Johannesburg - South Africa's ruling African National Congress (ANC) needed to come up with effective tools to hold people it deploys to government accountable, especially at state-owned enterprises (SOEs), the party's Legislature and Governance Commission proposed on Wednesday.
''Regarding MPs [Members of Parliament], MPLs [Members of provincial legislatures], councillors in [local] government and matters relating to corruption... especially in state enterprises, the incoming NEC should develop an accountability framework for the deployees of the ANC so that people are held accountable in respect of their responsibilities. The executive authority responsible for ensuring that governance is taking place should do so...all SOE's have executive authorities - which are the ministers,'' said commission member and ANC regional chairman in Johannesburg, Parks Tau.
''So the starting point is to implement an accountability framework. The same applies to MPs, MPLs and local councillors.''
State-owned companies such as Eskom, Denel, South African Airways and the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa are marred by allegations of corruption, lack of good governance and wasteful expenditure running into billions of rands. Allegations of "capturing" (a term meaning the plundering of state resources by individuals and groups) of state-owned enterprises by friends of President Jacob Zuma, the Gupta family and their associates, led Parliament to establish an inquiry into Eskom.
The inquiry will resume in January when more people implicated in the "state capture" scandal, including suspended Eskom chief financial officer Anoj Singh and Ajay Gupta, are expected to testify.