{"id":783511,"date":"2024-07-21T07:41:49","date_gmt":"2024-07-21T05:41:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=783511"},"modified":"2024-07-21T07:41:54","modified_gmt":"2024-07-21T05:41:54","slug":"major-changes-for-soes-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/783511\/major-changes-for-soes-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Major changes for SOEs in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Minister in the Presidency responsible for Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation Maropene Ramokopga says that state-owned enterprises (SOEs) will no longer be controlled by their line departments. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Following the creation of the Government of National Unity (GNU) and the scrapping of the Department of Public Enterprises, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that Ramokopga will be responsible for creating a state-owned holding company to manage the finances of SOEs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Speaking with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeslive.co.za\/sunday-times\/business\/business\/2024-07-21-soe-minister-balks-at-sell-off\/\">Business Times<\/a>, Ramokopga said that she would push through the National State Enterprises Bill (NSEB) currently before parliament, which Pravin Gordhan, the previous Minister of Public Enterprises, previously tabled. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If enacted in its current form, the bill will:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Enable the development of a \u2018national strategy\u2019 for state-owned enterprises.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Establish the State Asset Management SOC Limited (SAMSOC), with the state as its sole shareholder.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Consolidate the state\u2019s shareholdings in \u201cstrategic\u201d SOEs through a centralised shareholder model;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Phase in these enterprises as subsidiaries of SAMSOC over time.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Although not every local, provincial and state SOE will be transferred to SAMSOC, those earmarked for the move include: <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Eskom Holdings SOC Limited;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Transnet SOC Limited;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>South African Airways SOC Limited;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>South African Post Office SOC Limited;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>South African National Roads Agency Limited;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Denel SOC Limited;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Air Traffic and Navigation Services Company Limited;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Airports Company Limited;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Broadband Infraco SOC Ltd;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Central Energy Fund (Pty) Limited;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Sentech SOC Limited;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>South African Forestry Company SOC Limited;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>South African Nuclear Energy Corporation Limited.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>However, Ramokopga&#8217;s comments suggest a change in how these SOEs will be managed to what was previously envisioned in the NSEB Bill.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These SOEs, which were previously supervised by the Department of Public Enterprises, were supposed to fall under their respective policy departments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These departments would then act as shareholder representatives for SAMSOC. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For instance, the shareholder representative of Eskom would have been the Minister of Energy and Electricity, Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, while the Minister of Transport, Barbara Creecy, would have represented Transnet.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are still question marks over what SAMSOC will ultimately look like, but the government was apparently impressed by Singapore\u2019s Temasek Holdings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ramokopga said placing strategic SOEs in a holding company is meant to stabilise them so they could become profitable and operate off their balance sheets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She added that the creation of SAMSOC would not translate into privatisation as the government would remain the sole shareholder of these entities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ramokopga&#8217;s change of heart could create tension within the ANC, as the party stated at its 2017 and 2022 conferences that all SOEs must be transferred to their policy departments. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>South Africa&#8217;s SOEs have been a serious drain on the fiscus, requiring bailouts in the billions from the National Treasury due to mismanagement, particularly Eskom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-businesstech wp-block-embed-businesstech\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"1OBf3aTdh4\"><a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/770242\/state-companies-bleeding-south-africa-dry-giving-nothing-back\/\">State companies bleeding South Africa dry &#8211; giving nothing back<\/a><\/blockquote><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);\" title=\"&#8220;State companies bleeding South Africa dry &#8211; giving nothing back&#8221; &#8212; BusinessTech\" src=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/770242\/state-companies-bleeding-south-africa-dry-giving-nothing-back\/embed\/#?secret=EJ48uXIRtX#?secret=1OBf3aTdh4\" data-secret=\"1OBf3aTdh4\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><strong>No private equity<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ramokopga also disagreed with the idea of selling equity stakes in SOEs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She said that the government should rather have private operators to help manage SOEs while they remain 100% state-owned. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This follows the failed sale of 51% of South African Airways to the Takatso Consortium.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ramokogpa said that she is a fan of partnerships in which the state owns 100%, and a third party acts as an operating partner. These could include 10- to 30-year contracts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, she said that she would meet with the President to hear his thoughts on SOEs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Read<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/782655\/on-demand-delivery-game-changer-in-south-africa\/\">On-demand delivery game-changer in South Africa<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Minister Maropene Ramokopga is looking to change the ownership arrangement of South Africa&#8217;s SOEs, which could cause tension within the ANC.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":779644,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-783511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=783511"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783511\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":783521,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783511\/revisions\/783521"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/779644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=783511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=783511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=783511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}