Cape Town - President Jacob Zuma pledged an effective and objective review of the country's embattled state-owned enterprises (SOEs), but added that the appointment of ANC cadres into prominent positions at these institutions would continue.
Answering questions in parliament about parastatals, Zuma said the review would not lead to the scrapping of cadre deployment which government critics said weakened businesses such as Transnet, Eskom and arms manufacturer Denel.
South Africa's travails with its parastatals are well documented, with leadership vacuums existing at Eskom and Transnet. Both groups have been operating without a permanent CEO for months.
Zuma said ANC cadres, who were always deployed to positions on merit, could not be precluded from senior appointments in SOEs just because they were members of the ANC.
Commenting on an inter-ministerial review of parastatals, reported in newspaper Business Day earlier in March, Zuma said his office will coordinate a two-pronged approach that would culminate in a "united government position" on how SOEs should function and be regulated.
"The two processes will be complementary and will culminate in a single report," said Zuma, who added that the report would be tabled in cabinet when complete. Depending on what the report contains, he said, it may or may not be tabled in parliament for debate.
The first part of the review would be undertaken internally under the leadership of an inter-ministerial committee co-chaired by Public Enterprises Minister Barbara Hogan and Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan.
This leg of the review will make recommendations on how government can find a better alignment between the state's strategic objectives and the role parastatals play in the economy. It will also find ways to make sure the country has infrastructure and electricity ahead of demand.
It would find an effective and transparent regulatory process for public enterprises, as well as a way to ensure they are properly skilled.
The second leg of the review, said Zuma, would be conducted by an independent panel that would add "objectivity" to the review.
Although he is still drawing up the terms of reference for this panel, he said it would focus on governance matters well as prevalent planning and decision-making issues.
Zuma said this was in line with the main thrust of his state of the nation speech, which indicated a "new outcomes approach" to government and a "new way of doing things to speed up delivery and change the way government worked".
- Fin24.com