NEHAWU statement on the commencement of the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into the PIC
24 January 2019
The National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union [NEHAWU] welcomes the commencement of the judicial commission of inquiry into the affairs of the Public Investment Corporation [PIC]. The wide-reaching commission was instituted by President Cyril Ramaphosa last year to focus on the interminable reports about alleged unscrupulousness and dubious investments by the PIC.
For a very long time the national union has been very worried about the PIC and the security of workers’ pensions. We have over time noted with concern the continued investments based on speculation by the PIC and the haemorrhaging of funds due to bad decisions. We hope the commission will reveal the extent of the potential rot so that corrective measures can be implemented as a matter of urgency to save workers money.
NEHAWU is revolted by the revelation at the commission that the PIC irregularly invested R4.3 billion into Ayo Technology Solutions, a company that was dwindling and not worthy of a cash injection from the PIC. Such revelations further prove our long-held belief that the PIC has been gambling with workers hard earned pension funds.
The national union will urgently write a letter to the Deputy Minister of Finance who is also the Chairperson of the Board, Mr Mondli Gungubele, to ask what measures will be put in place to recoup the R4.3 billion lost in the Ayo Technology Solutions investment deal. NEHAWU refuses to sit idle while workers money is being misused and will ensure that all the money that was lost is recouped.
As NEHAWU, we will intensify our call for meaningful worker representation in the Public PIC in order to subvert any further loss of workers’ hard-earned pension funds. We will follow the commission with hawk eyes and await the outcomes when it concludes as a party with a vested interest.
Lastly, the union will engage the Government Employees Pension Fund [GEPF] in relation to the crises at the PIC and its failure to play a role in supplying houses to more than 900 000 public servants who are without housing. NEHAWU will continue to demand that workers money be invested in the Government Employee Housing Scheme for public servants rather than being wasted in speculative projects. As contributors to the fund, workers wellbeing must be prioritised rather than investing in huge shopping malls that do not benefit workers and the working class in any way whatsoever.
Issued by Khaya Xaba, Media Liaison, NEHAWU, 24 January 2019
