A Scandal That Risks South Africa’s Future
The company that holds $150 billion in government pensions has been hit by accusations.
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South Africans are accustomed to government mismanagement and corruption. They’ve suffered for years from periodic blackouts at state-owned power utility Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd., seen money flow out of the national airline and are routinely asked to pay off cops who’ve pulled them over.
The latest scandal, though, has the potential to reach wider and deeper. It’s about whether the company that manages $150 billion of retirement funds for more than 1.2 million government workers has invested its money properly—a question that could touch every taxpayer in Africa’s most industrialized economy.