Private investment in state-owned assets has been a thorny issue for the African National Congress (ANC) and its allies for more than a decade after the government canned its privatisation programme in the early 2000s following internal political opposition.
In February, President Jacob Zuma indicated a policy change that would promote private "participation" in state-owned companies. Briefing Parliament's portfolio committee on public enterprises on Wednesday, Brown said Transnet was looking at attracting private investment in new ports planned for Buchu Bay and Port Nolloth in the Northern Cape, as well the construction of new inland terminals that could be run by the private sector.
In the airline sector, a proposal to place South African Airways, SA Express, SA Airlink and Mango Airlines under the structure of a holding company was under consideration. Each company would continue to play its role as it was recently defined but the creation of a holding company structure "would provide greater leverage in attracting a strategic equity partner," she said. Legislation limits foreign ownership of SAA to 25%.
State-owned companies were also looking for opportunities to expand markets in Africa, with Transnet setting its sights on opportunities in Tanzania, Kenya and Burundi; Eskom on the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique and Uganda; and SA Express in Ghana.
An interministerial committee including the Department of Public Enterprises, the Treasury and the Presidency had drawn up a framework for private participation in state-owned companies, a framework for board appointments and a draft performance appraisal scorecard.
While Brown had previously said that the tabling of a Shareholder Management Bill was imminent, "this cannot be brought now" as critical questions such as whether the Department of Public Enterprises would continue to exist and under which departments state-owned companies should be located were still under discussion by the three departments, she said.
A new option under consideration is the Chinese model, in which a separate entity outside of the government oversees state-owned companies to ensure that they are commercially viable.
The reorganisation of state-owned companies was highly "contested terrain", she said.
Reporting briefly on Eskom, Brown said that due to new capacity from the Ingula pumped storage project coming online, no load shedding was expected this winter. Additional new capacity was expected by the end of the year from Ingula, Medupi and Kusile, she said.
Source: Business Day
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