PIC should never have been allowed to keep information on any investments from Parliament
We need to ensure that, as far as possible, the PIC is ‘firewalled’ from being captured by powerful public-or private-interest groups in SA
There is always a fear that the Public Investment Corporation (PIC), which manages R1.9-trillion on behalf of a number of clients — including, most importantly, the Government Employees Pension Fund (GEPF) — is vulnerable to being "captured" by powerful public-or private-interest groups. That is why we have campaigned hard over the past couple of years for greater transparency by the PIC. The campaign culminated in the decision by PIC CEO Dan Matjila to disclose — for the first time in 2016 — information about investments in its "unlisted portfolio", which was valued at R44.6bn. The fact that the information was made public is significant because South Africans were, for the first time, able to scrutinise the 250 investments in the unlisted portfolio, and because the expectation that the information will be disclosed in future will disincentivise "rent-seekers" with political influence from trying to raid the PIC. Former deputy finance minister Mcebisi Jonas and Matjila were courage...
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