Mungo Soggot
THE Central Energy Fund (CEF), which holds the state’s fuel assets, has quietl y limped into the new South Africa with the appointment of a new, far more rep resentative board.
The new players on a board that until recently was synonymous with the CEF’s s anctions-busting past, include what chairman Roy Pithey describes as a fair cr oss-section of academic, private and state sectors.
His new board includes black empowerment guru Don Mkhwanazi, Kayo Ngqula of No rwich Union Trust, Mojalefa Ralekhetho and Johan Basson of the Department of M ineral and Energy Affairs, black empowerment Coca-Cola bottler Keith Kunene, P rofessor Renosi Mokate of Pretoria University, andCoen Kruger of the Departmen t of Finance.
CEF repeatedly pushed for a new board during the reign of former mineral and e nergy affairs minister Pik Botha. It and Botha failed, despite the efforts of parliamentary committee chairman Marcel Golding. The changes are one of the mo re obvious achievements of Penuell Maduna, who took over from Botha last year, giving the portfolio more political clout.
Maduna has chosen to appoint the same board for all of the CEF group of compan ies, which includes Mossgas and the Strategic Fuel Fund, oil trader and manage r of South Africa’s strategic stockpile. Insiders say this could signal Maduna ‘s intention to rationalise the group, perhaps preparing parts of it for a sel l-off.