Deputy Speaker, the ANC welcomes the statement by the Minister of Public Enterprises, Ms Barbara Hogan, which finally sets the record straight on Eskom and underlines and explains to the House the managerial and board conflicts that have beleaguered Eskom in the last few weeks.
The Minister has acknowledged that there were problems at Eskom and we hope that they have finally been resolved. Although there were problems at Eskom, as the Minister emphasised, the lights kept on burning, and there were no major shutdowns. We have learnt this afternoon from the Minister that not only are an acting chief executive officer and a chairperson in place but processes are underway to appoint a fulltime chairperson to find a new chief executive officer for Eskom.
There was squabbling in Eskom's board, as is normally the case in a lot of boardrooms, but I think there are also lessons that we need to learn from this squabbling. As the chairperson of the portfolio committee, I submit that one of these lessons would be to tighten oversight mechanisms, because little did we suspect, three weeks ago when Eskom put their annual report before us, that the relational problems between the board and the chief executive officer had deteriorated to that extent. We submit that we will have to improve as Parliament in terms of oversight of state-owned enterprises, SOEs; and we agree with the Minister, in terms of corporate governance issues.
We also remind the House that yesterday the Minister of Finance submitted to this House that he and Minister Barbara Hogan and, I assume, the cluster of Ministers in the economic sector, are reviewing SOEs. When that process of reviewing SOEs is underway, it must be matched in checking whether the oversight of those mechanisms is in place and is able to ensure that boards do what they are supposed to do, management does what it is supposed to do and the Department of Public Enterprises also does what it is supposed to do.
Accusations have been heaped on government by the media that there is political interference of some sort and micromanagement of state-owned enterprises. We submit that these accusations are unfounded. Just this morning, it was announced that government has granted a guarantee for Eskom to borrow an amount of R350 billion from the markets. It would be grossly irresponsible on the part of government, either in the person of the representative member of the shareholder, as Minister of Public Enterprises, or as Cabinet itself, just to give these guarantees for loans or to provide equity injections or to give loans to SOEs, without ensuring that things are being done right in those SOEs. When things go wrong, it is not political meddling when the shareholder gives directions and gets involved; otherwise one will continue to throw money into a bottomless pit, and other SOEs will continue to claim bailouts.
The projects of Eskom are well underway. Cabinet has also expressed concerns about the impact that the 45% tariff increase might have, not only on the poor but on all South Africans, and is looking for ways and means to mitigate the impact of such tariff hikes. We do, however, know that the National Energy Regulator of South Africa, Nersa, has the last word on this.
I submit that transformation cannot be the sole monopoly of Blacks or Africans, for that reason. All South Africans, black and white, should participate in the process of transformation and we cannot, just because of the colour of a person's skin, level accusations of racism. We will continue, as Parliament, to demand transformation across all sectors of South Africa and we will not claim racism only where there are people of a certain race group. In fact, you do find racists and tribalists in all ethnic groups and in all groups. As a result, you cannot just claim racism. [Interjections.]
I also submit that it is not correct that government has not collectively taken the responsibility for failure to heed the call of Eskom over many years to build power stations and to get ready for economic growth. When one administration goes into office, it inherits all the good and bad things and liabilities of the administration before it. [Interjections.] The previous ANC government has collectively apologised to South Africa through former President Thabo Mbeki.
I want to conclude by thanking the Minister for finally clarifying matters for South Africans, as to where we stand in terms of Eskom, and we hope that we have learnt the lesson that we cannot afford to move from one problem to the next in state-owned enterprises, and we think that the review of these SOEs, including parastatals, that lie across all government departments, should be accelerated. I thank you. [Applause.]
Debate concluded.