Creamer Media Login

ANC shies away from endorsing asset sales

2nd October 2019

Font size: - +

South Africa’s ruling party approved a range of proposals to revive economic growth, but stopped short of endorsing Finance Minister Tito Mboweni’s controversial plan to sell some state assets.

There was “broad consensus” among members of the African National Congress’s National Executive Committee about the challenges the nation faces and that business and labor need to play a greater role in fostering growth, Ace Magashule, the party’s secretary-general, told reporters in Johannesburg on Wednesday. It was agreed the country needs to invest more in infrastructure, produce more renewable energy and fix ailing state companies, he said.

The government is seeking to speed up reforms as business confidence slides and disquiet grows among investors about the deteriorating state of the government’s finances and the threat debt-stricken power utility Eskom Holdings poses to the economy.

A plan for fixing Eskom is still a work in progress and should be finalised by month-end, said Enoch Godongwana, the ANC’s head of economic transformation. Mboweni suggested in a policy paper released in August that the utility’s entire debt of R450-billion could be settled by selling off coal-fired power plants -- an option opposed by the ANC’s labor-union allies.

When asked for clarity about possible asset sales, Magashule repeated his statement that it was agreed that “models of worker and social ownership” will be considered.

Other measures agreed to by the ANC include:

Energy, transport and telecommunications need to be modernized and become more competitive

Costs and barriers to entry for small business need to lowered

Growth in industries that create jobs, including agriculture, tourism, clothing and mining, need to be prioritized

Industrial and trade policy need to be refocused to promote competitiveness.

Edited by Bloomberg

Comments

The content you are trying to access is only available to subscribers.

If you are already a subscriber, you can Login Here.

If you are not a subscriber, you can subscribe now, by selecting one of the below options.

For more information or assistance, please contact us at subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za.

Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):

Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format

Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):

All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.

Already a subscriber?

Forgotten your password?

Click Here

MAGAZINE & ONLINE

➕

RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA

➕

CORPORATE PACKAGES

CLICK FOR A QUOTATION

➕