#tshepo mahloele house

[news2454646]

The truth prevails as Mpati Commission-ordered forensic probe vindicates Harith

Harith operates in the highly-regulated financial services sector, so we are no strangers to, and are quite comfortable with heightened scrutiny. Our line of business requires the utmost fidelity to those who entrust us with their funds and investments.

[mahloeletshepo]

As the patron, Tshepo Mahloele will be the leading voice in rallying millions of citizens to demand that the world’s top political and business leaders stop delaying action with longer-term timelines and focus on what we need to do here and now. 

[mahloeletshepo09]

Tshepo Mahloele called on African governments and business leaders to join this critical endeavour. The Harith team stressed the importance of taking collective action to build a sustainable future for Africans for generations to come.

[southafrica-times]

Billionaire Tshepo Mahloele loses $92m from Capitec

Tshepo Mahloele

South Africa billionaire and a prominent investment banker Tshepo Mahloele has seen a remarkable decline in his stake in the South African second largest retail bank, Capitec Bank since the start of the year, 2023.

the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE).

Since the beginning of 2023, Capitec Bank shares on the JSE have decreased by 11.26 percent, falling from R1,858.57 ($$97.94) on 01 January to R1,6.649.23 ($86.91) at the time of writing.

This has led to substantial financial losses for shareholders, including Mahloele, who owns an amount of stock in the group. As a result of the significant double-digit decline in CapitecBank’s shares, the market value of Mahloele’s stake in the retail bank has declined by R1.76 billion ($92.7 million) since the start of the year, falling from R15.63 billion ($823.7 million) on 01 January to R13.87 billion ($730.91 million) on 18 August.

Mahloele is the presiding chairman and founder of LebasheInvestment Holding Group and founding CEO of Harith General Partners, holds a 7.26 percent indirect stake, translating to 8,409,802 ordinary shares in Capitec Bank.

Lebashe is a 100% black-owned unlisted investment holding company with an experienced, multi-faceted management team.

Recently, Lebashe announced that they have partnered with the management buyout (MBO) team of Mara Phones South Africa. Mara Phones South Africa is a proudly South African tech-centric company and manufacturer of smartphone devices with a state-of-the-art manufacturing plant located in the Dube Trade Port in Durban.

Lebashe are the owners of Arena Holdings (Pty) Ltd that house all its content, broadcasting, and media assets, following the successful conclusion of a R1,05 billion transaction with TisoBlackstar.

He continues to retain his position among the ranks of SA’s elite billionaire bankers, underscoring his enduring influence within the JSE.

Under Mahloele’s leadership, Harith has invested in signature infrastructure assets, including MainOne, a leading digital communication company in West Africa; Dark Fibre Africa in South Africa, Henri Konan Bedie Bridge in Cote d’Ivoire, Lake Turkana Wind Farm in Kenya, Lanseria International Airport in South Africa, amongst others.

[newsliveday]

“Why do we readily accept Fake News when it is Bad News?” Alec Hogg explains.

Dr Duncan du Bois writes: “You need to correct the claim that SAA has been privatised. It has not. The Takatso/Harith crowd are ANC cronies. Moleketi having been an ANC deputy under Mbeki while his wife was a useless Cabinet minister. Holding a 33% stake means that the ANC govt can block any changes in the management of the consortium. And the money involved is coming from the PIC, so again, a govt controlled situation. The whole thing is a scam. It is simply in-house ANC privatisation.”

Duncan’s email is one of a number to hit my inbox expressing similar sentiments. It saddens me that this fake news has been so widely distributed that even members of the BizNews community have been sucked into the net. So what’s the reality? For starters, Takatso is not a group of ANC-cronies – tarring new SAA CEO Gidon Novick with that brush is preposterous. Ditto chairman Tshepo Mahloele, who was in the same FirstRand “class of” as Michael Jordaan and is an independent entrepreneur – a fact I can attest to as he is the only outside shareholder in BizNews. Mahloele is also the executive chairman of Arena, whose titles like the Sunday Times, Business Day and Financial Mail reflect their owner’s independent mindset. Mahloele founded Harith, whose chairman is, indeed, former deputy finance minister Jabu Moleketi. But Moleketi retired from politics in 2009 and his wife Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi was a widely respected cabinet minister (hardly “useless” as suggested). She retired from the cabinet in 2008. The PIC is NOT investing a cent in the consortium, a fact it confirmed in a statement yesterday. As for the rest of the allegations – these are fabrications with malicious intent. Whew. Do the fake news purveyors have no shame?

[mahloeletshepo]

Harith co-founder Tshepo Mahloele is unveiled as the new Africa Patron for the Global Citizen movement

As the patron, Tshepo Mahloele will be the leading voice in rallying millions of citizens to demand that the world’s top political and business leaders stop delaying action with longer-term timelines and focus on what we need to do here and now. 

[mahloeletshepo09]

Global Citizen Partner Harith shares a vision for a greener Africa at the Global Citizen Festival in Accra

Tshepo Mahloele called on African governments and business leaders to join this critical endeavour. The Harith team stressed the importance of taking collective action to build a sustainable future for Africans for generations to come.

[mahloeletshepo]

This is therefore not a case of Harith being “cleared” by the forensic probe. It is a case of the forensic probe arriving at the only logical destination of the truth-seeking exercise that any conscientious investigation was inevitably destined to reach; a finding that the truth has been on our side all along” – added Makhubela tshepo mahloele

[mahloeletshepo]

The truth prevails as Mpati Commission-ordered forensic probe vindicates Harith

Harith General Partners is satisfied that the truth has finally prevailed in the years-long, sustained and malicious campaign to taint it with allegations of malfeasance. This comes after the forensic investigation commissioned by the PIC concluded in its final report that there was no evidence to support the damaging allegations made more than 5 years ago by a Senior Member of Parliament. The report vindicates Harith which has had to operate under a human-made cloud of suspicion, peppered with sporadic, gratuitous, false and unfair political attacks on its brand and reputation. Harith welcomes the fact that the Public Investment Corporation and Government Employees Pension Fund commissioned investigation has made findings that align precisely with every aspect of what we have consistently told South Africans all along; that Harith has been scrupulous in all its dealings with the PIC and the GEPF.

The forensic probe was commissioned jointly by the PIC and the GEPF, in fulfilment of recommendations by the Mpati Commission into the affairs of the PIC. It has now returned with findings that respond directly, adequately and finally to each of the questions the Mpati Commission felt needed further investigation, namely;

“To examine the entire PAIDF [Pan African Infrastructure Development Fund] initiative to determine that all monies due to both parties [PIC and GEPF] have been paid and properly accounted for” [Page 435. Para 66 of the Commission report]

“To determine whether any monies due to overcharging or any other malpractice should be recovered” [Page 435. Para 66 of the Commission report]

“The board of the PIC should examine whether the role played by either Mr Moleketi and Mr Mahloele breached their fiduciary duties or the fit and proper test required of a director in terms of the Companies Act” [Page 435. Para 67 of the Commission report]

In a letter summing up the report’s findings on all these questions, the PIC and GEPF have informed Harith that: “The investigation found that there was no evidence to support the allegations that were made with regard to Harith General Partners and Harith Fund Managers”.

Harith welcomes the forensic investigation findings, and now considers the allegations of impropriety against it, in their various iterations, to be now well and truly ventilated. This latest probe is the fifth process that has looked into these matters, with Harith’s full cooperation, and with none of them making any findings of wrong-doing against the company. The full gambit of processes that have looked into and disposed of these allegations is;

The Mpati Commission; whose outcomes raised a number of unwarranted questions without making any firm findings against Harith, Mr Tshepo Mahloele, and Mr Jabulani Moleketi. Instead of making firm findings, the commission recommended a joint-forensic probe by the PIC and the GEPF.

The Constitutional Court case of UDM v Lebashe and others; which among others found that the UDM and Mr Bantu Holomisa “…did not provide any shred of evidence of actual misconduct, corruption and self-dealing” [UDM v Lebashe judgment, para 59], and “The applicants were not entitled to wantonly defame the respondents under the pretext that they were executing a constitutional duty…it was not for the public benefit to publish the unverified defamatory information” [UDM v Lebashe judgment, para 62]

The South African Venture and Private Capital Association (SAVCA); concluded; “ The committee is of the view that the legal and fee structures set out in the fund terms are in line with industry standards.” And “The committee found no contravention of the SAVCA Code of Conduct based on the information contained in the PIC report and the evidence received from Harith.”

Harith’s own forensic investigation conducted by Crowe Forensics SA and Advocate Terry Motau SC; It investigated the Harith fees structure for the PAIDF PAIDF 1 and PAIDF 2 and found it to be “Comparable at the relevant time period with other Private Equity funds in the industry”. It concluded: “Harith [has] not yet earned any incentive fees – any allegation that the Fund Managers have earned “rich rewards” in regard to incentive fees (carried interest) is therefore without substance. Based thereon, it is therefore apparent that the allegations set out in the PIC Report in regard to the Harith fee structures (for PAIDF 1 and PAIDF 2) are unfounded”

PIC and GEPF joint forensic report; which was ordered by the Mpati Commission and whose outcomes are contained in the latest report.

“Harith operates in the highly-regulated financial services sector, so we are no strangers to, and are quite comfortable with heightened scrutiny. Our line of business requires the utmost fidelity to those who entrust us with their funds and investments. That’s why throughout these processes that have ensued since these allegations were first raised, we have been fully cooperative and played open-cards at every stage”, said Harith CEO Sipho Makhubela. “This is therefore not a case of Harith being “cleared” by the forensic probe. It is a case of the forensic probe arriving at the only logical destination of the truth-seeking exercise that any conscientious investigation was inevitably destined to reach; a finding that the truth has been on our side all along” – added Makhubela

Throughout all these processes, Harith’s detractors have been able to wantonly, and with no consequence, continue to cast aspersions on a lawfully established and legitimately operating corporate entity, exacting an incalculable toll on the company, its brand, credibility in the market, employees, shareholders, investors, as well as business and financial relationships. Throughout this saga, the callous campaign to destroy Harith and the reputations of Messrs Mahloele and Moleketi was thinly-masked as an exercise of political or parliamentary “oversight”, and insults hurled at them became the trading stock of a politician and his entity who were seeking to shore-up their dimming prospects. Those politicians and their fellow-travellers who gave their lies currency and buoyancy now crawl back into the woodwork, while the victims of their sustained slander are left to repair the extensive damage they wrought on their reputations and brands. The kind of brand and character assassination Mr Holomisa and his ilk embarked upon in the past five years is a sinister perversion of political and constitutional oversight and checks and balances!

Yet, even through this period, Harith was not cowered, and continued to focus on its vision of harnessing Africa’s capital muscle towards the development of socio-economically impactful infrastructure across the continent, an undertaking that was made infinitely harder by this economic sniping campaign. Harith considers this sordid chapter closed, and places its trust in the discerning people of South Africa and the continent, who know too well that “lies have short legs”.