Public Investment Corporation (PIC) listed equities general manager Lebogang Molebatsi has told the Western Cape High Court he considered the ICT investment group, AYO Technology Solutions, to be a good investment, and advised the PIC to buy its shares.

The Star reports Molebatsi – testifying at the case in which the PIC is looking to dissolve and recoup its R4.3bn subscription agreement in the listed technology firm – admitted saying on several separate occasions that he considered AYO to be a good investment.

Molebatsi, who was being questioned about his role in the deal, admitted under cross-examination by AYO Advocate Nazeer Cassim SC to having signed memos supporting the transaction several months later.

In response to a question from Cassim on the methodology used to arrive at the decision that AYO was a good investment, Molebatsi said they based their support of the transaction on a series of internal discussions and debates, as well as the information they had on AYO at the time.

‘We have a team of sector specialists who we interrogated, discussed and debated with while looking at a strategy. For us, the relationship AYO had with British Telecom SA was the anchor to drive further aggressive growth.’ 

The Star adds questions to Molebatsi from both the PIC’s Advocate Vincent Maleka SC and Cassim were based mainly on his previous testimony to the Mpati Commission of Inquiry into the PIC, back in 2019.

Molebatsi also admitted that he was one of the senior employees of the PIC who advised the Government Employees Pension Fund (GEPF), which – in an April 2018 report – said ‘AYO was an attractive, catalytic investment’.

He said this had come about at a time when there had been media reports about the PIC’s investment in AYO, and the GEPF had been asking for an explanation.

Later in the afternoon, Maleka introduced the PIC’s fourth witness, Professor Harvey Wainer, an expert on financial matters with a particular focus on valuations.

The Star report notes Wainer has previously lent his expert services to several High Court matters, both in SA and abroad. AYO also had its own expert, Andre Pieterse, and as required by the civil matters rules, the two experts had met and discussed aspects of their expertise in matters relating to the case.

While Maleka was leading Wainer’s evidence, Cassim rose to tell the court that he would argue that Wainer’s opinions were irrelevant to the case.

Full report in The Star