PRESIDENT Jacob Zuma is to chair a new overarching body to oversee state-owned enterprises (SOEs).
Minister in the Presidency Jeff Radebe told the media in a post-cabinet briefing yesterday they wanted SOEs to ramp up growth in the economy.
He said the structure was similar to the Presidential Infrastructure Co-ordinating Commission (PICC), which is chaired by Zuma.
The PICC oversees all major infrastructure projects in the country and fast-tracks them.
Radebe said Zuma would also oversee this new body on SOEs, to be called the Presidential SOE Co-ordinating Council.
He said the current interministerial committee on SOEs, led by Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, would continue to oversee the 13 SOEs.
He said this was not part of a plan to clip the wings of Ramaphosa as he would continue to do his work on the entities.
The decision was taken at the three-day cabinet lekgotla last week.
“A decision has been made that the president will chair the SOE Co-ordinating Council,” said Radebe.
“The interministerial committee chaired by the deputy president is the one working on this matter, so there is no vote of no confidence in the deputy president,” said Radebe.
SOEs were involved in major projects in the country and the co-ordinating council, under Zuma, would be able to intervene on those requiring urgent attention.
Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan has criticised some of the SOEs for a poor financial performance in the past.
In his Budget in February, Gordhan warned that he would no longer be giving SOEs bailouts.
He said in the past 15 years the state has spent R457 billion in bailouts on SOEs.
The cabinet last year also called on SOEs to improve their financial performance.
With the PICC, the government identifies mega projects that would ignite growth in the economy.
It also helps in speeding up the implementation of the projects.
Minister of Economic Development Ebrahim Patel said last year it takes up to 12 years before a project could be implemented.
This was because of the bottlenecks in the system of government.
However, the PICC has cut the bottlenecks and was fast-tracking the infrastructure projects. The time from conceptualisation of the project to implementation was now short, making a positive impact in the economy.
The review of SOEs has been in the making for some time.
The bill on the shareholder management of SOEs was on its way to Parliament, with the national legislature expected to deal with it soon.