SOEs strike out as SAA leads the pack

Our state-owned companies clearly believe they can do what they like and that the principles which govern normal businesses do not apply to them.

Pesky things like making a profit or even, heaven forbid, an operating surplus, are not issues that keep our parastatal executives awake at night.

That is evident in the fact that state-owned enterprises (SOEs) have recorded collective losses of R172 billion over the past five years.

This is according to figures from National Treasury released this week as background to the budget presented by Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana.

If that doesn’t say abject failure, then we don’t know what does.

The reality is that you would be hardpressed to find an SOE that is run along proper business lines, or that has not been plagued by corruption and incompetence.

ALSO READ: SOEs rack up losses of R172bn in five years – National Treasury

The idea behind parastatal enterprises is a solid one: take some of the services of the state and run them, not as departments controlled by civil servants, but as business units guided by businesspeople.

Yet, our SOEs still think and operate like state departments.

There is little motivation, a rigid sense that they are more important than their “customers”, there’s no accountability and, most of all, that there is a bottomless pool of taxpayer money that they can do with what they will.

One of the most unsuccessful SOEs, South African Airways, is now attempting to have its pilots and flight crew declared “essential service” personnel so they may not strike for better wages or working conditions.

CEO John Lamola laughably claims this is not a commercial imperative, but driven by concern for the health and safety of passengers. As if a striking pilot walks out of the door at 35 000 feet…

Your airline is not the fire brigade, or a hospital, or the police, sir. You should remember it is, in theory, a business.

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