Riyaz Patel
State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) constitute a key part of South Africa’s national life and are central to the country’s developmental and economic agenda, Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan said introducing his budget vote in Parliament Thursday.
He said the reform of SOEs is part of a broader agenda of structural reforms in our country and the department has, to date, gathered some 3000 forensic reports from SOEs.
“So far, an estimated R600 million has been identified as due to the state,” Gordhan said.
He added: “Over the last 18 months, we’ve increasingly understood the deep damage that has been visited upon these institutions, and the far reaching consequences of state capture for the economy.”
The minister then shed some light on Eskom.
Gordhan said the Minister of Finance, Tito Mboweni, will soon introduce a special Appropriations Bill as a short term intervention in seeking to stabilize the financial situation at the state-owned power utility.
He added that a draft White Paper detailing government’s approach to the unbundling of Eskom, as well strategies to manage its “unsustainable” debt burden, is being prepared and should be finalised within weeks.
Turning to the scourge of corruption, Gordhan said “the time for prosecutions has come.”
SOE boards must be increasingly accountable for the financial and operational performance and re-positioning of these entities, Gordhan said.
There needs to be more action taken by the Asset Forfeiture Unit to “freeze the accounts of people who are culpable of theft from the state and seize the assets that they bought with stolen money,” the minister added.
