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The first three witnesses that appeared on Monday before the Commission of Inquiry into the allegations of impropriety that have been levelled against the Public Investment Commission (PIC) denied they were aware of any such malfeasance.
Roy Rajghar, PIC head of impact investing, said he wasn’t aware of any impropriety regarding investment decisions by the PIC that have been raised in the media or contravened any legislation, PIC policy or contractual obligations.
Rajghar, who was the second witness of the day, was responding to a question from evidence leader advocate Jannie Lubbe.
Lubbe asked Rajghar whether he was aware of any employee at the PIC that had used their position, privileges or confidential information for personal gain.
“In your position at the PIC are you aware of any such impropriety?” Lubbe added.
“Commissioner, I’m not aware of any such impropriety,” Rajghar said.
The inquiry is headed by former Supreme Court of Appeal President Judge Lex Mpati and assisted by former South African Reserve Bank Gill Marcus and businessman Emmanuel Lediga.
Lubbe asked Sholto Dolamo, PIC head of research and project development and the third witness of the day, the same questions about alleged impropriety at the PIC that he asked Rajghar.
Dolamo also said he wasn’t aware of anything of the sort.
“Commissioner, I’m not aware of any such impropriety,” Rajghar answered.
Marcus asked Dolamo if he was aware of any PIC staff or directors or associates who have been involved in placing their funds together with the money that Dolamo’s team invests on behalf of the PIC.
“To the best of my knowledge, no,” Dolamo said.
Earlier in the day, the first witness to appear before the commission was the acting secretary of the PIC Wilna Louw, who provided the inquiry with background information regarding the PIC and its policies.
Louw said, in response to questions from Mpati, that: “I don’t have any evidence that the final minutes [of PIC meetings] were not a true reflection.”
Louw and the PIC company secretary recorded the minutes of PIC board meetings.
This follows a discussion between Louw and Mpati regarding the minutes of a PIC board meeting held on September 29 2017.
It has been alleged that the minutes of the meeting were edited.
At that meeting, the PIC board is purported to have cleared former PIC chief executive Dan Matjila of wrongdoing in the alleged affair involving his alleged girlfriend, Pretty Louw.
The minutes were allegedly edited after the fact to remove criticism of Matjila’s conduct, but the original minutes were subsequently leaked.
The leak was apparently one of the reasons the PIC company secretary Bongani Mathebula was suspended.
Rajghar took the commission through the process of how the government fund manager assessed deals, and how long they take to consummate.
Rajdhar said that the PIC had improved its policy on “politically exposed people”.
He defined this as people employed in any sphere of government as well as people related to those people by two degrees.
“Also people who are known to be politically aligned,” he added.
He said that the vast majority of the PIC clients in the impact investing unit were “walk-in clients”.
The impact investment unit of the PIC looks for investments that can result in job creation. It took between three to six months to complete a deal in the unit.
Renewable energy was an example of projects that were large and where the PIC didn’t take a 100% stake in these projects.
The limit on how much money could be invested in a single person or entity’s projects was 30% of committed capital, Rajdhar said.
Former finance minister Nhlanhla Nene announced that the inquiry would go ahead in July last year.
Nene also issued a directive to the PIC board to simultaneously conduct a separate forensic probe into allegations contained in an email that involved Louw.
President Cyril Ramaphosa appointed the commission in October.
The terms of reference call for Mpati to ascertain whether the PIC’s internal investigations into who had leaked information, spearheaded by Matjila, “were justified”.
City Press revealed in April last year how Matjila had requested access to the email servers of six senior staff members of the PIC in October the year before.
Another item in the terms of reference is whether “mutual separation agreements concluded in 2017 and 2018 with senior executives of the PIC complied with internal policies of the PIC and whether pay-outs made for this purpose were prudent”.
This appears to refer to the R7 million allegedly paid to Vuyokazi Menye, the PIC’s head of IT, last year.
This followed her being suspended and subjected to a disciplinary process.
The inquiry will look at the affairs of the PIC from January 1 2015 to August 31 2018. This time period includes two giant investments that the PIC planned to make into companies controlled by media mogul Iqbal Surve.
Menye was one of the executives whose email records Matjila requested.
The terms of reference also ask whether “there are discriminatory practices with regard to remuneration and performance awards of PIC employees”.
This appears to relate to accusations made by the PIC’s former human resources financial officer Sandile Sibiya.
He filed an affidavit at the Brooklyn police station last year, alleging that the PIC’s chief financial officer Matshepo More irregularly manipulated the corporation’s bonus pool.
The inquiry will look at the affairs of the PIC from January 1 2015 to August 31 2018.
This time period includes two giant investments that the PIC planned to make into companies controlled by media mogul Iqbal Surve.
The first was Ayo Technology Solutions, which received R4.3 billion from the PIC late last year, and the second deal, which fell through, was another substantial investment into Sagarmatha, a media company that was meant to list on the JSE last year.
Included in the inquiry’s ambit would be the PIC’s involvement in a deal to acquire a palm oil refinery in Mozambique that involved Nene’s son Siyabonga.
The terms of reference charges Mpati to examine specific allegations raised in the media.
The commission’s interim report is due by February 15 and the final report two months later.
Mpati said that the inquiry would run from Monday until Wednesday this week. Next week the commission will hear testimony from witnesses from Monday to Wednesday.
The commission will adjourn for three weeks and will resume again at the end of February.
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