The former CEO of the Public Investment Corporation (PIC), Dan Matjila, has launched a court application to clear his name. That follows a number of damning findings made in the report by a commission of inquiry established to investigate allegations of impropriety at the state-owned investment manager.
The lengthy report by the PIC commission, led by retired Supreme Court of Appeal judge Lex Mpati, and published earlier in 2020, made a number of findings against Matjila, who occupied the role of both CEO and chief investment officer before his resignation in November 2018.
The PIC manages the assets of the Government Employees Pension Fund, the Unemployment Insurance Fund and other social security funds.
Matjila launched a legal challenge in October to have certain findings in the report reviewed and set aside.
In particular, some of the findings he seeks to have overturned include his evasiveness during testimony in which he was found to be “economical with the truth” by not disclosing material information, relationships and interactions with counterparties.
He was also found to have a “selective view of accountability” in which he failed to take accountability when the outcome was poor or substandard but “did not hesitate” to take credit when the outcome was good.
While the commission of inquiry was named as the first respondent in the application, the commission as a legal entity no longer exists. That makes it unclear as to who will respond on its behalf, but the three commissioners — Mpati, former Reserve Bank governor Gill Marcus, and businessperson Emmanuel Lediga — were also named as respondents.
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