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A former Public Investment Corporation (PIC) employee found the risk to her reputation and the environment in which she worked to be so “hostile and inefficient” that she left – in the process, forfeiting a R2 million long-term incentive bonus.
Petronella Dekker, a former PIC chief operating officer who joined the state fund manager in 2004, was testifying at the commission of inquiry into allegations of impropriety regarding the PIC in Pretoria this week.
She said that from 2014, she “found the working environment to be hostile and inefficient”.
Dekker also found herself under pressure from whistle-blower cases.
“There were numerous whistle-blower cases, where we had to defend ourselves. With each case I gave my full cooperation and was able to prove that the allegations were not true.
“I reached a point where my values and priorities differed from those of my direct line manager, the chief financial officer. I raised these with the CEO, to no avail.
“Executive committee (exco) members would raise concerns regarding decisions taken at exco meetings. When I asked why they did not raise their concerns in the meeting, they indicated that it would be career limiting.
“I realised that my reputation as part of a dyfunctional exco was at risk and decided to resign on April 18 2016, with my last working day being on May 18. Due to my resignation, I forfeited a long-term incentive allocation of approximately R2 million, which was payable on December 31 2016.”
Following her exit from the PIC, Dekker was unemployed for seven months.
Wilna Louw, the PIC’s acting company secretary, told the commission this week that 20 companies that the PIC had invested in “were in varying degrees of distress”.
Of these 20 investments, four of them – including a poultry investment worth R8 billion – had been successfully turned around, she said.
Of the remaining 16 companies in the distressed category, 13 were being worked on “to restore profitability” while the remaining three would “in all likelihood, end up in liquidation”, Louw said.
Sekgoela Sekgoela, spokesperson for the PIC, said the state fund manager would not comment on or identify the 20 companies that Louw referred to.
It emerged this week that both Finance Minister Tito Mboweni and former finance minister Malusi Gigaba had interfered with the PIC board.
Dudu Hlatshwayo, a PIC board nonexecutive director, testified that when Sfiso Buthelezi – who was Gigaba’s deputy finance minister at the time – was appointed as PIC chairperson on May 15 2017, meetings of the PIC board and subcommittees were embargoed.
Said Hlatshwayo: “Literally everything came to a standstill. For months, there was a complete lull of activity.”
Gigaba held a meeting with the PIC board in September 2017 which Hlatshwayo described as “tense, aggressive and unpleasant”.
“Minister Gigaba was demanding answers from the board as to why the media had dragged him into the PIC’s issues. He wanted to know what the PIC board was going to do to clear his name,” Hlatshwayo said.
Regarding Mboweni’s interference, Hlatshwayo said that at a PIC meeting on February 1, Deputy Finance Minister Mondli Gungubele, who is the PIC chair, received a phone call from Mboweni.
This was when he told Gungubele to “resign immediately, failing which the board would be fired by February 4”.
This led the board to tender their resignations en masse. However, Mboweni has yet to accept those resignations, so the board members remain in place.
It emerged this week that the PIC board does not have a minimum of 10 members, as is required for it to have a quorum.
Given this, Gill Marcus, assistant commissioner at the PIC inquiry, questioned the status of the PIC board and the decisions it makes.
She also suggested that decisions of the PIC board’s subcommittees be looked at.
“I would really urge you to get a legal opinion on your current status of the work that is continuing in relation to the board,” Marcus told Gungubele.
