Patrick Dlamini, The Public Investment Corporation has suspended its CEO and CIO amid a governance crisis linked to a controversial investment in Lanseria Airport, raising concerns over its management of pension funds.
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The Public Investment Corporation (PIC), South Africa’s biggest asset manager, has, according to reports late Monday night, put its chief executive Patrick Dlamini and its chief investment officer August van Heerden on precautionary suspension following a meeting of the corporation’s board.
The PIC oversees R3.6 trillion in government pension and social funds. Media reports, which could not be independently verified by Business Report last night, said nine of the PIC’s 11 board members voted in favour of the decision for the suspensions.
The PIC is embroiled in a multi-layered governance crisis stemming from a R300m investment and loan granted to BEE shareholder Acapulco Trade & Invest to acquire a stake in Lanseria Airport more than a decade ago.
The suspension followed weeks of developments surrounding the PIC’s handling of the Lanseria Airport matter.
These include a whistleblower complaint against Dlamini, the publication of a confidential PwC forensic report, PIC chairperson and deputy Finance Minister David Masondo’s referral of aspects of the matter to the Special Investigating Unit (SIU), and businessman Kagiso Matjila’s R900m High Court damages claim against Dlamini over the appointment of PwC to investigate the Lanseria dispute.
The PIC, which invests the funds of the Government Employee Pension Fund (GEPF) as its biggest client, had not issued a public statement by Monday evening.
The GEPF is Africa’s largest pension fund Compounding the PIC's woes recently is that came to light in Parliament that the PIC had committed about R67 billion to some 150 unlisted investments since 2003, with at least 78 of those reporting partial or total losses.
Finance MInister Enoch Godongwana had recently met the board as concerns mounted about the Lanseria contract and the performance of the unlisted investment.
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