Issued by African National Congress - Parliament
17 February 2003
Madame Speaker
President of the Republic of South Africa
Deputy President
Ministers
Colleagues
Go gopa dipitsa go jelwe ke go goka dikolobe;
Ke go rumola mohlako o iketlile;
Ke go isa tau setswetsi.
Gopola thuto yabo Sekwati otle o atlege;
Ngwana wa bo rraweso ga lle phefo o lla tlala;
Tlala le bohloki ke manaba ao a ka go jago ka meno a matelele;
Ngwaga o sa nthatego kgabaganya tse botse di nketele.
The debate on whether the restructuring of SOE's policy has failed is neither here nor there. To the disappointment of those that had hoped this was one policy that would end the revolutionary alliance. The 51st national conference of the ANC has again demonstrated to all that all alliance partners support the policies of the ANC and therefore the government.
There has never been an indication that there is policy failure, there might be a question of not so a successful policy implementation. We need to therefore ensure that the policy implementers have a shared vision with the policy makers and owners.
The restructuring policy has shown that it is well placed to ensure that we push back the frontiers of poverty. It has not only benefited a few, as other people would like us to believe. It has benefited some communities. One just has to look at the role that is played by the Alexkor mine in Alexandra Bay.
Take the mine away and the whole community will perish. This mine plays a crucial developmental role in that community. Even the municipality in that town would have found it impossible to serve the local community with amenities. Another good example can be found by the role played by Transnet through Esselen School of Excellence.
In comparison to other countries such as Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Mexico where the aims for reconstructing was inter alia to help reduce the public debt, in South Africa our aim is to ensure support for BEE, including community trusts (e.g. Alexcor mine), employee ownership and the general promotion of SMMEs. Of course at the same time the restructuring of the state- owned assets must ensure increased competition, which in turn would improve the efficiency and quality of services. Further aims are to:
Ensure new investments in private companies and activities (to allow the disadvantaged in the mainstream economic arena).
Assist in the modernisation of the South African industrial sector by increasing its competitiveness and strengthening management in various sectors of the economy.
Allow the government to concentrate its efforts on activities where the presence of the state is essential such as in social services sector, education, health housing etc.
Madame Speaker
We have always argued and continue to argue that the restructuring of SOEs is an integral part of the transformation of the economy, which aims to increase the rate of growth and development of the economy and of infrastructure to meet the basic needs and strengthen economic potential. This growth and development, we have always argued for has to be sustainable and ensure that the economy yields meaningful jobs.
The national programme on restructuring always aims at ensuring job creation where possible and include the creation of safety nets for those workers who cannot secure continued employment and those that cannot be retained into field that shall ensure their retention.
Mohlomphegi Modulasetulo
Bjale ka ge ke setse ke bontsitse ka nakwana e satsogo go feta. Batho ba gabo rena ba swanetse go tseba gore ka ntle le mmuso wa ANC ba ka se tsoge ba fentshe tlala le bohloki. Re tseba ga botse gore batho ba gabo rena ba bantsi ga ba na mesomo fela le tsebeng gore ga se ka baka la lenanego tlhomamiso empsa ya thoto tsa mmuso ke ka mabaka a ekonomi yeo re hweditsego ele gona ge re tsea mmuso.
A re lebeleleng gore mmuso o twala batho ba ba kae. Diketekete tsa bao ba sa somego, bantsitswego mesomong ga se ka baka la mmuso ka kudu ke ka baka la kgwebo tse kgolo. Ke batho ba ba kae go bao ba dutsego magae bao ba bego ba sa somele mmuso. Ka bjalo ge lekola taba ye re kgonthise nnete. Mmuso wa ANC ga senke o rata gore batho ba gabo rena ba hloke. GO ALA DIBUDU KE GO GOKA MANONG.
Madame Speaker
The notion that this translates into saying that bureaucrats are by nature inefficient is not only misleading but also untrue. Some large private sector organisations are equally bureaucratic. Chang and Singh also question whether the discipline imposed on SOE bureaucrats by the political system is inherently inferior to that imposed by the market on private corporations.
From a perspective, which is not sympathetic to the private sector, Ramamurti has questioned the underlying assumption made
Therefore the restructuring of the SOE became an essential step for a sustainable growth and maintenance of economic stability that ensures that we push back the frontiers of poverty towards a total eradication of poverty. One of the pillars of this process has to do with the establishment of a new partnership between government and private enterprise, as this is the only way to ensure job creation.
The president on Friday had this to say on the same issue "the government will also continue to work on public-private partnerships to increase its capacity to respond to the needs of our people. 50 of these are already operational in such areas such as health, education, transport, housing, information technology, tourism and government accommodation."
The restructuring of SOE has not, as many would like us to believe, been blanket privatisation of SOE. No contrary to those believes out of this process a number of new SOE's have been established. New entities such as Arivia.com, SASRIA, Khula, and Ntsika. Clearly these new entities have brought with themselves efficiency and effective management, these new entities have brought about jobs, not only jobs but sustainable jobs.
Government has ensured on the other hand that the restructuring of Denel and Spoornet has been fully negotiated with organised labour.
Government has conducted no less that 18 reconstructing initiatives that have included complete sales, partial equity sale involving BEE strategic equity sale to foreign owners, management contracts, and rationalisation of functions across different SOEs and nationalisation. Such initiatives have secured enough funds for the treasury to be able to allocate for social and other purposes.
This has ensured strong community benefits, training, job retention, transfer of technology where relevant and skills development.
Corporate governance as steps towards ensuring greater accountability of SOEs to the public.
The story does not end there with us saying well and good there has been restructuring. The challenge remain that there is a need to continue monitoring and assessing the restructuring processes some of which occur in environments that are inevitably subject to the dictates of the global markets, conditions and needs of continued and never ending competitiveness of some sectors (e.g. ports).
The co-ordination and implementation of social plan programmes remain critical. The integration and impact of the governments social policies as far as these, derive from inputs from SOEs require careful assessment and monitoring.
Ge ele lenyaga mokhora re o humane
Tlala ngwagono e otile
E otisitswe ke lenyaga tlala e etile
Ka gona ge e rata go phela ga e tshabele mono
Tlala le yona e tshaba tlala.