Big changes to South Africa’s largest asset manager proposed

The Democratic Alliance has proposed legislation to overhaul the governance of the Public Investment Corporation (PIC).

The party said the state asset manager’s latest leadership crisis underscores the need to remove political influence from its board.

The corporation faces mounting scrutiny after Chief Executive Patrick Dlamini was suspended pending an investigation.

This investigation will consider allegations raised by a whistleblower. South Africa’s financial regulator has also launched a governance probe.

The board has given no details of the claims and has said the suspension did not amount to a finding of wrongdoing. Dlamini could not be reached for comment.

The Public Investment Corporation (PIC) manages more than R3 trillion in assets on behalf of government employees and is one of Africa’s largest asset managers.

The DA’s Mark Burke said that the party had submitted its proposed Pension Protection Bill to parliament’s constitutional and legal services and planned to formally table it after receiving legal feedback.

The DA has 87 seats, or about 22% of the total of 400 seats in South Africa’s national assembly.

Under the proposal, Parliament’s Standing Committee on Finance would appoint an independent selection panel to shortlist candidates for non-executive director positions.

The panel would recommend candidates to the finance minister based on merit and the skills required by the board.

While the minister would retain the power to reject nominees, he or she would be prohibited from appointing directors not recommended by the panel.

Executive directors would be appointed by the board rather than the minister, while the board would elect its own chairperson from among its non-executive members.

“Pension investments are supposed to be boring. They’re not supposed to be political,” Burke said.

“The Pension Protection Bill seeks to rectify an unacceptable situation that has cost public servants billions.”

The changes would directly affect the current governance structure, under which Deputy Finance Minister David Masondo serves as PIC chairperson.

The bill would also bar anyone holding political office, or who had done so within the previous three years, from serving on the board.

The Democratic Alliance argues that the current arrangement undermines the institution’s independence and has contributed to recurring governance failures at the PIC.