SA plans Ramaphosa-led commission to oversee state firms

South Africa intends establishing a commission chaired by President Cyril Ramaphosa to coordinate the work of its state-owned firms after shelving plans to place them under the auspices of a holding company.

The new panel will review a national strategy that outlines what role the firms should play and ensure the government exercises ownership in a coherent and professional manner, Gwen Ramokgopa, a minister in the Presidency, said in a response to questions. It will also standardise and strengthen governance practices, improve monitoring, and facilitate and coordinate the rationalisation and restructuring of the entities to eliminate duplication and improve efficiency, she added.

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South Africa has scores of state entities, including power utility Eskom, logistics company Transnet, and South African National Roads Agency. A number of them have been dogged by mismanagement and financial problems, leaving them reliant on government funding to survive, which has spurred calls for improved oversight.

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Some of those biggest firms fell under the Department of Public Enterprises, but it was disbanded in March 2025 and control was transferred to the relevant line ministries. A draft law was presented to parliament in 2024 that proposed the establishment of a management company that would oversee all state firms, but the legislation wasn’t processed and it was withdrawn last month.

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“Circumstances have changed considerably” since the law was first drafted, Ramokgopa said by phone. “Once the bill had gone through stakeholder engagements and all the political parties had been consulted, we realised that the bill could not simply be rewritten, we needed to take it back to cabinet.”

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The new panel, which will be a hybrid of the type of structures established by China and Norway to oversee their state entities, can be established relatively quickly. In the interim, the Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation is working on reform proposals for the state companies, including drawing up appointment and remuneration guidelines, and a framework for their rationalisation.

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“Our constitution allows for the president to directly chair a commission using regulations, rather than the long process of creating a law,” Ramokgopa said. ‘’If necessary, we can still create a management company down the road should we need to.”

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