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Publication

CAPE TIMES BUSINESS REPORT

Page

12

Date

Mon 23 Mar 2020

AVE (ZAR)

25594.25

ForayintotherestoftheAfricancontinentagame-changerforAYOTHE ANNUAL General Meeting (AGM)of AYO Technology Solutions hasbeendelayed today asa result of the corona-virus pandemic - at a critical time forthe company and for black economicempowerment.

Public companies are required tohold AGMs.

However, South Africa will seemany AGMs delayed in line with rec-ommendations made by the SouthAfrican government to inhibit thespread of Covid-19.

According to the Companies andIntellectual Property Commission,AGMs must be held to provide, amongothers, for presentation of the auditedfinancial statements for the immedi-ately preceding financial year and theappointment of the auditors and theaudit committee.

PIC's transformation agendaIn October 2019, the Public Invest-ment Corporation (PIC), "reacting to aletter received from AYO, backtrackedon the allegationsmade - by its actingexecutive head of legal, governanceand compliance, Lindiwe Dlamini -inParliament that Sekunjalo InvestmentHoldings, through AYO, wassiphoningPIC-invested funds offshore".

Now that the report of the JudicialCommission of Inquiry into the PIC isout, the PIC must positively contributeto the stability in AYO and assistinbuilding it as a formidable black eco-nomic empoweredcompany.

The PIC must go back to its formerglory as an agent of transformationwhen it brought shareholder activismto the fore in South Africa and itsexecutives were not known asthe oneswho easily shied away from corporatefights in pursuit of inclusive economy.

The IOL website reported in 2010

TECHNOLOGY

SELLOMASHAORASETHABA

transformation and exorbitant execu-tive pay". Molefe clashed with Shop-rite management over chief executiveWhitey Basson'sR59 million pay pack-age.This was during the negotiationsof amanagement buyout by Brait Pri-vate Capital."

In 2009, the PIC voted againstthe Mapitso consortium's participa-tion in Tiger Brand's black economicempowerment deal, becausethe groupcomprised current and former non-executive directors of the company.

In 2007, the PIC took on Barlow-orld over the lack of transformation atthe company. They gave notice thatthe PIC would be taking a closer lookat how executive remuneration levelswere determined at the companies inwhich the PIC had invested.

The PIC had complained that Bar-loworld had never had a black exec-utive director. At the AGM, WarrenClewlow also announced that IsaacShongwe, a senior executive in thelogistics division, would become thechief executive of Barloworld LogisticsAfrica and would join Barloworld asanexecutive director.

Clewlow then said Shongwe, inhis capacity as the first black execu-tive director of the group, would also

have responsibility for empowerment,transformation and socialinvestment.

During those times the PIC sentout amessageto listed companies that"companies that are not transformedasthey should be, should take actionthemselves rather than waiting theirturn for us to engage them." The PICruffled feathers.This is the role that weexpect the PIC to play in companiesthey have invested in.

AYO and the defence industryBusiness from the African Union isvery important for AYO, because ofcontinuing defence budget cuts inSouth Africa.

On July 17, 2019, the IOL websitereported that Defence and MilitaryVeterans Minister Nosiviwe Mapi-sa-Nqakula said the defence budgetcuts were making the South AfricanNational Defence Force (SANDF) moreunsustainable.

Briefing the media ahead of herbudget vote speech, Mapisa-Nqakulasaid the department had been con-tinuously forced to adjust its plansdownwards in responseto the declin-ing budget.

"The defence force is becomingprogressively more unsustainable intermsof declining defenceallocations.We have now reached the point wherethe Republic must decide on the kindof defence force it wants and what itcan afford," she said.

In the upcoming AYO AGM, oneof the highlights will be discussingthe investment it made in GlobalCommand and Control Technologies(GCT) in March 2017.

GCT is a leading technology pro-vider for enabled awarenesssolutionsacross the commercial, security andmilitary domains for the past20 years.

Its solutions include assetand forcetracking across the globe (land, airor maritime); integrated situationalawarenesspictures to supportmanag-ers, leaders and commanders to makeinformed and timeous decisions; con-structive simulation technology to doplanning, optimisation and rehearsalfrom ground level to mission HQs,operations centresand war rooms.

African Equity EmpowermentInvestments together with AYO nowhold 100 percent of the shares in thenew company, called GCT.

GCT has existed in various formssince 1982, when it was moved outof the then Andromeda (state-owned)into the Altech Group as the firstphase of establishment of a nationalcommand and control strategy of theSANDF.

AYO is working hard to find busi-nessopportunities offering itsproductsand competence and is looking atAfrican Union (AU) possibilities.

In 2019, the AU awarded the "Pro-vision of command, control, com-munication and information for TaskForce MNJTFE (Multi-National JointTask Force)" to Saab Grintek withdevelopment aid from the EU. Saabdivested the Command Control Train-ing & Simulation business from itssubsidiary, Saab Grintek Defence inSouth Africa.

On August 1, 2016, the EuropeanCommission issued a statement onthe Joint Communiqué by FedericaMogherini, EU High Representativeand vice-president of the commission;Neven Mimica, EU Commissionerfor International Co-operation andDevelopment; and Smail Chergui, AUCommissioner for Peaceand Security.

The agreementwasabouta€50 mil-lion (R939.5m) support from the EU's

"African PeaceFacility" to the MNJTEIt was also stated that the supportwill allow for the construction andmaintenance of MNJTFEheadquartersin Ndjamena, Chad, aswell asof sectorheadquarters in Cameroon and Niger.

The aid would also provide trans-port and communication assets tothe force headquarters, allowing foreffective co-ordination and commandof military operations. These assets,including vehicles, aerial transporta-tion and reconnaissance capacities anda command, control, communicationand information system, would putthe central command in a position toco-ordinate operations among troopcontributing countries in their respec-tive territories.

President Cyril Ramaphosa onassumingthe chair of the AU for 2020in an acceptancespeechsaidit wasthetask for all African countries to buildan Africa that was prosperous and atpeacewith itself.

He further said that African coun-tries must strive to deepen the unityof the continent and advance "inclu-sive economic growth and sustainabledevelopment".

The investment by AYO in GCTwill play a significant role in thatregard. One of the Flagship Projectsof AU's Agenda 2063 is "Silencing theguns by 2020."

To achieve the goals of Agenda2063, Africa needs to work towardsending all wars, civil conflicts, gen-der-based violence, violent conflictsand preventing genocide.

SelloMashaoRasethaba is a directorof bothAYO TechnologySolutionsand Global Command and ControlTechnologiesand writes in hispersonalcapacity.