The cabinet has approved the appointment of new board members of the Public Investment Corporation (PIC), SA’s biggest asset manager, which is wholly owned by the government.
It will be chaired by deputy finance minister David Masondo.
Briefing the media on the outcomes of the cabinet meeting held on Wednesday, minister in the presidency Mondli Gungubele said the appointment of the board members was subject to the verification of their qualifications and relevant clearance.
The term of the interim board ended on October 30. Former finance minister Tito Mboweni had appointed an interim board with an initial 12-month term in June 2019 to stabilise the organisation, which was reeling from damaging allegations made at the Mpati commission of inquiry. The interim board’s term was then extended by 15 months after the initial term came to an end in July 2020.
The rest of the members of the new board are: Frans Baleni; Ntombifuthi Mtoba; Tryphosa Ramano; Bonke Dumisa; Esther Barbara Watson; Beverly Bouwer; Mugwena Maluleke; Walter Hlaise; Lufuno Mulaudzi; Abel Sithole; Brian Mavuka; and Makano Mosidi.
The PIC, which manages R2.1-trillion, mostly for government employees and pensioners, has been in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons in recent times.
Over the years, its unlisted portfolio has become a source of funding for black entrepreneurs, which has led to allegations that deal-making was being influenced by political connections and considerations.
In 2018, President Cyril Ramaphosa established a commission of inquiry to look into allegations of impropriety at the state-owned asset manager. The inquiry, chaired by retired judge Lex Mpati, found that the frequent changes to the finance minister as the shareholder representative and the role of the deputy minister as chair, regardless of skills and experience, contributed to ineffective governance at the PIC under the leadership of former CEO Dan Matjila.
But despite this finding, the PIC Amendment Act, which was signed into law by Ramaphosa in February, requires that the chair of the fund manager’s board be a deputy minister appointed by the finance minister or any other deputy minister in the economic cluster, sparking fears of political interference in the PIC’s investment decisions.
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