Sekunjalo Investment Holdings (parent company of African Equity Empowerment Investments) is a South Africa-based private equity firm specializing in acquisitions, PIPEs, and buyouts. It has principal operations in publishing, Internet, fishing, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, telecommunication, financial services, aquaculture, biotechnology, enterprise development, events management, travel. The company was founded by Iqbal Survé and three others in 1996 with the aim of investing and assisting black-owned businesses. Sekunjalo has been involved in the Qatargate corruption scandal in the European Parliament after the Sekunjalo Development Foundation donated €250,000 to the lobbying group Fight Impunity which is accused of bribery.
In April 2015 all of Sekunjalo's investments except its 55% ownership in Independent Media SA was spun-off into a new company, still owned by Sekunjalo Investments, known as African Equity Empowerment Investments (AEEI).
The company is currently facing allegations of corruption and misappropriation of funds from the state-controlled Public Investment Corporation which manages assets on behalf of the Government Employees Pension Fund, leading major banks to cut ties.
In January 2024, the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) announced that AEEI, as well as its sister company and former subsidiary AYO Technology Solutions, faced possible suspension from the JSE for failing to submit annual financial statements within the stipulated 4-month period.
In February 2024, AEEI shareholders voted to delist from the JSE. The termination of being listed on the JSE was effective on 16 April 2024. As of March 2026, a court judgment ordered Sekunjalo to pay R459 million to a clothing workers union pension fund after it found that Survé had misrepresented terms of a loan contract adjustment and failed to repay the loan.
Founding Sekunjalo was founded in 1996 by Iqbal Survé, Mohammed Kajee and two others. Three of the founding members sold their shares, with only Survé remaining as the founding shareholder.
In 2006, Sekunjalo subsidiary Bioclones (trading as Genius Biotherapeutics) received an investment of US$5.3 million from BioPAD, the South African Department of Science and Technology's research innovation centre.
African Equity Empowerment Investments In April 2015, Sekunjalo Investments Limited (SIL) was renamed, African Equity Empowerment Investments (AEEI) to avoid confusion with its parent company, Sekunjalo Investment Holdings (SIH). SIH became a privately held company whilst AEEI took Sekunjalo's publicly traded status on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) trading under the ticker AEE. The ownership of subsidiaries was restructured so as to "better reflect the underlying businesses and investments of the Group going forward and to differentiate from the private holding company." Founder Iqbal Survé stepped down from managing all investments held by AEEI so as to focus on the company's media holdings.
Premier Fishing In August 2023, AEEI's subsidiary Premier Fishing Ltd delisted from the JSE after a six-year stint on Africa's largest stock exchange. This followed the sale by the government-controlled PIC of its entire 20% stake in Premier Fishing back to the company at a steep loss.
Delisting and threat of suspension from stock exchange In October 2023, AEEI announced its intention to delist citing "costs and administrative burden associated with a listing" no longer being warranted following the sale of its stake in former subsidiary and sister company AYO Technology Solutions.
AEEI announced a sharp fall in net assets in December 2023 following the unbundling of AYO Technology Solutions and an alleged cybercrime hit with ZAR 15 million being transferred out of a subsidiary company's bank accounts. According to AEEI, the crime was reported to SAPS and one or more employees may face criminal charges.
AEEI and its former subsidiary AYO Technology Solutions, both subsidiaries of Sekunjalo Investment Holdings, faced suspension from the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) due to both companies' failure to submit their annual financial statements. AYO was previously fined for 6.5 million rand by the JSE.
In February 2024, AEEI shareholders unanimously voted to delist from the JSE. The final day of trading AEEI shares was set to 9 April 2024.
Directors censured Five directors and former directors of AEEI and AYO Technology Solutions have been fined and censured by the JSE, including Survé's brother-in-law Khalid Abdulla. The first to be censured were Mbuso Khosa and Telang Ntsasa who served on AYO's Audit and Risk Committee. Khosa and Ntsasa were censured and banned from serving as JSE directors for publishing false and misleading annual financial statements. Abdul Malick Salie and Naahied Gamieldien, who both served as AYO's CFO at different times, were publicly censured and fined 250 000 rand for breaching the JSE's listing requirements. Khalid Abdulla was censured and fined two million rand for breaching listing requirements and for instructing a fellow director to adjust amounts in AYO's interim results. Abdulla appealed the censure but a judge of the High Court dismissed the appeal. Abdulla's fine was reduced to 1.2 million rand and he resigned as chairman and director of AYO Technology Solutions.
Independent Media Sekunjalo Independent Media Consortium is a privately owned and separately controlled segment company that is not directly related to the publicly listed African Equity Empowerment Investments segment of the Sekunjalo Investments parent company, however, Independent Media employees were transferred to the payroll of the JSE-listed AYO Technology Solutions, a subsidiary of both Sekunjalo Investment Holdings and AEEI.
Sekunjalo holds 55% ownership of Cape Town-based Independent News and Media South Africa (INMSA) with the remaining ownership made up of Chinese and Public Investment Corporation of South Africa (a South African government owned company). Two Chinese State Owned Enterprises (China International Television Corporation and the China Africa Development Fund) invested R400 million in the deal to acquire 20% of the Newspaper. The Public Investment Corporation of South Africa invested R500 million to acquire a 25% share. The purchase of the South African-based media group from Independent News and Media was concluded in August 2013 for €150-million (R2 billion). Sekunjalo Independent Media's 55% purchase of INMSA was largely funded by a loan from the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) and Government Employees Pension Fund. In an interview with journalist Mandy de Waal in the Daily Maverick, Survé rejected claims that the purchase was politically motivated, insisting that editorial independence would be protected through an advisory board, and argued that the deal was both commercially viable and part of a broader effort to expand black media ownership.
Unpaid loans In 2019 Sekunjalo claimed that the PIC and Sekunjalo had come to an amicable agreement for a debt-for-shares swop in 2018, while other sources reported that a large proportion of the PIC's investment in Sekunjalo were written off.
The South African Clothing and Textile Workers Union (SACTWU) has sued Sekunjalo Independent Media in the Western Cape High Court for failing to repay a loan of ZAR 150 million plus interest in aid of funding the purchase of the company from Tony O'Reiley. The PIC has also filed an application asking the court to liquidate Sekunjalo Independent Media.
On 26 March 2026, Sekunjalo Independent Media was ordered by the Supreme Court of Appeal to pay SACTWU an amount of R459 million, plus further interest and legal costs.
Editorial interference Survé has been accused of editorial interference at Independent Media and of using transformation to remove credible journalists and editors to replace them with others who write favourably about him and his businesses.
In August 2024, the Press Council found that Independent Media newspapers and news website IOL were being used to advance Sekunjalo's corporate interests. The ruling that ordered IOL to publiush an apology and remove a hate comment article against journalist Karyn Maughan. Surve's posts on X (formerly known as Twitter) were found to have compounded the harm to Maughan, where he had referred to her as a dog.
Retrenchments In 2023, Independent Media issued retrenchment notices to its staff for the fifth time since Sekunjalo's purchase of the news organisation. By October, at least a third of staff were let go off and the company failed to pay severance packages on time and instead issued grocery vouchers to the value of ZAR 2500 which initially were not loaded with any cash, forcing shoppers to abandon their groceries at the till.
At the end of 2023, Independent Media's CEO suddenly resigned after 16 months in the job prompting Survé to once again take up an executive role in the company.
Investments
Independent News and Media SA (55% ownership) Independent Online (South Africa) The Star (South Africa) Saturday Star Daily Voice (South African newspaper) Cape Times Cape Argus Weekend Argus Business Report Sunday Independent Pretoria News Weekend Pretoria News The Post Sunday Tribune (South Africa) The Mercury Daily News Diamond Fields Advertiser Isolezwe African News Agency
African Equity Empowerment Investments
Genius Biotherapeutics (Pty) Ltd: pharmaceutical research and production Ribotech: pharmaceuticals (cancer drugs) Sekpharma: vitamin supplements and other pharmaceutical products Wynberg Pharmaceuticals
AYO Technology Solutions
Premier Fishing: fishing Marine Growers (Atlantic Abalone): aquaculture - focus on abalone cultivation
AEEI has strategic investments in the following companies in South Africa: British Telecomms South Africa: a South African subsidiary of BT Group - not any longer SAAB South Africa: a South African subsidiary of SAAB Group Pioneer Foods: processed foods
AEEI has strategic investments in the following companies in South Africa: espAfrika: events management Enterprise Development: tourism services
Bank account closures
In 2021 and 2022, banks in South Africa issued notices indicating termination of banking services to the company. Absa, Investec and FNB all closed their accounts with Sekunjalo subsidiaries after the bad press and "reputational risk" that came with the Mpati report. The banks cited the high risk of doing business with the Sekunjalo Group following the publication of an inquiry by Judge Lex Mpati into irregularities at the Public Investment Corporation. The banks' decision in this regard has been fought vehemently by the Sekunjalo Group, most notably by means of a lawsuit in the country's Equality Court, which challenges the discriminatory tactics and dominance of the largest banks in South African's banking sector.
Sekunjalo and Survé have been accused of using newspapers owned by Independent Media and their online news website Independent Online to attack the banking sector as well as to publish articles biased in favour of Survé against the banks.
Equality Court case
On 18 December 2023, the Supreme Court of Appeal ruled that Nedbank's decision to terminate Sekunjalo's banking services was not based on unfair racial discrimination and that Sekunjalo Group had not provided any evidence in that regard on a prima facie basis.
Sekunjalo appealed to the Constitutional Court, which in September 2024 announced that Sekunjalo's appeal was "dismissed with costs as it bears no reasonable prospects of success". The Court's nine justices unanimously agreed that Sekunjalo had provided no evidence to support its allegations against Nedbank. Nedbank and other banks that were previously interdicted from closing Sekunjalo companies' bank accounts in the interim are now legally permitted to close the bank accounts of more than 200 Sekunjalo-linked companies.
Competition case