President Cyril Ramaphosa's reappointment of David Masondo as the deputy finance minister means he will also likely continue to lead the board of the Public Investment Corporation.

Listen to this article 4 min Listen to this article 4 min The reappointment of David Masondo as the deputy finance minister will likely pave the way for him to continue serving as the Public Investment Corporation's (PIC's) board chair.

The PIC is a state-owned asset management firm which, as of March 2023, managed investments worth R2.59-trillion on behalf of its clients -- the biggest being the Government Employees' Pension Fund.

The PIC is the largest investor on the JSE and a big backer of the debt of state-owned enterprises such as Eskom and Transnet, with a view of generating financial returns to pay out, among other things, the pension savings of public servants and other benefits.

Historically (since about 1994), it has been a tradition at the PIC to appoint the deputy finance minister as the board chair. However, the tradition is now built into law after Rampahosa signed the PIC Amendment Act in 2021, legalising the appointment of deputy finance ministers to be at the helm of the PIC's governance affairs. This drew fierce criticism, with some arguing that it compromised the PIC's independence and gave politicians too much power over the entity.

A year before Ramaphosa signed...