Extracting money from the Public Investment Corporation for dubious projects seems to have been easy – if you were willing to shell out massive “fees” to connected gatekeepers. That’s the implication of the latest investment debacle amaBhungane has uncovered involving the troubled state pension fund manager.
Yet another court case has laid bare allegations the former chief executive of the Public Investment Corporation secretly signed away state pensioners’ claims worth hundreds of millions of rands to help his alleged friend, media mogul Iqbal Survé.
Iqbal Survé’s Independent Media — and other companies in his Sekunjalo Investment Holdings stable — have moved dozens of workers to the legally unrelated but PIC-subsidised payroll of Ayo Technology Solutions. Among them is at least one journalist — the controversial former Sunday Times investigator Mzilikazi wa Afrika.
Iqbal Survé has lost another longstanding ally – the union that lent him workers’ money to help take over Independent Media. The Sactwu investment company is demanding their R300-million back, but Survé’s says his company doesn’t owe them, or its major creditor the Public Investment Corporation, a cent.
The bank has cut ties with 24 companies directly or indirectly controlled by Iqbal Survé’s Sekunjalo Investment Holdings. The move is reminiscent of the beginning of the end of the Gupta empire.
Controversial newspaper owner Iqbal Survé continues to side-step the state fund manager’s efforts to reclaim the fortune that its former boss threw his way. Meanwhile ever more of the PIC’s cash is being spent propping up the Survé empire.
A politically connected group allegedly ripped off the state-owned development financier by diverting most of a loan meant for an engineering firm, which was then put into business rescue.
The Cape businessman seems set to extract millions more from the R4.3-billion his company irregularly scored from the PIC – but JSE rules are complicating his latest attempt.
Eight prime suspects in the pillaging and destruction of VBS Mutual Bank were rounded up in simultaneous raids this morning. This marks the beginning of a wave of prosecutions that will almost inevitably drag in a range of political operators from municipalities right up to the national level.
We said it before. Now so has Judge Lex Mpati.
Iqbal Survé’s embattled businesses have quietly redirected money scored from the PIC, apparently to pay Independent newspapers’ staff, pay off luxury properties and channel millions to an ostensibly “unrelated” company whose directors give their addresses as one of his apartments.
Iqbal Survé’s Ayo Technology Solutions already faces an existential threat from the PIC and now has to contend with a new blow – its most important client, Sasol, is running for the hills.
Dan Matjila bent over backwards to forgive all the debts owed by Iqbal Survé’s media group – and then some.
The perfidy of the two doctors – Dan Matjila and Iqbal Survé – is emerging from a matrix of court documents, evidence at the inquiry into the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) and other information obtained by amaBhungane.
The Public Investment Corporation is sending out strong hints that it expects to find more than a financial meltdown when it winds up Iqbal Survé’s Sekunjalo Independent Media.
Is Iqbal Survé’s ship sinking? His major financial backer sued him; he’s been raided; and now his auditors are jumping ship.
Iqbal Survé’s businesses seem uncomfortably incestuous, given that the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) is investigating possible share manipulation at all three of his listed companies.
Leaked messages show how a little-known businessman, Lawrence Mulaudzi, gained an inside track with the PIC and its then-CEO, Dan Matjila, setting his sights on becoming a billionaire with pensioners’ money.
In written submissions, amaBhungane has urged parliament to amend the PIC Act to allow for public access to records of the PIC’s investment decisions.
The PIC commission of inquiry has already cast doubt on the decision to put pensions money at the disposal of Iqbal Survé’s Sekunjalo group. And it’s only just begun.