South Africa’s privatisation programme has been a disaster that has led to billions of rands in lost revenue, the Democratic Alliance said on Thursday.
Speaking during the public enterprises’ Budget debate in the National Assembly, the DA’s Rudi Heine said unnecessary delays, continual ambivalence, infighting within the tripartite alliance and ”excessive conditionality” had cost the country dearly.
”South Africa has lost out badly because of the slow and inappropriate process.
”Billions of rands have been lost as a result of government’s failure to implement a workable privatisation plan timeously.”
He said the listing of telecoms company, Telkom on the Johannesburg and New York bourses had raised the profile of the state’s privatisation programme.
The challenge ahead was not to lose momentum on the sale of other state assets.
Heine said South Africa should be privatising between R15-billion and R20-billion of public entities each year for the next five years.
New National Party public enterprises spokesman Willem Odendaal said unlike Argentina and Brazil, where proceeds from privatisation had fallen into a bottomless pit of state debt, South Africa had indeed benefited from its programme.
Wealth had been spread among all people, poverty was partly addressed, and much-needed development capital drawn from the private sector, benefiting the economy as a whole.
However, a ”climate of unpredictability” had impacted on economic growth and reduced the country’s investment potential.
Foreign investment decisions were affected by the government’s ”indifferent stance on the property rights debacle in Zimbabwe” and its ”murky governmental policy on HIV and Aids”, he said. – Sapa