Cape Town - AYO Technology Solutions chairman Wallace Mgoqi says he is beyond shocked by the allegations made in Parliament on Tuesday that the company is siphoning money offshore and strongly rejects any claims that AYO is engaged in any such activity.
During a parliamentary session on Tuesday the Public Investment Corporation’s (PIC) acting executive head of Legal Counsel, Governance and Compliance, Lindiwe Dlamini, advised that the PIC was looking at instituting court action against AYO with a view to halting the alleged siphoning of funds offshore by the ICT company.
"These comments and allegations are reckless, entirely without merit and wholly inappropriate. They are downright dangerous," Mgoqi said in a statement on Tuesday.
"AYO, as any company operating in South Africa today, would need to apply to the South African Reserve Bank to obtain the proper regulatory approval to engage in a transaction of this nature. AYO has not made any application for Reserve Bank approval nor does it intend to do so.
"This is yet another attempt to portray AYO in a negative light and in order to force Parliament’s hand. The PIC has no evidence on which, it can have based its thinking and as such, has blatantly lied to Parliament.
The AYO chairman said the company maintained that it was entitled to retain the funds the PIC legally invested in the company at the time of listing.
"Those funds, as we have said on numerous occasions, are secure. However, AYO and the PIC are currently in litigation with one another, with AYO also preparing to launch an action against the PIC. This is yet another attempt by the PIC to undermine the court process and mislead South Africa in an effort to destabilise the AYO business," Mgoqi said.
"For the record, the reasons the PIC invested in AYO in the first place, remain. AYO’s business proposition to transform the ICT sector in this country is sound and continues to be the ethos by which the company operates.
"AYO calls upon the PIC to immediately show the evidence that led it to draw the conclusion that AYO is in contravention of the Foreign Exchange Act," Mgoqi said.