Reuters
Shares of mid-cap technology firm Pinnacle Holdings extended their slide into a second day yesterday, after an executive director was arrested on charges of trying to bribe an SAPS official.
The computer hardware and software distributor lost a quarter of its market value on Tuesday, when the police said Takalani Tshivhase had been charged with offering a R5 million bribe to a lieutenant-general to secure a contract in January last year.
Yesterday Pinnacle said it had agreed to grant Tshivhase a leave of absence with immediate effect until criminal proceedings had been concluded. Tshivhase has denied the charges.
Police spokesman Paul Ramaloko said Tshivhase had offered the bribe to win a contract to supply the SAPS with handheld devices used in investigations.
The devices, which sold for R55 000, were equipped with fingerprint scanners and allowed police in the field to check whether a person had a criminal record, he said.
The JSE said it was investigating whether Pinnacle violated rules on timely disclosure by waiting 20 days to announce the arrest. He was arrested on March 5 and released on bail that day.
Pinnacle only disclosed the allegations on Tuesday, three weeks after the arrest and several days after Tshivhase, chief executive Arnold Fourie and another executive director, George Wiehahn, sold a combined R28.6 million worth shares, regulatory filings show. The shares fell 23.67 percent to close at R11.45.