Minister Brown says no to privatisations
PUBLIC Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown yesterday sent out an unequivocal signal that key parastatals would not be privatised.
But the government was finalising a concept paper for the management of state entities that would be ready by year-end.
Ms Brown has also written to Transnet’s board, asking it to start the process of appointing a new CEO and chief financial officer. She said Transnet had senior leaders who could become CEO, but the board had the option of searching for an external candidate.
The minister said she was no longer going for the usual suspects to occupy board seats at stateowned entities as most were simply being recycled.
Her anti-privitisation stance effectively puts to rest any prospect of mixed ownership for stateowned entities, especially struggling utility Eskom, which recently received a multibillion-rand government bailout.
This may also be a sign that the minister has confidence in Eskom CEO Brian Molefe’s ability to turn around the utility’s fortunes.
“I don’t want privatisation, not for basic services anyway,” Ms Brown told delegates at the Black Management Forum conference.
“We won’t know what the price of electricity is and how a poor woman from Kuruman will be able to pay for that electricity (if Eskom is in private hands),” she said.
Ms Brown’s statements are in stark contrast to remarks made by Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa at the National Council of Provinces last month that “everything is open to being looked at”.
Mr Ramaphosa heads an interministerial committee that will make recommendations on the future of state-owned enterprises.
At the time, the deputy president said: “We are seriously engaged in the process of looking at how best state-owned companies can operate. China has been able to list portions of its state-owned companies on the stock exchange. We can learn from it.”
Ms Brown said that, at this stage, mixed ownership of Eskom would not be discussed.
She pointed to the fact that the utility had extended electricity services to the wider population.
She also cited “58 days without load shedding” as a sign that Eskom was recovering.
Ms Brown asked why black professionals snubbed state entities. “If you are not part of the 67,000 people at Transnet or the 47,000 at Eskom, why are you not there? Why is the forum not there?”
Black Management Forum president Bonang Mohale said the forum accepted the minister’s management challenge. “Minister Brown is correct. We can’t call ourselves the black intelligentsia and not ask what we can do for the country,” he said. “We want to be a trusted adviser to the government, as well as a partner of choice.”