President Cyril Ramaphosa has reassigned responsibility for state-owned enterprises from the now defunct Department of Public Enterprises to the respective direct line ministries.
PResident President Cyril Ramaphosa has reassigned responsibility for state-owned enterprises (SOEs) from the now defunct Department of Public Enterprises to the respective direct reporting ministries.
This will see responsibility for power company Eskom transferred to the Department of Energy and Power, while responsibility for rail, ports and pipeline company Transnet will be transferred to the Department of Transport.
President Ramaphosa said he issued the proclamation under section 97 of the Constitution, which allows for the redistribution of powers and functions of key state institutions among government ministers.
In a statement, President Ramaphosa said that as part of the reforms, state-owned diamond mining company Alexkor would now come under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Minerals and Petroleum Resources.
Denel, the aerospace and military technology conglomerate, falls under the Department of Defence and Veterans Affairs, while Safcor, which is responsible for state forestry, falls under the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment.
The national and regional airlines, as well as Transnet, SAA and South African Express, are each controlled by the Minister of Transport.
The restructuring appears to be a reversal from President Ramaphosa's announcement in July that state-owned enterprises would be placed under the direct control of the presidency, and that Monitoring and Evaluation Minister Malopeng Ramokgopa would oversee the restructuring of state-owned enterprises.
The dissolution of the public enterprises sector was part of the government's strategy to consolidate the ownership of strategic state-owned enterprises under a state asset management company.
The plan, outlined in the draft National State Enterprises Bill introduced by former public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan in January, would give the holding companies budgetary and management autonomy.
The bill proposes that the company be led by an independent board of directors selected by business and labour representatives and two cabinet ministers, and that the appointment process be chaired by a retired judge.
The move to bring state-owned enterprises under the jurisdiction of individual ministries has met with both support and opposition.
Last week the Democratic Alliance's deputy minister of electricity and energy, Samantha Graham, said her party, which is currently in power with national unity, would take legal action against any move to place Eskom under the presidency.
She said such a move contradicts previous expectations that the Ministry of Power would directly oversee power companies.
President Ramaphosa said Ramokgopa had been given executive powers over the Department of Public Enterprises and that the department would continue to exist and operate until the appropriate transfer of human resources and funding had been made.
He added that Ramokgopa would be responsible for finalising the National SOE Bill, which will provide for the exercise of shareholder liability when state-owned enterprises are transferred in a phased manner to the proposed SOE Holding Company.
