OWN CORRESPONDENT and LUCIA MUTIKANI, Pretoria | Thursday 8.00pm
LABOUR Minister Membathise Mdladlana said on Thursday that government will have to consider the human cost of restructuring parastatals and decide how far it is prepared to push the process.
Mdladlana said his department has along been examining the impact of privatisation, and has produced a report on the issue. Earlier in the day government pledged to speed up the privatisation of state assets in the next five years, but would not be drawn into setting any targets.
Public Enterprises Minister Jeff Radebe said that the framework for the sale of state enterprises has been laid by the previous government, and that the new administration is now prepared to take this plan forward.
”The coming five years of ANC-led government under President Thabo Mbeki will see a lot of activity and acceleration of the restructuring of state assets,” said Radebe. However, he said that no target had been set for the disposal of the enterprises, which boast an asset base estimated at more than R150-billion.
Radebe, who in his first month in charge of the public enterprises ministry has overseen the selection of a management partner for the Post Office, said that the government is carrying out an evaluation of the past five years. ”We are going to be coming up with a business plan that will chart the way forward on how the restructuring of state assets in South Africa is going to be accelerated,” he said.
Since 1996, government has sold a 30% stake in telecommunications parastatal Telkom to SBC International and Telekom Malaysia. It has also partly privatised the Airports Company of South Africa (Acsa) with the sale of 20% to Aeroporti Di Roma, and has disposed of a 20% stake in South African Airways (SAA) to Swissair for R1,4-billion.
Last week, the government selected a consortium of New Zealand Post and Britain’s Royal Mail for a three-year management partnership with the Post Office. — Reuters