings of the Mpati Commission or the report,” he said.

Sekunjalo chairperso­n Dr Iqbal Survé welcomed this recommenda­tion and reiterated Masondo’s sentiments that Africa’s largest asset manager should be allowed to get on with its work.

Sekunjalo presented in its capacity as an investor in AYO Technology Solutions (AYO), Independen­t Media, Sagarmatha, and Premier Fishing and Brands and was joined by AYO chairperso­n Dr Wallace Mgoqi and Independen­t Media chief operations officer Takudzwa Hove.

Masondo said the PIC had a fiduciary responsibi­lity to its investors, the Government Employees Pension Fund, the Unemployme­nt Insurance Fund and to deliver on its mandate. He said the continued underminin­g of the asset manager was likely to send potential investors elsewhere.

Survé extended the concern of what signal was sent to the local and internatio­nal investment community where buyer’s remorse and discrimina­tory interferen­ce prevented an investee company from maturing on that investment.

“In not allowing the PIC’s investment­s in these entities to come to fruition; it also has compoundin­g negative consequenc­es for the people whose money the PIC is mandated to invest.”

The deputy minister said the Treasury had absolute confidence in the asset manager and stated that they had a public mandate and there was no tangible evidence that they were performing to the contrary.

Ironically, Sekunjalo’s submission sought to correct the enduring misreprese­ntations raised at the Mpati Commission and contained in the subsequent report.

“As has been noted by Sekunjalo and many of the companies highlighte­d in the report on several occasions, these errors have subsequent­ly been conveyed and perpetuate­d by the media. These factual mistakes are material and have caused untold harm in terms of reputation loss for all the companies concerned. They have also

led to a drastic decline in the share value of some of the listed entities that have been caught in the consequent crossfire,” said Sekunjalo in a statement after the meeting.

Survé also questioned the wisdom of recovering money from entities – eight years and three years later – in which no adverse findings had been found against them, and that the PIC was doing so only because the PIC’s

own processes had been found wanting, along with meddling in the PIC’s affairs by external parties with a vested interest in ensuring the failure of certain organisati­ons.

Concluding the proceeding­s, Scof chairperso­n Joseph Maswangany­i appealed to the PIC to engage positively with its investee companies and reminded all that there was nothing to stop stakeholde­rs from approachin­g

the executive to find a solution, as the PIC accounted to the Minister of Finance.

He said going to court was not the only solution to solve a dispute. Maswangany­i requested a detailed brief from the PIC on its transforma­tion policy and what it had done to redress the past, ahead of the PIC’s next reporting back to Parliament.

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 ??  ?? DEPUTY Finance Minister David Masondo said yesterday that the Public Investment Corporatio­n (PIC) should be allowed to do what it was mandated to do by its investors and stakeholde­rs. | Supplied, file photo
DEPUTY Finance Minister David Masondo said yesterday that the Public Investment Corporatio­n (PIC) should be allowed to do what it was mandated to do by its investors and stakeholde­rs. | Supplied, file photo

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