<\/p>\n
Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan said his department was working with the Presidential State-owned Enterprises Council (PSEC) to identify entities that should be rationalised or disposed of.<\/p>\n
Gordhan said the department was also developing legislation that will govern the SOEs with the PSEC.<\/p>\n
\u201cPresident Cyril Ramaphosa mandated the department, together with the members of the Presidential State-Owned Enterprises Council appointed in June 2020, to support the government in repositioning state-owned enterprises (SOEs) as effective instruments of economic transformation and development.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis work entails strengthening the framework governing SOEs through, among other initiatives, the introduction of an overarching Act governing SOEs, and the determination of an appropriate shareholder ownership model,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He was responding to parliamentary questions from EFF MP Omphile Maotwe who asked whether his department had lived up to its mandate of championing and directing the restructuring of SOEs to ensure their optimal economic and developmental impact.<\/p>\n
Gordhan said Ramaphosa had in his 2022 State of the Nation Address announced that the government will adopt a centralized shareholder model for its key commercial SOEs.<\/p>\n
The minister also said preparatory work was underway this year to establish a state-owned holding company that will house strategic SOEs and exercise coordinated shareholder oversight.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe department is developing legislation in conjunction with the council.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe South African State-Owned Companies Bill will undergo a coordinated consultative process within government and stakeholders,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe department is also working closely with PSEC work streams to identify SOEs that will be retained, consolidated, rationalized and\/or disposed of.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis work will continue through the 2023-24 financial year. \u201c Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana was quoted earlier this week as saying South Africa probably has far too many SOEs considering its finances.<\/p>\n
Godongwana would not say which state-owned entities would be scrapped.<\/p>\n
According to Gordhan, the work being undertaken by the SOEs falling under his department on their contributions to economic and developmental outcomes was continuing.<\/p>\n
SAA, which has been in operation for 21 months after exiting the business rescue process after 16 months, was expected to report a profit in the 2022-\/23 financial year.<\/p>\n
Gordhan said private sector partner, Takatso Aviation, has been identified to provide SAA with a capital injection.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is anticipated that this partnership will promote SAA\u2019s ability to service both the domestic and regional markets, which will have significant spin-offs for both the domestic and regional economies,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Gordhan also said his department was implementing the restructuring of Eskom, which will be divided into the independent entities, generation, transmission, and distribution.<\/p>\n
The National Transmission Company of South Africa was created as a subsidiary of Eskom and a decision was awaited for a license application from the National Energy Regulator of South Africa to begin trading.<\/p>\n
The National Electricity Distribution Company of South Africa was registered in November 2022 and work is underway to establish legal separation of the company.<\/p>\n
\u201cEskom has finalised the due diligence report for the establishment of the new Generation Company of South Africa,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The minister said defence arms manufacturer Denel has made notable progress in terms of restructuring.<\/p>\n
\u201cDenel has appointed a chief restructuring officer to enable Denel to develop its strategic restructuring plan focused on the operational and balance sheet restructuring.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gordhan also said his department was undertaking an in-depth analysis of Alexkor\u2019s diamond assets in order to identify an appropriate model that will ensure the state derives maximum value and benefit from ownership of its diamond assets.<\/p>\n
The government was also developing a Transnet Roadmap that included the restructuring of Transnet Freight Rail.<\/p>\n
This was in order to create a separate infrastructure manager for the rail network by October.<\/p>\n
Cape Times<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan said his department was working with the Presidential State-owned Enterprises Council (PSEC) to identify entities that should be rationalised or disposed of. Gordhan said the department was also developing legislation that will govern the SOEs with the PSEC. \u201cPresident Cyril Ramaphosa mandated the department, together with the members of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[2702,10234,14665,12197],"class_list":["post-186551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-politics","tag-focus","tag-gordhan","tag-rationalised","tag-soes"],"yoast_head":"\n