The general manager for listed equities at the PIC, Lebogang Molebatsi, told the Commission of inquiry into the PIC that he believes former CEO Dr Dan Matjila should be held accountable for the Ayo Technology debacle.
Molebatsi says he felt he was pressured when he worked on the Ayo Technology and Sargamatha deals.
PIC invested R4.3 billion without following proper procedures in Ayo Technology Solutions in December 2017. The PIC has been instructed by the CPIC to recoup the invested funds with interest from Ayo Technology.
The commission of inquiry heard that Matjila appeared desperate to see the Ayo Technology deal done.
The former Risk and Compliance head, Paul Magula, told the commission that former CEO even came from leave to force a meeting where the deal was approved.
Magula labelled the Ayo deal as a reckless investment decision as no proper due diligence was conducted. He says this put PIC at a disadvantage as it could not properly know the value of the asset it was investing in.
He says another reckless investment decision was that of the R9.3 billion lent to Lancaster to buy Steinhoff shares. Magula says the PIC has written off almost R5bn in relation to the loan to Lancaster due to Steinhoff’s collapse.
This, he says, is after the loan was restructured and in the process the PIC partially lost its security to another lender Citibank.
Magula was a board member at VBS mutual bank, seconded there by the PIC. He says the fund manager lost between R400 million and R500 million in the VBS saga.
Also on the stand was Lebogang Molebatsi, the general manager for listed equities at the PIC. He says Matjila told him to sign the irrevocable subscription form for Ayo as he was acting for the executive head of listed equities. This was before the deal went to a committee that was supposed to make a decision on it.
Matjila told him that this would not be a breach of PIC policy as it would be ratified later.
Molebatsi will complete his testimony when the commission sits again on Tuesday.
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