Report of the Presidential Review Committee (PRC) of state-owned entities (SOEs)

The SOEs reform principles supported in this report are designed to guide South Africa towards comprehensive reforms in the SOE environment to deal with current and future challenges facing the nation. SOEs are not regarded as a panacea for solving all challenges of South Africa but are an added strategic and catalytic State instrument for transformation, growth, development, service delivery and employment creation. They can make a significant contribution towards attainment of the Developmental State. However, without strong vision and committed leadership; an enabling legal environment; effective performance evaluation; and appropriate competencies and capacities, effective and sustainable change will not occur in the SOE environment and, accordingly, the objectives of the Developmental State will not be realised. For South Africa to have optimally performing SOEs that contribute to transformation, growth, development, and service delivery, the proposed reform principles and recommendations in this report must be implemented from the highest office in the land throughout all Government structures and in all spheres in partnership with all formations of the society. The principles include, among others, the separation of roles by Government; the formulation of a strategy for SOEs; creation of an enabling environment; and ensuring adequate performance evaluation and monitoring of SOEs. The State must have the requisite capacities to implement these reforms including visioning and strategy-setting, appropriate human capital and structures, as well as efficient and electronic oversight systems to enabling monitoring and evaluation of SOEs. We propose that Government should establish a transitional SOEs Reforms Committee to drive implementation of the recommendations of the PRC. It should also form an SOE Council of Ministers to capacitate effective oversight of SOEs. Commercial SOEs and DFIs should be overseen by a Central SOE Authorities and a Central Remuneration Authority for SOEs is recommended to ensure consistency and accountability of remuneration frameworks and practices in SOEs.