Johannesburg -
Contradictions among the ANC top brass over the future of embattled power utility Eskom emerged on the sidelines of the party’s national executive committee (NEC) meeting on Saturday, with ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe maintaining the party had not taken a position on selling off parts of the state-owned enterprise.
According to Mantashe, the ANC would be open to discussion on the possibility of selling off parts of Eskom if this was proposed by the war room formed by President Jacob Zuma to implement a survival plan for the power utility.
Mantashe’s comments are at odds with those attributed to the ANC head of economic transformation, Enoch Godongwana, who this week maintained that an ANC lekgotla held last year had decided to sell off parts of Eskom.
Mantashe shot down suggestions that a decision had been made by the party.
“If the war room comes up with suggestions, we can only deal with that in as far as it implements the overall plan. There is no resolution or policy of the ANC which says ‘sell Eskom’, including all other state-owned enterprises. There is no such policy,” he said.
“But if, for example, the war room suggests that we look at the Chinese model, then it is an idea to look at. The Chinese option is where they take a portion of a state-owned enterprise and list it, but still keep the controlling stake of that institution.
“It’s an issue of discussion if it comes, but it is not coming to the NEC on Sunday.”
Earlier this week, Godongwana reportedly said the party had decided last year that portions of Eskom be sold to raise funds to deal with the utility’s financial problems.
The funds would be raised by selling a stake to pension fund entities, such as the Public Investment Corporation.
Suggestions that parts of Eskom should be sold off have raised the ire of the ANC’s alliance partners, who are vehemently opposed to any form of privatisation of the power utility.
SACP spokesman Alex Mashilo said the party had participated in the lekgotla and no such decision had been taken.
“The SACP rejects the privatisation of Eskom or any part of it, and will take action to confront such a move should it be implemented,” he said.
“The SACP also wishes to place it on record that the party has consistently been invited and has honoured all the invitations to participate in the ANC lekgotla meetings.
“While respecting the independence of the ANC to take its own decisions, there was never an ANC lekgotla that decided Eskom must be privatised.”
Cosatu has also rejected the possibility of selling off parts of Eskom, saying the nationalisation of strategic sectors of the economy like energy was the only viable option.
“The historical evolution of privatisation has many sad experiences in the eyes of the working class,” said spokesman Norman Mampane. “(It) resulted in massive job losses over many years.”
The ANC’s national working committee was scheduled yesterday to table a report dealing with organisational issues, including those in the party’s troubled eThekwini region.
The NEC was also to discuss the challenges it faced in the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality, where governance appeared to be collapsing.
The government recently took over the municipality’s human settlements department, and hopes to resolve problems relating to the provision of housing and sanitation.
According to Mantashe, the discussions following the presentation of a political report by Zuma had included the political crisis in Burundi.
Sunday Independent