Pravin Gordhan delivers final blow to collapsed SOEs
10 October 2023
If Jacob Zuma collapsed SOEs through state capture, the Minister of Public Enterprises Pravin Gordhan, has spent the past 5 years writing and certifying their obituaries.
Since his appointment to the Public Enterprises portfolio in 2018, Gordhan has presided over an unprecedented governance chaos at Executive and Board level in State Owned Enterprises (SOEs). The damage inflicted by this governance crisis has been so severe that most SOEs are either operating with interim Boards, acting CEOs or with no Executive heads at all.
Gordhan’s position as the Minister of Public Enterprises has become untenable and the DA calls on President Cyril Ramaphosa to fire him immediately.
With the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) expected to cease operations after the 2024 elections, it should – in the interim, be placed under the administration of a select panel of industry experts. Their brief should be the stabilization of SOEs through the appointment of competent Boards and Executive heads, including the removal of operational bottlenecks that have hobbled the performance of these entities.