Jaspreet Kindra The Department of Public Enterprises is showing
extraordinary sensitivity about possible leaks of its latest policy document on privatisation – the cause of tension between the government and its union allies.
The department this week threatened to search the bags of people, when two copies of the still- confidential document circulated at a meeting in Johannesburg on Tuesday went missing. The meeting was held under the auspices of the National Economic, Development and Labour Council (Nedlac). Departmental officials had given out a designated number of copies of the document to participants at the Nedlac meeting, sources said. Officials called for the return of the copies after the briefing. The document went through the Cabinet on Wednesday. The main focus of the document is to provide a legal, commercial and regulatory framework for restructuring. As such, it could have a far-reaching effect on the future of the government’s plans to restructure state-owned companies. The document’s launch, scheduled for this week after several other delays, has been postponed to August 10. There has been speculation that the delay is a result of the Congress of South African Trade Unions’s (Cosatu) disagreement with the proposals contained in the document. But department officials sought to “set the record straight” this week. They said the delay instead had been caused as Minister of Public Enterprises Jeff Radebe will be available only next month.
According to Business Report on Tuesday, the government said it was not anticipating any industrial action by Cosatu arising out of the policy document. Government officials were quoted as saying this was because Cosatu had been allowed to make an input. Cosatu economist Neva Makgetla said potential differences remained. But she refused to elaborate on the differences. There have been public disagreements between Cosatu and the government on retrenchments in Transnet and Telkom. Last month Cosatu called for a moratorium on further public- sector restructuring until the government had renegotiated the terms of the process with it. About 24 000 parastatal jobs have been lost in the past 18 months.