South Africa’s deputy minister of finance and chairman of state-owned Public Investment Corporation (PIC), Mondli Gungubele, has denied allegations of corruption levied against him.
This comes after a whistleblower made new graft allegations at the pension fund.
The PIC, has nearly 2 trillion rand ($147 billion) of civil servants’ pensions under its custody and is Africa’s biggest pension fund
It says it would conduct an investigation after a whistleblower made the accusations in an email to the PIC’s board.
The state-owned pension fund did not disclose the new allegations, which come as a judicial inquiry into the firm continued to hear evidence from its staff members.
PIC’s acting CEO, Matshepo More, and two unnamed board members were also implicated.
Gungubele later issued a statement saying he was one of those facing allegations, and is welcoming the opportunity to clear his name.
“I am confident that I have done nothing wrong,” he said.
The third board member named in the anonymous whistleblower’s email is the non-executive director of PIC, Sibusisiwe Zulu.
Zulu could not be reached for comment.
The ongoing inquiry at the PIC was set up after a small opposition party alleged the PIC’s former chief executive Dan Matjila had misused funds and made careless investment decisions.
Matjila, who stepped down in November last year, has denied any wrongdoing.
The PIC is the biggest investor in South Africa’s economy, holding a large volume of bonds issued by government and state-owned firms, as well as stakes in blue-chip companies such as miner Anglo American, lender Absa and telecoms giant MTN Group.
