The Portfolio Committee on Public Enterprises received a briefing today from the National Treasury and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) on the policy impediments that prohibit state-owned companies (SOCs) from advancing their developmental mandate.
 
The committee engaged the DTI and the National Treasury placing its emphasis on why the SCOs do not collaborate with each other and advance the developmental objectives of the state.
 
The DTI informed the committee that the lack of proper procurement plans on the side of the SOCs and their procurement requests that are always urgent deny the department enough time for proper procurement for the importation of the required goods that are unavailable locally. Furthermore, the lack of commitment to localisation requirements by SOCs hampers the implementation process.
 
The Chairperson of the committee, Mr Khaya Magaxa, said the main cause of government failures and the collapse of SOCs such as Denel, is also due to entities working in silos. He said SOCs are operating in silos as if there are no common objectives. Mr Magaxa said the meeting was called specifically to engage with the DTI in order to understand if there is an interest to build capacity of the SOCs.

The committee said engagements on the matter of SOCs with the DTI and the National Treasury should be ongoing as the matter is very important and demands solutions. One meeting is not enough to deal with all the issues that need to be addressed.

Mr Magaxa said Denel has advanced manufacturing and industrial capabilities, but the state departments are unable to leverage on such capabilities due to competition laws. The committee highlighted the problem that the SOCs do not procure from each other.

Issued by the Parliamentary Communication Services on behalf of the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Public Enterprises, Khaya Magaxa