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The former Public Investment Corporation (PIC) CEO Dan Matjila will tomorrow testify at an inquiry set up to investigate allegations of impropriety under his watch.
More than 70 witnesses have already appeared before the inquiry since it started sitting in January this year and Matjila will have a lot of issues to address and many questions to answer during his testimony.
Bomikazi Molapo, a spokesperson for the PIC inquiry, on Friday confirmed that Matjila would be testifying from tomorrow until Thursday. When contacted on Friday, Matjila declined to comment about whether he would be taking the stand and referred City Press to the PIC inquiry.
The PIC is Africa’s largest fund manager, with more than R2 trillion in assets under its management.
Its key clients include the Government Employees’ Pension Fund, which has more than a million members, pensioners and beneficiaries on its books as well as the Unemployment Insurance Fund.
Matjila, who was ousted in November last year, is expected to tell the inquiry that he was pressured to make deals that did not fit in with the PIC’s strategies, according to his prepared statement that Bloomberg quoted.
He is likely to address allegations of financial wrongdoing at the fund manager made by an anonymous whistle-blower about two years ago.
Matjila will also respond to accusations on deals including the PIC’s R4 billion investment in Erin Energy; the acquisition of a stake in Total SA by Tosaco Energy; and transactions involving S&S Refinery in Mozambique, Steinhoff International, VBS Mutual Bank and technology company Ayo Technology Solutions.
The investigation was launched in October last year to probe allegations of impropriety regarding investment decisions at the PIC as raised by media reports in 2017 and 2018.
The PIC inquiry is chaired by former president of the Supreme Court of Appeal Justice Lex Mpati, who is being assisted by Gill Marcus and Emmanuel Lediga.
The probe’s interim report was submitted to President Cyril Ramaphosa on February 15. The final report is set to be presented to Ramaphosa by the end of this month.
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