Acres of room at the top
AN UNCOMFORTABLE feature of SA’s recent history is the severe underperformance of critical state institutions. Though corruption is often seen as the most problematic, another matter, that of leadership and strategic bungling, is often forgotten.
Some state-owned enterprises are at the cusp of what the African National Congress hopes to achieve in the future. Yet the manner in which the government has repeatedly allowed them to go on for months, and sometimes years, without clear leadership is astonishing.
The South African Revenue Service (SARS) has been without a commissioner since Oupa Magashula was forced to resign just more than a year ago. Quite why it has taken this long to appoint a permanent commissioner has never been credibly explained. That SARS has no serious problems is no excuse.
Then there is the perplexing case of the Land Bank. Phakamani Hadebe announced his departure months before actually doing so. To date a CEO is yet to be appointed. Again there is no explanation on why it has taken this long.
The Public Investment Corporation is in a similar fix. Former CEO Elias Masilela has been gone for months, and a replacement is nowhere in sight.
Eskom is provides no better news. Last year we knew that Brian Dames was not planning to stay beyond April. To date all we have is speculation on a possible CEO, but no appointment yet.
Government spin may point to the difficulty of finding suitable senior executives to take over these critical posts but this doesn’t hold water. All companies face challenges of executive succession and it is uncommon for private companies to go without heads for so long.
The delays point to a lack of proper succession planning, one of the key tasks of the boards appointed to oversee them. Either they don’t know what they are doing or they are being prevented from doing their work effectively.
Whatever the cause may be, the consequence of this vacillation is paralysis and uncertainty. We cannot place huge expectations on state-owned enterprises and then leave the most critical of them without leadership for so long.
The government’s ambition to reform itself and improve its performance will remain a pipe dream if this is allowed to continue.