LANCE GREYLING, MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT

Honourable Minister, I think it is fair to say that you have inherited one of the most difficult ministries, with major problems existing throughout many of our public enterprises.

I don’t have the time to deal with all these issues, nor do I think it is constructive to simply point out the problems.

Despite all of these problems though, as a social democratic party the ID still believes in the importance of certain key strategic public enterprises.

It is important, however that fundamental changes are put in place to ensure that these enterprises are well-positioned to capitalise on the opportunities of this new century.

Unfortunately, the current diverse collection of public enterprises in many ways reflect the strategic priorities of the old Government rather than what our new democracy should be focussing on.

The ID firmly believes, for instance, that the State should no longer be in the weapons industry and that those skills must be redirected towards building up our country’s competitive advantage in the emerging global industries.

If one of the focus areas of our new industrial policy is green industries then why don’t we ensure that some of our public enterprises make this a core focus area of their work?

We need to be bold in our thinking and public enterprises are perfectly positioned to get out in front of the technological curve of these new industries, rather than simply continuing to lock us into the old economic growth path.

To build public enterprises of the 21st century though, we also need to deal with good governance principles.

Public enterprises cannot in any way be used as a vehicle for the enrichment of a politically connected elite, or for that matter, the ruling party itself.

It seems paradoxical to the ID that everyone, except for Gwede Mantashe, recognises the major conflict of interest that exists in Chancellor House’s shareholding in Hitachi Power Africa, but no one wants to take on the responsibility for doing anything about it.
Even the World Bank tacitly recognised the conflict of interest while trying to neatly evade it through claiming that their loan won’t be used for the Hitachi component of the deal.

Minister I agree with the sentiments in your written response to my question on the conduct of business between state-owned enterprises and political parties that this issue should be dealt with in a broader piece of legislation.

However, it is your party that has dragged its heels on formulating this legislation.

Until this legislation is formulated, Minister, it is your responsibility to ensure that public enterprises are not compromised through these blatant conflicts of interest, either legally or ethically.

You therefore have a duty to pass regulations preventing these controversies from occurring in the future.

But based on your comments here today Minister, it certainly appears like the ANC will now finally support my motion to set up an ad hoc committee to look into regulations for party funding.

But we will see at the next Joint Rules Committee meeting whether the ANC’s word means anything.

I thank you.

For media enquiries, please call Lance Greyling on 083 298 8553