Illustrative image: South African banknotes. (Photo: Gallo Images) | FSCA logo. (Photo: FSCA website) | PIC logo. (Photo: Wikipedia) Less than a year after Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana replaced the entire Public Investment Corporation board, the National Treasury was already asking for another round of nominees.
The PIC board composition has been rocky for the past few years, with Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana calling for three separate evaluations of the board between November 2024 and the end of February 2025. All the evaluations were carried out by the Institute of Directors South Africa, but the action plan and recommendations put forward by the institute were not adopted by Godongwana, who instead opted to replace the entire board.
In September 2025, Mmusi Maimane, leader of Build One South Africa, penned an opinion piece published by Daily Maverick, noting that:
“It is extraordinary and troubling that a board which oversaw the growth of Public Investment Corporation assets from R2-trillion to almost R3.9-trillion was suddenly and quietly replaced. Only one of the 10 new directors has any experience in asset management.”
Less than nine months later, the National Treasury was again seeking candidates for the PIC board.
The government gazette notice at the end of May 2026 included invitations for board nominations for the following bodies:
- Development Bank of Southern Africa
- Financial Services Tribunal
- Government Pensions Administration Agency
- Government Employees Pension Funds
- Independent Regulatory Board for Auditors
- Land and Agricultural Development Bank of South Africa
- Public Investment Corporation
- Special Pensions Appeal Board; and
- to fill vacancies on the remuneration and risk committees of the Financial Sector Conduct Authority.
The closing date for nominations was 6 June.
This week, the Public Investment Corporation lost two directors less than 48 hours after its board voted overwhelmingly to place chief executive Patrick Dlamini on precautionary suspension, adding another layer to an increasingly messy governance crisis at Africa’s largest asset manager.
Two non-executive directors resign
PIC chairperson David Masondo confirmed to the Mail & Guardian that non-executive directors Thabi Nkosi and Nosiphiwo Balfour had resigned after serving on the board for about eight months.
“The board has accepted the resignations of Ms Nkosi and Ms Balfour,” Masondo told the M&G, thanking them for their contribution and wishing them well.
The departures followed a nine-to-two board vote to suspend Dlamini while allegations contained in a whistleblower report are investigated. The PIC has not disclosed the contents of the report or identified the officials whose conduct may form part of the investigation.
Masondo declined to say whether Nkosi and Balfour were the two directors who voted against Dlamini’s suspension. He said the PIC did not comment on individual directors’ contributions or voting records, but stressed that the decision had been supported by nine of the board’s 11 members.
“Healthy dissent, robust debates conducted honestly and in the appropriate governance forums, is a hallmark of good corporate governance,” he told the M&G.
The timing of the resignations will inevitably fuel questions about the divisions within the board and whether the disagreement extended beyond Dlamini’s suspension to how the whistleblower complaint was handled.
New acting CEO
The PIC has appointed chief financial officer Batandwa Damoyi as acting chief executive with immediate effect. Damoyi joined the corporation in April 2024. She has held financial positions previously at the likes of Deloitte and BAIC, before she moved on to run her own business, Libana Consulting, for five years before joining the PIC. Her credentials include an almost three-year stint as a financial reporting and compliance manager at Eskom between 2009 and 2012.
The board said her appointment would provide continuity while its internal processes ran their course.
The upheaval comes as the Financial Sector Conduct Authority examines the whistleblower report and the governance process surrounding it.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, the PIC board said it had furnished the FSCA with the information and documentation requested by the regulator. It welcomed the FSCA’s “ongoing supervisory engagement” and said strong regulatory oversight was necessary to protect the retirement savings of millions of South Africans.
The board also pointed to previous statements by Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana that the recommendations of the Mpati Commission had been implemented and the governance deficiencies identified by the commission had been addressed.
Those assurances are now being tested against events inside the institution.
Why this matters
The PIC manages more than R3-trillion, primarily on behalf of the Government Employees Pension Fund. Governance turbulence at the corporation is therefore not an internal human resources matter that can be dealt with behind closed doors. Its decisions affect the retirement savings of public servants and the allocation of capital across the economy.
The corporation is now operating with an acting chief executive, two fresh board vacancies and an investigation into its suspended CEO. At the same time, questions remain over another board member, Matimba Justice Shiburi, who was appointed as the representative of the Public Servants Association.
The PSA is challenging a notice by the Labour Registrar proposing to cancel its registration as a trade union. The notice followed a Labour Appeal Court finding concerning whether the organisation had submitted a constitution that complied with the Labour Relations Act.
National Treasury’s response
When Daily Maverick asked whether deregistration would affect Shiburi’s basis for serving on the PIC board, the National Treasury said the matter formed part of an ongoing labour process and it would not speculate about the outcome.
The Treasury said appointments to the PIC board were governed by the PIC Act and the applicable appointment procedures. Any issue affecting the board’s composition would be considered under that framework if it arose.
That response leaves the immediate question unresolved while the PSA process continues.
The PIC board says it remained committed to credible and transparent governance processes. But after a CEO suspension, two director resignations, an FSCA intervention and questions over the standing of a labour representative, transparency will require more than statements confirming that the correct processes are being followed.
The public still needs to know what went wrong, how the board handled the whistleblower complaint and why two directors decided they could no longer remain at the table. DM