South Africa's newly installed Public Enterprises Minister Barbara Hogan came under intense fire on Thursday for her suggestion earlier in the week that unprofitable State-owned businesses should possibly be privatised.

Both the chair of Parliament's portfolio committee on public enterprises, Mabel Mentor, and the general secretary of one of the country's most powerful trade unions, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) Frans Baleni, indicated that Hogan had overstepped the mark.

In an interview with Engineering News Online, Mentor said that she had been "upset" about the manner in which the matter, what she indicated amounted to a "major policy shift", had been raised.

She said that Hogan had not canvassed the privatisation option within African National Congress (ANC) structures, nor within the portfolio committee itself, as had been suggested in earlier media reports. Instead, the matter had been raised independently in discussions with the media.

"There was no consultation on the issue. This is a policy shift and therefore it cannot be entertained without proper consultation," Mentor averred.

While she indicated the committee's willingness to "engage" with changes in policy, she argued that Hogan needed to use the correct channels and, in this instance, needed to explain her statement.

Hogan's office would not immediately comment on the matter, indicating only that they might issue a statement on Friday.

In its strongly worded statement, the NUM said that it was "dismayed" and "perturbed" by Hogan's suggestion that some State-owned enterprises could be sold off.

Hogan was quoted on Tuesday as having questioned the wisdom of continued State ownership of unprofitable businesses. Her comments were immediately seen as a signal of a shift in policy and welcomed by the opposition Democratic Alliance, whose public enterprises spokesperson, Manie van Dyk, was quoted as describing Hogan's approach as "a breath of fresh air".

But the union argued that the Minister's stance was in direct contradiction with "the progressive policies" of the governing ANC, which remained in alliance with the South Africa Communist Party (SACP) and the Congress of South Africa Trade Unions (Cosatu), to which the NUM is affiliated.

The union went so far as to suggest that Hogan's utterances reflected a "bias" towards the opposition's agenda. And, in a thinly veiled threat to her position, Belani suggested that it would be "difficult for her to implement what she does not believe" and that she should "find an appropriate platform and vehicle which is in tune with her remarks and ideology".

The union argued that the disposal of State-owned enterprises would be in opposition to the "developmental goals" adopted at the ANC's Polokwane conference.

At the conference, held in December 2007, Jacob Zuma, now President of South Africa, ousted the then party and country President, Thabo Mbeki. In the preceding power struggle, Zuma had been strongly backed by Cosatu and the SACP.

Baleni said that Hogan should be called to order and should "refrain from her tendencies" - referring obliquely to the fact that Hogan, who had previously and successfully occupied the position of Health Minister, had once before contradicted government policy by calling it to apologise for refusing the Dalai Lama a visa to attend a peace conference that was meant to take place in March.

A clearly angry Mentor was only slightly more conciliatory, pointing out that Ministers were political heads of departments and, as such, should implement government policy and be accountable to Parliament.

"We regard State-owned enterprises as key in the country's economic growth . . . and it would then be folly of us to sell these enterprises merely because they're facing challenges," Mentor averred.

Government should rather help struggling parastatals to manage their way through their problems.

But Hogan's comments received support from Business Unity South Africa (Busa), which said it welcomed "the opening of this important debate on the role of public corporations".

"Given the changed economic circumstances in South Africa resulting from the global recession, Busa believes that the present tough economic conditions do require a fresh look at the functioning and efficiency of State enterprises on a case-by-case basis," the organisation said in a statement.

It called for enhanced competition and the interrogation of different business models, saying that debate around the future role of State corporations should be driven by "pragmatism" and not "dogmatism".