South Africa’s pension fund chief says allegations he misused funds are spurious

The head of South Africa’s state-owned pension fund dismissed as spurious allegations made by a newspaper on Friday that he had misused funds and improperly raised salaries for some executives.

Daniel Matjila has been chief executive officer of Public Investment Corporation (PIC), which manages nearly 2 trillion rand ($152.30 billion) of civil servants’ pensions, since 2014. He told Reuters he would meet board members later on Friday to discuss the allegations made by newspaper Business Day. “These are spurious allegations,” Matjila said. “They are trying to find a reason to suspend or fire me.”

Business Day reported on Friday that Matjila had been accused in a letter sent to PIC’s board of using funds reserved for corporate social investment to bankroll a business of someone close to him and of irregularly raising salaries of PIC executives.

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