Spotlight on investors’ lack of oversight in social grants fiasco
Allan Gray and International Finance Corporation questioned about their involvement in Net1
The Constitutional Court’s decision in the most recent social grants matter was a resounding condemnation of all the players in the social grants system. All? Not quite — one player has escaped equivalent scrutiny. The investors, those who finance the operations of companies such as those involved in the distribution of grants, are significant actors in this tragic play. And yet they have remained outside the spotlight, providing tentative and in some cases deficient responses. The two main investors in Net1, the parent company of the controversial Cash Paymaster Services (CPS), are Allan Gray and the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation. They hold a 16% and 18% stake in the shares of Net1, respectively. Both entities have been questioned about their investment in a company that is at the heart of the practice of the unscrupulous sharing of grant beneficiaries’ personal information with financial services companies. The latter use this data to market financial services imp...
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