The Public Investment Corporation (PIC) has taken a step in implementing recommendations of the report by judge Lex Mpati, appointing Kabelo Rikhotso as its chief investment officer.
Rikhotso was an executive and fund manager at Visio Fund Management and has more than 18 years of experience in asset management. He also worked for the National Treasury.
At the PIC, Rikhotso will oversee overall investment strategy, monitor and review all investment decisions and develop the outlook and asset allocation function in line with investment mandates of the PIC’s clients.
After the PIC’s questionable investments during the state-capture period, President Cyril Ramaphosa appointed the Mpati commission in October 2018 to investigate whether PIC directors had abused their positions. The inquiry was led by Mpati, former president of the Supreme Court of Appeal, assisted by former Reserve Bank governor Gill Marcus and Emmanuel Lediga, founder and chair of Legae Securities.
The Mpati commission had the mandate to make recommendations on PIC governance and structure.
The commission suggested bringing back a chief investment officer role separate from that of CEO. At private investment firms, the two roles are separate, but at the PIC they were merged when it made questionable investments in some companies of Sekunjalo Investments chair Iqbal Survé.
The PIC manages more than R2.2-trillion in government pension and social funds on behalf of the Government Employees Pension Fund, the Unemployment Insurance Fund and the Compensation Fund.
PIC CEO Abel Sithole said in a statement they have confidence in Rikhotso’s experience, “initially at the National Treasury and later at some of the country’s leading investment firms”.
He said that Rikhotso would strengthen the executive team. “His core function will be to sustain the PIC’s investment performance and to continue growing the portfolios of our clients.”
Rikhotso starts on May 10.
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