Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa. (Deon Raath)
- President Cyril Ramaphosa has assigned responsibility for state-owned companies to various members of his Cabinet.
- Transnet will go to Minister of Transport Barbara Creecy.
- Eskom will go to Minister of Electricity and Energy Kgosientsho Ramokgopa.
- For more financial news, go to the News24 Business front page
President Cyril Ramaphosa announced on Monday that he has assigned responsibility for state-owned companies previously housed in the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) to their policy departments.
This means that Minister of Transport Barbara Creecy will take on the shareholder responsibilities for Transnet and SAA; Minister of Electricity and Energy Kgosientsho Ramokgopa will take care of Eskom; Minister of Mineral and Petroleum Resources Gwede Mantashe will take responsibility for state diamond miner Alexkor, and Minister of Defence Angie Motshekga will take responsibility for state arms manufacturer Denel. Minister of the Forestry, Fisheries, and the Environment, Dion George, will take control of the SA Forestry Company.
In addition, certain sections of the Overvaal Resorts Limited Act of 1993 and Overvaal Resorts Limited Act Repeal Act of 2019 are vested with the Minister of Water and Sanitation.
However, these allocations are, to some extent, temporary, as some or perhaps all of these companies will be migrated into a new state-holding company once it is established. Minister in the Presidency Maropene Ramokgopa will table the National State Enterprises Bill in Parliament.
Ramaphosa said in a statement:
The bill will set out the exercise of shareholder responsibility for respective SOEs, which will be transferred in a phased manner into the envisaged national enterprise holding company.
The idea of a state holding company was proposed by former Minister of DPE Pravin Gordhan in the last administration and adopted as policy by Cabinet. In theory, it will enable the SOEs to be run commercially and raise capital through the state holding company.
However, before the individual companies can move to the holding company, they must be on a firm financial footing. This is not case for Eskom, Transnet, Denel or Alexkor. SAA is in the early stages of a recovery plan and needs to expand to be commercially viable.
Maropene Ramokgopa will also take on all the executive functions of the DPE, which is in the process of closing.
The DPE “will continue to exist and operate until the human and financial resources are transferred appropriately. This appointment empowers the Minister to exercise all relevant powers and functions concerning DPE under the Public Service Act of 1994 and the Public Finance Management Act of 1999,” reads the statement.
