Ramaphosa meets with SOE bosses

President Cyril Ramaphosa has met with chief executives of state-owned companies to discuss their turnaround plans.

A statement from the presidency said Ramaphosa had held brief discussions with the CEOs of a number of state entities on Tuesday.

“In his February 2018 State of the Nation Address‚ President Ramaphosa said government would intervene decisively to stabilise and revitalise state-owned companies and would take further measures to ensure that all state-owned companies fulfilled their economic and developmental mandates as important catalysts through which government creates public value‚” the statement said.

The presidency said that CEOs had presented proposals on their economic recovery plans‚ including “advanced manufacturing; creating meaningful employment in the agricultural sector; monetising digital capabilities to boost the economy‚ and the development of logistics systems to enable and accelerate economic growth.”

“Corporate governance challenges‚ fragmentation of the work of the SOCs and lack of alignment between the SOCs and delivery priorities of government - these being decisively dealing with poverty‚ unemployment and inequality - were some of the issues raised by the President.”

The statement did not mention which CEOs had attended the meeting on Tuesday.

“They have further committed to key actions to leverage the power and scale SOCs as a cohesive and effective group contributing to economic growth through improved governance‚ economic recovery‚ SOC reform and transformation (encompassing procurement practices‚ develop finance and support for women in skills and business development).

“President Ramaphosa has welcomed the commitment of CEOs to reposition SOCs as enablers of growth‚ driven by a common vision and higher levels of cooperation and synergy.” Ramaphosa will in time meet with various SOC chief executives.