The ANC Youth League has hit back at Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan by saying they are against any form of privatisation of State-Owned Entities.
While they did not mention Gordhan by name, they said more must be done to improve the performance of SOEs.
Gordhan has demanded an apology from ANCYL leader Collen Malatji after he said he was selling off Eskom.
The minister has denied the allegations and said they were separating the power utility into three divisions, as was announced by government a few years ago.
President Cyril Ramaphosa announced in 2019 that Eskom would split into generation, distribution, and transmission entities to increase its performance and ensure reliable electricity supply.
The ANCYL said on Tuesday its national executive committee met and the issue of the performance of SOEs came under discussion.
“The NEC discussed and reflected on the state of our SOEs, the NEC is of the view that more must be done to improve the performance and internal capacity of our SOEs. The NEC is of the view that the SOEs are part of the instruments of development available to the democratic state to improve the socio-economic conditions of our people, and therefore handing them over to private hands with the sole purpose of profit maximisation is counter-revolutionary.
“It is our considered view that the privatisation of SOEs is not a solution to resolving the problems of loadshedding and the challenges at Transnet. We firmly believe that SOEs must serve as a strategic asset of the state to boost the economy and should be utilised to improve people’s lives with a business self-sustainability model,” said the ANCYL.
Gordhan said this week that Eskom would not be sold to private entities, and the three divisions for generation, distribution and transmission would remain wholly owned by Eskom.
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