STATEMENT BY THE DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC ENTERPRISES IN RESPONSE TO THE COSATU STATEMENT

7 June 2001

The Department of Public Enterprises rejects any suggestion by COSATU that the Department has been negotiating in bad faith.

The Department has been consistently engaging with COSATU on the Eskom Conversion Bill following concerns raised in November last year. To date, the Department held at least ten meeting with COSATU with the view to finding a common ground on the Bill. On 30 May 2001, officials from the Department presented, in writing, recommended amendments to the Bill following a meeting that was held the previous night (29 May 2001), which meeting was the last round of discussions between Government and COSATU. It must be noted that several other engagements have resulted changes to the Bill as discussed and agreed to by the Department and other stakeholders especially Cosatu.

The Portfolio Committee on Public Enterprises accepted five of the six recommended amendments following the meeting of the 29th of May 2001. Furthermore, the Portfolio Committee made some changes to the agreed formulation - that is, "shall" and "must" were changed to "may".

The proposed sixth clause on the disposal of shares of Eskom was raised by COSATU in earlier engagements with the Department and was rejected. The clause effectively compels Government to follow a legislative process should it wish to sell off some Eskom shares in future. As part of the negotiations with COSATU, the Department had made some concession and agreed to the inclusion of this clause in Bill.

After deliberating on the proposed clause, the Committee rejected the proposal as presented by the Department officials on the following reasons:

• that it will undermine the separation of powers between the Executive and Parliament;
• that it would "hand-cuff" the Minister, and
• that it could undermine the monitoring and oversight role of Parliament if it were to involve itself in the day-to-day running of the country.

It is unclear what informs COSATU's position that the Department of Public Enterprises negotiated in bad faith. Evidence shows that COSATU's proposals were incorporated into the Bill, and are reflected in the Bill that was passed by the National Assembly on 05 June 2001.

As a Department, we are astonished with COSATU's apparent disregard of the authority of Parliament to reject or accept as it sees fit arguments presented by Government Departments.

Enquiries:

Fani Zulu
Director: Communications
Ministry of Public Enterprises
082 451 0457