Mpati Commission report a ‘grave injustice’ to Sekunjalo

• Author: Independent Media Staff
• Published date: 18 March 2022
• Publication title: Cape Argus (Cape Town, South Africa)

MUCH noise has been made by commentators – the professional, the government and the armchair variety – about the Mpati Commission Report into alleged impropriety at the Public Investment Corporation (PIC). The commission was chaired by retired Judge Lex Mpati and assisted by Gill Marcus and Emmanuel Lediga

Leading the headlines at almost every turn, the name of Sekunjalo, was inter-changed with AYO Technology Solutions (AYO). Yet “Sekunjalo” was never included in the commission’s self-declared terms of reference. So how did the Mpati Commission, and subsequent media reporting, end up being dominated by discussions around this group and its executive chairman, Dr Iqbal Survé, and the commission reporting on “findings” against Sekunjalo?

That’s a question we may never really know the answer to.

However, what we do know is that the resultant negative publicity surrounding Survé and the various companies his Sekunjalo Investment Holdings (SIH) has some form of investment in, have subsequently had everyone scurrying in different directions for being associated with the “tender swindler” (as per the infamous Zapiro).

The country’s banks have taken all the negative media to heart, claiming “reputational risk”, and on what appears to be a whim, and without any shred of evidence to support them, have now in concert started closing all bank accounts belonging to these companies, as well as some of their executives.

Despite spending an inordinate amount of time, effort and resources to correct facts and the misrepresentation – all falling on deaf ears – the negative narrative persists.

At the behest of Parliament’s Standing Committee on Finance, among others, SIH approached former judge, advocate Willem Heath, to conduct a thorough review of the Mpati Commission report. By all reports, Heath only undertook the assignment on the basis that whatever he found because of his investigations and interrogations, he would be able to publish – good or bad.

This, therefore, is a summary of that review (which extends to 173 pages), which is damning and provokes much food for thought, since in essence, it eviscerates the detritus that has been spewed in the media since 2018, and upon which Survé, Sekunjalo and related companies have been hung, drawn, and quartered.

Summary of findings:

l Illegality of the Mpati Commission report – Similar to findings of the conduct of the Seriti Commission into the Arms Procurement fiasco, Heath has determined that the Mpati Commission had a...