Madeleine Wackernagel
THE appointment of Khaya Ngqula, managing director of Norwich Unit Trusts, as chief executive officer of the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) has raised eyebrows among the labour constituency, which is due to present its report on restructuring the IDC this week.
Says an insider close to the investigation: “The timing of this announcement, coming just before we were due to present our recommendations, is very, very strange. And so soon after the temporary appointment of Jan de Bruyn [now confirmed as deputy chief executive officer] to the position, too.”
The labour movement, represented by National Labour and Economic Development Institute, which commissioned the report, is keen to see the IDC’s emphasis move away from funding mega-infrastructure projects to meeting developmental objectives.
The IDC should no longer act as personal banker to the big conglomerates, says one analyst; the emphasis must now be on boosting the manufacturing sector, as well as the services industry, including tourism. The overwhelming majority, 84%, of the IDC’s expenditure goes on large beneficiation projects, sometimes of “questionable value”.
But the news two weeks ago that Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Minister Alec Erwin was initiating a shake-up at the corporation seemed to signal a major shift in government policy towards the IDC.
“Trevor Manuel [former DTI minister] was quite happy to let the corporation carry on as before. But now that Erwin is in charge, we’re seeing a huge change. Hopefully, that will extend to a new mandate for the corporation and a transformation along the lines of the one successfully completed at the Development Bank of Southern Africa,” says an analyst.
The appointment of an outsider to head up the transformation of the IDC would seem to underline the need to defuse the political battle being played out between the old and new guards.
Ngqula, whose directorates include Worldwide Africa Investment Holdings, the Mineworkers Investment Company and Mintek, will have his work cut out for him. But insiders believe this move is a good start to resolving the conflict and putting the IDC on a new path.