The deputy president, Cyril Ramaphosa, has spoken out against “state capture” of public enterprises by cronies, which he acknowledged had become endemic.
In an interview with S’thembiso Msomi in the Sunday Times, Ramaphosa appeared to be addressing the continuing controversy over SAA and the close relationship between President Jacob Zuma and the Gupta family, although neither were mentioned by name.
SAA was at the centre of the controversy over the firing of finance minister, Nhlnhla Nene, who blocked an effort by its chairperson, Dudu Myeni, to renegotiate the purchase of aircraft by introducing a ‘middle man’. Myeni is close to Zuma.
“I do believe political connections should not be the order of the day; it should be the strength of your own business, the strength of what you can offer ... Companies should compete on an equal basis. That is the South Africa of our dreams,” he said.
“One of the processes we would want our state-owned enterprises to be involved in is to have really squeaky clean and outstanding corporate governance processes where, if any corporation does business with a state-owned enterprise, it is on an arm’s-length basis.
“It must be done in adherence to the highest corporate governance principles and it must be done transparently and in a way where there is no conflict of interest,” Ramaphosa said.
Ramaphosa has been placed in charge of turning around state-owned enterprises.
He said government got the message from the private sector “loud and clear” that there was a reluctance to invest in the minerals sector because of policy flip-flopping.
“We accept that we have slowed down in a way that is not of great benefit to the industry and we are gong to pick up pace on that.”
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