Admin
10 Feb, 2020
Dissent voices on SOEs by top leadership is disheartening!
The United Democratic Movement takes note on contradicting statements issued over the weekend by the President of the ruling party and his National Person on the ailing state-owned entity the South African airways. The President, Mr Cyril Ramaphosa insisted that SAA will not be sold or shut down and within hours the chairperson, Mr Gwede Mantashe told the nation that this entity should be shut down if it does not make profit. The ANC recently had a lekgotla, and they had promised the nation that the issue at SAA was going to be discussed, but from these statements one may conclude that there was no discussion, if there was, no agreement was reached as to how this important would be made viable. If it is like this at SAA, what about the other SOE’s? Seemingly the ruling party does not have a strategy to make these SOE’s to operate as companies that sustain themselves. The ANC is in the about what needs to be done to save these SOEs. This might be the reason why the rescuing practitioners of SAA are now dictating terms on how the entity should operate hence certain domestic and international routes had to be abruptly stopped without the approval government. This has turned South Africa a banana republic. The State Owned Enterprises need a decisive leadership and intervention not what it is being heard, that is, dissenting voices of the senior leaders of the ruling party and the government. The majority if not all SOEs are currently in the Intensive-care unit (ICU), they are not making any profit. These SOEs are supposed to be contributing to the GDP of the country yet they are a liability. This is a biggest shame. How long will the hard-earned money of taxpayer’s money keep saving these SOEs? The problem with ruling party is for it to admit that cadre deployment is killing these SOEs and it is afraid to take drastic actions as it does not want to lose support from their comrades who are somehow being compensated for failing to make it to parliament or provincial legislatures. This must stop if South Africa is be made a winning nation. Issued by: Bongani Msomi UDM Secretary General
Admin
26 Sep, 2017
UDM rejects Government’s attempts to tap into PIC funds to bail out failing SOEs
The allegations that the Ministry of Finance is trying to access Public Investment Corporation (PIC) funds to bail out failing State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) confirm the United Democratic Movement’s (UDM’s) long-held suspicion that the mafia styled ruling elite would, once cash-strapped, extend its grubby hands to workers’ pensions entrusted to them for safekeeping. The true intention of these transactions is not to bail out struggling SOEs, but rather to ensure that there is enough state resources to plunder for those “whose turn it is to eat”! We therefore reject any attempts by government to use PIC funds to fund failing SOEs. Bearing the aforementioned in mind, the UDM believes that steps should be taken to develop a mechanism to protect workers’ assets against abuse and misuse by government. Such a mechanism should, among others, also ensure that workers, as a key stakeholder, have a voice in how and where their assets are invested and accessed. In addition, steps should be taken to restructure the PIC board to ensure that other stakeholders are accommodated and that it is not under the full control of government. We call for the implementation of more checks and balances, with minimal bureaucracy, such as risk mitigation systems and a watertight Code of Ethics. We demand a comprehensive investigation of all transactions since 2009, as we believe that under Mr Zuma, the PIC may have been used as a source of funding for suspicious deals that have nothing to do with growing an inclusive and distributive economy. Statement issued by: Mr Nqabayomzi Kwankwa, MP UDM Deputy President and Chief Whip
Admin
17 Jul, 2014
Budget Vote 11: Public Enterprises
Address by UDM Deputy Secretary General, Mr Nqabayomzi Kwankwa, MP at Committee Room E249 Chairperson, Honourable Minister and Deputy Minister, Honourable Members, For many years, South Africa’s economic growth potential has been shackled by a lack of properly planned infrastructure investment. This resulted in immense disparities in the quality of the infrastructure between rural and urban communities. The poor and rural communities have to make do with inadequate and poor quality infrastructure, which confines them to the margins of economic activity. Through properly planned infrastructure development and rural development programmes, state-owned enterprises (SOEs) have an important role to play to boost economic growth in order to ensure equal opportunity for all people to participate in our country’s economy. However, this objective will be difficult to achieve if drastic steps are not taken to improve the capacity of SOEs to spend their allocated budgets. For instance, over the past two years, SOEs have been spending approximately 70 per cent of the funds committed to infrastructure development. To make matters worse, SOE managers also achieve approximately 70 per cent of their performance agreements. These factors together with the number of times Government has had to bailout some of the SOEs reveals that SOEs are far less productive than private sector companies. How does one then justify the high salaries paid to the executives of the SOEs? The United Democratic Movement (UDM) believes capacity levels at SOEs need to be improved if they (SOEs) are to truly serve as an engine for economic growth and development. We are also of the view that steps should be taken to ensure that the right people are employed into right positions at our SOEs, with clear and strict performance contracts. We believe that in large infrastructure development programmes, the Department needs to rope in the private sector to either invest in or play a part in them. Honourable Minister, We were too happy to hear that the Department has reduced its vacancy rate from 16.7 per cent in 2009 to 11.9 per cent 2013. However, our celebration was short-lived, when we discovered that the use of consultants features prominently in the plans of the Department for the current financial year. We believe that filling vacancies should result in lower usage of consultants, and not the opposite. The UDM supports Budget Vote 11. I thank you.
