The Public Investment Corp’s (PIC’s) former CFO wants her job back after it emerged that her disciplinary process recommended she be slapped with a final written warning and not outright dismissal.
Matshepo More was fired last week after being on paid suspension since March 2019. She was found guilty of misconduct in relation to the PIC’s R350m revolving credit facility for the now defunct VBS Mutual Bank.
This week she would only say that she had approached the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) with a case of unfair dismissal.
“Everything I have to say will be ventilated at that appropriate forum,” she said.
In its announcement last week, the PIC, through outgoing chair Reuel Khoza, said: “It took very long, with money being paid for her while she was not delivering any service.”
The PIC’s board said it might also recover money from More if it could be proved that her actions led to losses, and that she might also face criminal investigation, according to BusinessLive.
The Sunday Times has independently established that More is a co-operating witness for the Hawks in its VBS investigation.
Documents the Sunday Times has seen show that More was found guilty of failing to realise that a former PIC legal head, Ernest Nesane, had inserted clauses in legal agreements between the PIC and VBS relating to the R350m investment. Nesane and the PIC’s former head of risk, Paul Magula, represented the corporation on the VBS board. Nesane’s action was not approved by the PIC.
More signed a memorandum that said agreements reflected the PIC’s terms. For this, she was found guilty on one charge of misconduct by a disciplinary hearing, chaired by Andrew Redding SC, who ruled she be given a final written warning. This was overturned by the PIC board.
PIC spokesperson Sekgoela Sekgoela said the board decided to fire More.
“The PIC will not make public statements about internal disciplinary processes involving its employees. The PIC is, however, satisfied that it follows due process in all the disciplinary processes undertaken,” Sekgoela said.
More was charged along with PIC legal associate Boitumelo Leroke. Leroke told the commission of inquiry into the PIC, headed by judge Lex Mpati, that she drafted the memo that More signed knowing that some contents were not true, and that two other colleagues cosigned the documents. Former PIC chair Dan Matjila and Nesane also signed the documents.
The sanctions Redding recommended ranged from written warnings to a final written warning.
The PIC followed Redding’s recommendations, except in More’s case. More faced only one charge while the other three faced up to six different charges.
In pre-sentencing arguments, the PIC said More’s seniority, her refusal to take responsibility by maintaining her innocence, and the seriousness of the misconduct, led to a breakdown in trust.
In his report, Redding said: “While I understood the evidence of Mr [Abel] Sithole, the CEO, to be critical of Ms More and to emphasise the importance of being able to rely on the assurances of senior managers, it was not to the effect that the entire relationship had broken down. Her previous contribution to the PIC should not be ignored. Dismissal, therefore, is not an appropriate sanction.”
More, in her defence, said the agreement with VBS was concluded in 2014, five years before she was charged. She said the deal, which had been approved by Matjila, did not require her signature for implementation. She said she had signed only because Matjila wrote a note that she should audit the process, though he would approve it.
Redding said perusal of the agreement was not More’s direct responsibility. But Matjila had asked for her views, expecting her to do a thorough audit, which she did not do.
The VBS case represented the third time that the PIC charged More. In 2019 she was charged with interfering with the work of the Mpati commission. The charge was found to be unsubstantiated. Last year More was found not guilty of a charge related to the PIC investment of R4.3bn in Ayo Technologies, a company that is part of Iqbal Survé’s Sekunjalo Group.
At the Ayo hearing, the PIC’s acting CFO, Brian Mavuka, said he paid the first tranche of the R4.3bn investment in Ayo before governance processes had been completed. The hearing found that Mavuka defied More’s instruction not to pay Ayo until the deal had been approved.
Mavuka is one of the 13 new PIC board members approved by the cabinet this week. He did not comment when approached by the Sunday Times.
The PIC is Africa’s largest investment fund with just over R2.3-trillion in assets, including the pension money of government employees.
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