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The Board of the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) has taken note of articles published by the media, one of them titled: "Strong push to block Gupta bid to hijack PIC".

These articles appear to infer that PIC directors have been captured by the Gupta family and are being used to remove the CEO, Dr Daniel Matjila. The Board takes serious exception to these frivolous allegations that lack truth and substance.

In our view, these articles which offer no evidence of any of the directors or the board as a whole being linked to the Gupta family, can only be meant to taint the image of the PIC Board and cast aspersions on the board members’ independence. We challenge the media to provide us with evidence that links any of the members of the PIC Board with the Gupta family.

Despite petty rumour mongering and unfounded allegations or inferences being made against the board of directors, we remain resolute to fulfilling our fiduciary responsibilities independently, without fear or favour and as guided by the law.

We remind the media that the PIC board has 10 independent non-executive members, three of them were appointed by the former Minister of Finance, Pravin Gordhan, in 2014 and reappointed this year. Five of the directors were appointed by former Minister Nhlanhla Nene. It is also public knowledge that only two new directors were appointed by the current Minister of Finance to replace those whose term had expired at the end of March 2017.

Issued by the PIC Board