Public enterprises minister Malusi Gigaba wants all parastatals to be brought under his department to drive economic growth, he told the Sunday Times at the weekend.
His department currently controlled eight parastatals, including SAA, Transnet, Eskom and Denel. With the exception of Broadband Infraco, technology-focused state-owned enterprises, including Sentech, fell under the department of communications.
If his plan went through, he would also control the Development Bank of Southern Africa, the Public Investment Corporation, which managed government pensions, the Post Office, Telkom (in which the state had a direct 40% stake), the SABC and the Industrial Development Corporation.
State-owned enterprises (SOE) were key to SA’s development and to fulfilling the ANC government’s vision of a developmental state focused on growth, he told the paper.
“If you were to take this option of having a specialist stakeholder manager you would then have to take (SOE) from other departments, but it does not impact that much on their mandate because some of them, their principal mandate is policy making and not shareholder development,” he was quoted as saying.
Parastatals must be at the centre of economic growth, and a legislative framework could be set up to govern them, he said. — Sapa
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