Why the Presidency needs dedicated oversight

We have to admit that disgraced former judge John Hlophe – now leader of the official opposition in the National Assembly – raised a good point about why there was no specific portfolio committee overseeing the office of the Presidency.

It’s more than keeping an eye on President Cyril Ramaphosa, much as Hlophe and the uMkhonto weSizwe party would like to haul him over the coals in public.

What does need scrutiny is the myriad public enterprises which have now been subsumed into the office of the Presidency after the department of public enterprises was dissolved.

Although many felt that there would, and should, be changes after the departure of former public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan, few saw the move to the Presidency coming.

The move might be sensible because it will enable some strong, top-down decisions to be taken by the executive – something the dithering Gordhan was unable to do.

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On the other hand, the job of overseeing the companies might overtax an already burdened Ramaphosa and his technocrats.

Most importantly, though, is the concern that without proper oversight – as previously would have happened in the portfolio committee on public enterprises – there is the opportunity for under-the-counter deals to be struck.

It goes without saying that this must not be allowed to happen and that state-owned enterprises must not be shielded – as they were in Gordhan’s time – by the excuse that talking about their financial state would be revealing sensitive commercial information.

Our public companies – but especially ones like Eskom and South African Airways – must do their business in the open.

The government of national unity and the opposition are morally bound to come to some sort of solution to this vital problem.

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