South Africa’s finance minister said he was preparing to oust his deputy and fire the remaining board of Africa’s largest fund manager, escalating an ongoing governance battle over its suspended CEO.
The shake-up at the $200 billion-plus state-owned Public Investment Corporation is turning what began as a forensic audit of a bad private equity deal into a showdown over political interference in the biggest player in South Africa’s financial system.
The upheaval comes days after the PIC board suspended CEO Patrick Dlamini over a flawed $24 million private equity settlement, sparking internal warfare and board member resignations. In reaction, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana issued a formal notice in his capacity as the PIC’s sole shareholder to consider dissolving the entire board. Doing so would also strip his own deputy finance minister, David Masondo, of his role as the chair of the board. South Africa’s largest opposition party introduced a bill this week to ensure the chair of PIC is not linked to politics because the fund has been “stumbling from scandal to scandal” over the past decade.