, but the state-owned fund manager appears to have bent over backwards to help his business partner —which included depositing millions into an offshore account
The short answer of how this happened appears inthe records of the Public Investment Corporation , which state: “PIC has been approached by a South African company lndiafrec Trade & Invest Ltd to establish and fund the consortium to facilitate a 50% acquisition of S&S Refinery LDA In Mozambique…The PIC is the state-owned investment manager of government employees’ pensions. Its chair at the time of Indiafrec’s approach was Nhlanhla Nene, then deputy minister of finance.
Relevant PIC motivations and transaction documents invariably bear Matjila’s signature —including when the PIC paid an R18.5-million “referral fee” into the freshly opened account of an obscure Emirati company, Zaid International Trade, represented by Mirza, Nene Jr’s business partner in Indiafrec. “It is equally important to state that, at no stage —from the time when the application for funding was received until approval —did the then chairman of the PIC board, Minister Nhlanhla Nene, become involved [in] investment processes.”But back to February 2014, the month of the burning bikes. That same February, PIC staff considered documents with a view to investing in S&S Refinarias, which was still building the plant, which would refine palm oil to produce edible fats and soap.
Little is known about Mirza, an Indian citizen who appears to be in his early thirties and has given his address as a residential hotel in Fordsburg, Johannesburg.In early April 2014, Rassul signed an “engagement letter” which the PIC had prepared. It explained that the PIC and Indiafrec were interested in acquiring 25% each of S&S Refinarias and outlined the next steps towards the potential investment, which now stood at $52.5-million.
Second, it no longer envisaged Indiafrec acquiring a stake but rather Mirza personally. He, the PIC and Rassul with his wife would hold 33% each. The envisaged PIC investment had now grown to $62.5-million, which would go into loan finance and the PIC’s stake but not Mirza’s. It later supplemented the comment, saying: “We also wish to state that one of the other considerations in this specific transaction was a potential perception of conflict of interest, given that Siyabonga is related to the then chairman of the PIC board.”Events to follow, including his alleged participation in attempts to recover the $3.3-million Rassul settlement and the emergence of the obscure Zaid International Trade to receive the referral fee and payments, may cast some doubt on that.
That same month, September 2014, staff bounced a new structure around, one remarking in writing that “I have discussed this with Dr Dan [Matjila]. He is happy with the structure at the moment.” “For various reasons ... this initial intention did not proceed and a settlement agreement was concluded to compensate our client for its exit from the project.”
The settlement agreement was signed by Mirza and Rassul on October 20 2015 and the former invoiced the latter, again giving details of the Zaid International offshore account. Within two weeks, two further “appraisal reports” had been prepared motivating the purchase of a further 25% of S&S Refinarias from Rassul’s special purpose vehicle.
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