COSATU statement on the suspension Public Investment Corporation’s Acting CEO Ms Matshepo More
25 March 2019
COSATU notes alarming media reports on the suspension of the Public Investment Corporation’s Acting CEO Ms Matshepo More by the PIC Board.
The public has not been informed by the PIC Board or government as to why the CEO has been suspended. If this suspension has been done on the basis of tackling the rampant chaos and collapse of good governance at the PIC, then COSATU will welcome it.
It is critical that government urgently take unions, workers and the nation at large into its confidence. Workers need to know what is happening at the PIC and what is being done by the PIC, Treasury and law enforcement agencies to move with speed and ensure that workers’ hard-earned pension and insurance funds are safe.
The PIC manages workers’ assets totalling more than R2 trillion. It holds more than 12.5% of the JSE and is the largest investment fund not only in South Africa but in the entire continent. In short, it is too important to be allowed to go the way of Eskom.
Commissions of Enquiry are important, but what is needed now is complete transparency, solid leadership and decisive action. The PIC is not some obscure private sector fund nor is it petty cash for the looting brigades. There have been too many reports of industrial-scale looting at the PIC. Workers demand action and transparency now from the PIC and government.
The ongoing circus at the PIC confirms that COSATU has been correct to demand Parliament’s urgent passage of the PIC Amendment Bill. The PIC needs to be stabilised and cleansed. Proper governance systems and transparency and accountability measures as provided for in the PIC Bill are now needed more than ever.
COSATU is pleased that the NCOP is scheduled to adopt the PIC Bill on March 28. The federation will be urging the President to sign, gazette and promulgate it into law as a matter of the highest urgency.
Issued by Matthew Parks, Parliamentary Coordinator, COSATU, 25 March 2019
