The EFF objects to the government of South Africa's plan to sell and privatise state assets in secret

25 March 2015

The Economic Freedom Fighters objects to the sale of state assets through a National Treasury process that is shrouded in secrecy. During his 2015 Budget Speech, the Minister of Finance Nhlanhla Nene said that, "As indicated in last year's Medium Term Budget Policy Statement, fiscal support to state-owned companies over the period ahead will be financed through offsetting asset sales so that there is no net impact on the budget deficit". In simple terms, this means that government wants to sell state-owned assets which it deems not core and they have not disclosed which assets are these.

During his presentation to the Standing Committee on Finance, the Minister of Finance was asked by EFF Deputy President Floyd Shivambu, who is a member of the committee as to what exactly does government want to privatise and why is such being kept as a secret. In his response, the Minister of Finance said, "We are not in the business of privatising. We are in the business of disposing non-core assets". What this means is that government is in a process of selling state assets, which they call "disposal of assets", details of which have not been disclosed to the public.

Despite an illustration and indication that government cannot keep secret details of such disposal or privatisation of state assets from a parliamentary committee, the Minister of Finance and the Chairperson of the Standing Committee on Finance insisted that they will never disclose information on which assets are being sold and to whom.

The EFF believes that as an institution that allocates money to government and constitutionally given the power to oversee government's operations and functioning, it is within our right to be told every decision, particular of political nature as disposal of state assets. If secrets are kept from Parliament because of so-called market sensitivity, it means government can without knowledge and approval of Parliament, can secretly sell or dispose of all assets of the country on the basis of market sensitivity.

In 1996, the Growth, Employment and Redistribution (GEAR) policy led to the privatisation of many state owned assets, was adopted with so many promises of jobs, and fighting poverty, yet the direct opposite of this was achieved. We should never agree to be hijacked into the era of extreme neo-liberalism, which led to joblessness and directionlessness of the economy.

The EFF will write to the Minister of Finance to demand that National Treasury should disclose the assets which are being disposed of, and who will be beneficiary of such disposals. In simple terms, the Minister must tell Parliament what is he selling and to who because to politically object to a process once it is concluded will be too late. The EFF believes that there should never be secrets kept by government even to Parliament which allocates money to the same government and oversees its operations and functions. If the Minister fails to disclose this information, we will be left with no option but to approach the Courts.

The EFF says no to privatisation and no to disposal of state-owned assets. The State should utilise all assets at its disposal to empower ordinary people through generation of substantive and real economic activities.

Statement issued by the Economic Freedom Fighters, March 25 2015

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