This changed in June 2021 when BT-SA announced it wanted to exercise a call option to buy back its shares from Sekunjalo's JSE-listed subsidiary, African Equity Empowerment Investments .
AYO's then-chairperson, Dr Wallace Mgoqi, told the committee that the Public Investment Corporation had sabotaged a proposed investment by BT in AYO by"relying on negative media". It also accused AYO of including incorrect assumptions about the relationship in its pre-listing statement before it listed on the JSE in late 2017.Following Sekunjalo's briefings in early 2021, BT-SA wrote to Parliament to correct what it called a"misrepresentation of facts".