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Iqbal Survé faces bribe accusations

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Chairman of Sekunjalo and head of Independent media, Iqbal Survé, allegedly tried to bribe the former CEO of Ayo Technologies, Kevin Hardy. Hardy told the Judicial Inquiry into impropriety at the Public Investment Corporation ( PIC) that he met with Survé on the 18th of August 2018  prior to a BT board meeting where Survé attempted to bribe him. He says it happened after he sent emails to an executive, explaining his desire to leave Ayo.

“He was in Johannesburg for the BT Board meeting and he proceeded to offer that he would move my family to an all-expenses paid Waterfront apartment in Cape Town; all expenses would be paid including school fees, chauffeur etc. I, respectively, declined the offer because it was an outright bribe and that I cannot convince my wife to move to Cape Town because she wanted me to have nothing to do with him. He even offered to phone my wife and discuss it with her, which I strongly declined. I could not believe what had just happened. I remember phoning Sipiwe and my wife and I was in shock.”

Meanwhile, Ayo Technology Chief Investment Officer, Abdul Malick overvalued the company during the period in which the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) invested R4.3 billion in the company.

Former Chief Investment Officer of Ayo Technologies, Siphiwe Nodwele says the company was worth R700 million and not R14.8 billion as stated by its executives.

Nodwele was testifying before the Commission of Inquiry into impropriety at the PIC. He says he and another Ayo executive, Kevin Hardy, were ill-prepared for presentations at the PIC and could see that despite the deal lacking some information, it was a foregone conclusion that the it would go through.

“Given what the company was doing at the time and given the revenue the company had earned – the profit after tax – a billion would have been extreme. I suppose the rationale was that you were going to acquire a bunch of companies with that money, but in terms of what the company was worth, at that date, I would say R700 million and that’s just doing sums at the top of my head,” said  Nodwele.

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