Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa says South Africa’s economy can only stabilise if there is stability in the country’s State-Owned Enterprises (SOE).

This comes in the wake of numerous claims of financial mismanagement and concerns over governance at some state-owned companies including Eskom, Transnet and SAA, among others, with investors and ratings agencies displaying discomfort over how these entities are operating.

“We are all concerned about our own State-Owned Enterprises. There needs to be rigorous oversight. There should not be interference as to who you appoint as the gardener or the lady or gentleman who makes tea or how procurement should be done. The challenges at SOEs need to be resolved as in yesterday,” he said.

Ramaphosa was speaking at a breakfast meeting with business in Johannesburg ahead of the departure of the South African delegation to this year’s World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting, taking place in Davos, Switzerland, from 23 to 26 January.

Problems being attended to

The Finance Minister also held a press conference in which he moved to assure investors that problems at State-Owned Enterprises, Eskom in particular, were being attended to.

“The problems at State-Owned Enterprises require immediate action because they raise a fiscal risk and we in the National Treasury are raising those risks. We are not going to wait until the end of term of this current administration to address these challenges. It’s going to be urgent,” Minister Gigaba said.

He added that the economy was showing signs of recovery and resilience despite challenges.