The mandates of state-owned enterprises should not be tampered with, but the government must scrutinise their efficiency, Deputy Minister of Public Enterprises Enoch Godongwana told the Mail & Guardian this week.
In an exclusive interview this week, Godongwana shot down ANC treasurer Mathews Phosa’s recent proposal that parastatals move away from being run along business lines so that they could more effectively contribute to the state’s developmental priorities.
The role of parastatals has sparked raging debate because of their inefficiency and instability, and because of fierce battles for their control being waged among opposing forces in the ruling party and alliance partners.
“Most parastatals have been established with a specific purpose,” Godongwana told the M&G. “To say we need to change their mandate will not help. The question is whether they are up to standard to deliver on their mandate.
“Our focus should not be about developing new policies, but to look at the constraints that prevent parastatals from performing well.”
Speaking at an ANC dinner in Queenstown in the Eastern Cape last week, Phosa reportedly said the resolutions taken at the ANC’s elective conference in Polokwane in 2007 clearly indicated that parastatals could no longer reflect the pre-1994 status quo.
“In my view, the time has come for us to create a special vehicle within the family of state-owned enterprises that focuses its attention on the health and education sectors with a view towards improving quality, but also skills and jobs,” Phosa said at the dinner.
Godongwana countered calls from the South African Communist Party to institute a full forensic audit into all parastatals, saying the government was yet to receive any compelling argument to warrant this.
“An assumption [out there] is that there has not been any forensic audit. In which areas do we want this forensic audit?” asked Godongwana, who also serves as a member of the ANC’s economic development subcommittee.
President Jacob Zuma’s administration has been under pressure in recent months to act on some of the underperforming parastatals that have cost taxpayers millions of rands.
Opposition parties and the labour movement have also accused parastatal bosses of using the state-owned entities to enrich themselves, their friends and families.
Such perceptions were sharpened this week when the Sunday Times reported that former Eskom chief executive Jacob Maroga was suing the utility for R85-million, made up of income and other benefits he claims he has lost by the early termination of his contract.
Maroga’s case against Eskom has prompted several parliamentarians to call on Cabinet to put an end to the looting of parastatals by Âimposing a cap on the salaries of senior executives.
The Democratic Alliance has calculated that payouts made to failed and departed parastatal chief executives in recent years have cost taxpayers at least R262-million.
“We need to look at what the appropriate compensation is, depending on the complexity of [chief executives’] work,” Godongwana said. “You can’t put all of them on one scale. We need to be very careful about that.”
He hinted that the government was considering privatising some parastatals’ assets. “We are on record that we want someone to buy [Eskom’s] Kusile power station in Witbank. We are not religious about that,” said Godongwana.