South Africa’s biggest pension fund plundered: R20 billion lost through 28 investments

Outa CEO Wayne Duvenage said that South Africa’s largest pension fund manager, the Public Investment Corporation (PIC), has become a ‘plunder pot’.

The Public Investment Corporation is South Africa’s largest asset management firm, with over R3 trillion in assets under management.

Despite its importance, the PIC has been under pressure over mismanagement, corruption, and political interference.

Duvenage shared details about these problems during an interview at the 2026 Biznews Conference in August 2026.

He said that good governance, which includes an effective and honest board and executive team, is needed to turn government entities around.

He cited the Public Investment Corporation’s Isibaya Fund, which was created as a specialised, unlisted developmental investment vehicle.

However, because of poor oversight, this fund has been abused to invest in companies which were mismanaged and plundered for personal gain.

Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana provided details about the Isibaya Fund’s investments and their performance, which did not look good.

The fund invested in 28 companies, which produced a -100% Internal Rate of Return (IRR), losing R20 billion.

The IRR is the discount rate that sets the Net Present Value (NPV) of all cash flows, including negative investment amounts and positive returns, to zero.

It measures how quickly your money grows when you invest in a project or business. The higher the IRR, the better the investment.

The Public Investment Corporation’s list of Isibaya unlisted portfolio investments showed that many of these investments had an IRR of -100%.

An Internal Rate of Return of -100% is the ultimate financial red flag. In plain terms, it means the PIC has lost nearly everything invested in these businesses.

Mpati Commission of Inquiry

There were so many red flags that the government established the Mpati Commission of Inquiry in 2018 to investigate the PIC.

It examined allegations of impropriety, governance failures, and corruption and released a scathing report in 2020.

It stated that the Isibaya Fund had been vulnerable to governance failures, political capture, and a disregard for internal due diligence.

It said that decisions within the Isibaya Fund were driven by political connections, patronage, and key executive directives rather than commercial viability.

It said that powerful figures inside the Public Investment Corporation pushed deals through despite negative risk warnings from analysts.

It recommended overhauling the unlisted investment process and ensuring investment committees operate independently of executive pressure.

The commission further recommended that implicated executives and external parties be referred to law enforcement for civil recovery of funds and criminal investigation.

Duvenage said that, despite these recommendations, the Public Investment Corporation did not implement them.

“One recommendation was to ensure that the chair is independent from the government,” he said.

“However, policy dictates that the Deputy Minister of Finance serve as the chair, and the result is that the PIC became a plunder pot.”

Duvenage said that, through the Isibaya Fund, the PIC invested in companies which were then deliberately mismanaged and plundered for personal enrichment.

This, in turn, resulted in the PIC’s long-term returns being well below the market average. “It’s sad, but that’s what it is,” he said.

“The people who suffer because of the problems at the PIC are the pensioners. They include the teachers, the police, and the nurses who worked for the government.”

Public Investment Corporation’s Isibaya Fund’s worst investments