{"id":248837,"date":"2018-06-01T07:53:17","date_gmt":"2018-06-01T05:53:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=248837"},"modified":"2018-06-01T07:53:17","modified_gmt":"2018-06-01T05:53:17","slug":"ceo-of-public-investment-corp-facing-suspension-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/banking\/248837\/ceo-of-public-investment-corp-facing-suspension-report\/","title":{"rendered":"CEO of Public Investment Corp facing suspension: report"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Daniel Matjila, the chief executive officer of the Public Investment Corp, will probably be suspended while his role in several questionable investments by Africa\u2019s biggest money manager is investigated, according to three people with knowledge of the matter. Matjila denied he was facing suspension.<\/p>\n

The Pretoria-based PIC manages South African state-workers\u2019 pensions and oversees assets worth R1.9 trillion ($151 billion). The move against Matjila comes amid a crackdown on graft being spearheaded by President Cyril Ramaphosa, who took office in February and is on a drive to restore confidence in public institutions following his predecessor Jacob Zuma\u2019s scandal-marred nine-year tenure.<\/p>\n

The probe will consider whether Matjila followed proper procedures when the PIC spent R4.3 billion backing last year\u2019s initial public offering of Ayo Technology Solutions Ltd, according to the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they aren\u2019t authorized to comment.<\/p>\n

The PIC paid R43 a share for a 29% stake in the information technology company, valuing it at R14.8 billion. The company had a net asset value of R4.4 billion at the end of February, up from just R188 million six months earlier, according to a stock exchange filing.<\/p>\n

Insider Trading<\/strong><\/p>\n

Matjila\u2019s role in decisions by the PIC to invest in VBS Mutual Bank, a failed lender, and Resilient REIT Ltd, a real estate investor that\u2019s being probed by regulators over allegations of insider trading, share price manipulation and misleading reporting, will also come under scrutiny, the people said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know anything about a suspension and I am definitely not facing any suspension,\u201d Matjila, who has a mathematics doctorate and has been in his post since December 2014, said in an interview in Cape Town.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Deon Botha, the PIC\u2019s head of corporate affairs, confirmed a report in Johannesburg\u2019s Business Day newspaper that the PIC\u2019s investment committee was probing the Ayo deal to ensure correct investment processes were followed. The stock has declined 19 percent since it was listed in December.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no internal disciplinary inquiry and Dr. Matjila is not suspected of anything, nor is he facing a suspension,\u201d Botha said in Cape Town on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Resilient Probe<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Financial Sector Conduct Authority has been investigating allegations that Resilient was involved in market manipulation since January and hasn\u2019t set a date for the completion of the investigation. Its shares have tumbled 58% this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Resilient investigation is very complex,\u201d Solly Keetse, the regulator\u2019s head of market abuse, said in an emailed response to questions. \u201cInvestigators are hard at work trying to expedite its finalization.\u201d<\/p>\n

Resilient commissioned its own investigation in February headed by Shauket Fakie, South Africa\u2019s former auditor-general, to probe allegations by fund managers that its share price had been inflated by insider traders. Fakie had uncovered no evidence of market manipulation or any other impropriety, and that it will cooperate fully with any regulatory probe, Resilient said in a stock exchange filing last month.<\/p>\n

VBS, one of South Africa\u2019s smallest banks, was placed under administration in March, after it was unable to repay money that had been invested by several municipalities. The PIC is one of the largest shareholders in the lender, which isn\u2019t publicly traded.<\/p>\n

Disclosure Law<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lawmakers have been pushing for the PIC to improve its oversight and become more transparent. On Tuesday, the National Assembly backed a new law that will compel the money manager to appoint labor union officials to its board and to submit a record of all its listed and unlisted investments to the finance minister annually.<\/p>\n

On May 28, lawyers acting for the United Democratic Movement, a small opposition party, wrote to Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene, demanding that Matjila be immediately suspended and brought before a disciplinary panel to answer allegations that he\u2019d help facilitate several loans from the PIC without following due process.<\/p>\n

While the PIC\u2019s board has investigated those allegations and found them to be without merit, the UDM dismissed its findings as a \u201cwhitewash\u201d and said a proper probe couldn\u2019t have been conducted while he remained in office. Matjila denied wrongdoing at the time the allegations first surfaced, telling Johannesburg\u2019s Sunday Times newspaper that he\u2019d upset some politically influential people because he refused to authorize certain transactions that failed to meet investment criteria.<\/p>\n

The PIC is doing \u201cvery well\u201d under Matjila\u2019s leadership, the National Treasury told Johannesburg-based Business Report newspaper. Deputy finance minister Mondli Gungubele chairs the PIC\u2019s board.<\/p>\n

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Read: This South African company is tipped to become a global giant<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Daniel Matjila, the chief executive officer of the Public Investment Corp, will probably be suspended while his role in several questionable investments by Africa\u2019s biggest money manager is investigated, according to three people with knowledge of the matter. Matjila denied he was facing suspension.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":248843,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[961],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-248837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-banking","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248837"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248837\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":248853,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248837\/revisions\/248853"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}