The country’s largest asset manager, the Public Investment Corporation (PIC), has placed chief executive Patrick Dlamini on precautionary suspension pending an independent investigation into whistleblower allegations against him, marking a dramatic escalation of the governance crisis that has engulfed South Africa’s state asset manager over the past month.
The suspension comes barely three weeks after Daily Maverick revealed that the PIC board had received a whistleblower complaint alleging governance failures, conflicts of interest and irregularities surrounding the corporation’s handling of the long-running Lanseria Airport dispute.
In a statement issued late on Monday night, the PIC stressed that the suspension was “precautionary” and “does not, in any way, constitute a finding nor is it a pronouncement of any wrongdoing on the part of the CEO”.
Instead, the board said it wanted to provide Dlamini with “sufficient space and time to respond to allegations of impropriety” contained in the whistleblower report submitted last month while allowing an investigation to proceed independently.
The decision is significant in that it suggests the board has moved beyond its earlier position of merely assessing the credibility of the allegations and has concluded that an investigation into issues that may be serious enough to warrant removing the chief executive from office is now necessary.
The board is finalising arrangements for an acting chief executive.
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