Johannesburg - The Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) has been slammed for the way it has imposed a heavy fine on AYO Technology Solutions for alleged accounting irregularities.
JSE listed AYO Technology is a subsidiary of Sekunjalo Group which is chaired by Dr Iqbal Survé, a South African business guru based in Cape Town.
The R6.5 million fine was a discussion point on Saturday on Galaxy Universal Network where Independent Media’s political editor was hosting three academics, Dr Sihle Sibiya, Professor Boitumelo Senokoane from UNISA and Siphesile Jele, a former investment banker who is now working on a paper to expose the JSE and its racial policies.
The issue the academics had with the fine was that two white-owned companies, Tongaat Hulett and EOH, with a bigger market share than AYO and facing similar allegations, were handed lesser fines.
Both companies were fined R7.5 million but their fines were lower as R2.5 million was suspended for a few years, lowering their fines to R5 million. AYO Technology was summarily fined R6.5 million and its fine was not partly suspended.
Speaking about the fine, Jele said it was bizarre that the JSE rushed to fine AYO for offences allegedly committed two years ago when the Steinhoff matter remains untouched despite the listed company blowing billions in pensioners’ money and allegedly hid its malpractices through accounting fraud.
“Here we are talking about an organisation (JSE) that only spoke once, released a single statement in November 2017 about Steinhoff. There has never been any communication since then to the South Africans. They have since penalised AYO Technology for doings they deemed to have been corrupt or ought to have hidden certain finances and have not paid enough tax in 2018. So what was the urgency if they could not deal with Steinhoff which was a serious heist… we are talking about billions to trillions,” Jele said.
Jele added during the same show that the system was piling pressure on people like Dr Iqbal Survé in a bid to force them to submit. If they refuse, they unfairly get the rough end of the stick.
Senokoane said the system which was inherited from the apartheid years has not changed and it always punishes those who challenge it. He was emphatic that AYO is being badly treated by the system.
“If you make noise to the status quo there is always a price to pay and if you are in business you know what has happened before with certain individuals who were seen as troublesome to the system. The reality of the matter is that black business will never thrive in a white system.
“The white system has gatekeepers who determine the rule of the game and it even goes as far as determining treatment and punishment will give to those who are anti the system. So where we are sitting now is a reaction of the system based on his particular contribution in disturbing the system,’ he said.
He later said the old guard is still pulling the strings from behind the scenes and is not ready to accept challenges from black-owned businesses.
Dr Sibiya said institutions like the JSE should account to the people and if they cannot do that, there “is no need for them to exist in this country.”
Political Bureau