Pravin Gordhan listed economic growth, job losses, business failures, lower revenue and decreased investment as challenges facing South Africa. State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) were created to obviate this.  Instead, SOEs leech off the fiscus and contribute little to economic growth, job creation, industrialisation, transformation and investment.  In fact, the weak balance sheets and poor performance of SOEs pose a direct threat to our credit ratings.

The Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) has never been effective in oversight and governance. Despite spending 57% of its budget on salaries, it complains it’s unable to attract and retain skilled employees. It then has to spend a further 14% on Consultants.

Without a legislative mandate the Ministry cannot take remedial action against SOEs, other than change the Boards.   These Boards lack experience and expertise to provide the required leadership; they are also shuffled more often than a deck of cards, which creates instability.

In four years, not one of the thirty-one recommendations listed in the Presidential Review Committee report on the Reconstruction of State Owned Enterprises in South Africa has been implemented.  This ignominious delay is directly attributed to Number One: who hid it from us.

Rather than managing policy squabbles within the ANC, we need what Martin Luther King Jr. described as the fierce urgency of now.  Ratings agencies are paying close attention to how the anarchy within the ANC is affecting the reform of SOEs.

Both Minister Gordhan and Number One hinted at reform this year, but the fact is, unless the ANC can agree on and communicate a specific time-bound plan before June, we are at risk of further ratings downgrades.

This plan should include:

• Scrap the obsolete Department of Public Enterprises
• Invest the savings and revenue generated from consolidating and privatising of Public Enterprise into creating an opportunity environment for People Enterprise
• Reallocate SOC expenditure in the Mid-term Budget Review to fulfill Governments real mandate: provide service delivery, safety, quality education, dignity; as the Bill of Rights demands.
• Transfer state owned land to communities to expedite land reform and to Municipalities so they can create inclusive urban areas where people have access to economic and social opportunities.

Young black people, as a result of failed policy interventions by the ANC Government, are now more marginalised than under the evil regime of Apartheid.  SOEs are not going to fix your mess.

South Africa’s greatest asset is our people, talented in our diversity. We need to build the capacity of everyone to improve their own lives. Individuals are the catalysts for Economic growth, job creation, industrialisation, transformation and investment. South Africans can work together to put our economy back on the up, but only if you invest in people enterprise and not public enterprise.