Cape Town - More than two years after the government announced a plan to restructure struggling state-owned companies, a business case about how the restructuring plan will be done has now been deferred to the next financial year.
In addition to that, the department has not implemented a “corporate agreement” to reduce infrastructure vandalism.
The Department of Public Enterprises’ (DPE) plan to restructure ailing state-owned entities is still in its infancy stages and the process will thus be completed in the next financial year, DPE acting director-general Jacky Molisane told MPs.
This comes as the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa, n and other problems.
The DPE and state-owned entities appeared before the portfolio committee to deliver their mid-year performance report.
DPE Minister Pravin Gordhan’s absence from the meeting frustrated DA MP Ghaleb Cachalia, who accused the minister of being nowhere to be found when serious issues were discussed.
Molisane said a business case is being developed to support the Presidential State-Owned Enterprises Council to restructure troubled government companies.
In June 2020, President Cyril Ramaphosa appointed the council to “to support government reposition state owned enterprises as effective instruments of economic transformation and development”, according to the presidency’s website.
Molisane said the consultation process on the business case is in the consultation phase and has been deferred to 2023/24.
She said the department had failed to achieve its target to implement a signed agreement to reduce infrastructure vandalism.
Molisane said catch-up plans were in place to improve on this.
The DPE is also concerned about how the department was perceived and Molisane said they were attempting to “improve” how the public perceives it.
She said the department had seen a 30% improvement in this regard.
ANC MP Judith Tshabalala said the DPE seemed detached to the ANC’s transformation agenda.
“(Transformation) is not happening across the board.”
Cachalia said: “Perhaps we can look into how many times the minister has been present in this meeting on SOEs that are gobbling up money.”