defenceWeb
Written by defenceWeb -
Signage at Denel s Irene campus.
Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan as the âshareholderâ (government) representative for Denel will be on the receiving end of questions regarding reckless spending allegations at the troubled defence and technology conglomerate.
This emerged after a Denel delegation, led by current acting board chair Gloria Serobe, this week denied the allegations when addressing Parliamentâs financial watchdog, its Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA).
âWe have challenges, but are not at the stage where Denel is trading recklessly,â Serobe, acting Denel board chair following the resignation of Monhla Hlahla last month, was reported as telling the Parliamentary oversight committee. Hlahlaâs departure was made public via a notice to the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) saying it was effective from 24 February. It is not known yet whether Hlahla remains a member of the nine-member P
While the minister said that the state entity was starting to reposition itself, it still had a dark cloud hanging over it as it dealt with the consequences of dodgy tenders in the past.
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Eskom’s suspended chief procurement officer (CPO), Solly Tshitangano, has been central to the scuppering of the past two meetings between the power utility and the parliamentary spending watchdog, the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa).
Lawmakers twice decided that without Tshitangano they could not fully interrogate Eskom procurement deviations the subject of a meeting on 23 February and again on Wednesday.
Then, on the eve of Wednesday’s Scopa meeting, came Tshitangano’s correspondence claiming nepotism, irregular decision-making and contract manipulation by Eskom CEO André de Ruyter, addressed to Public Enterprises Director-General Kgathatso Tlhakudi, and copied to all Scopa members, the Auditor-General, the State Capture Commission and the National Treasury.
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Even if the workings of State Capture are not well understood, its impact has been felt by the SA taxpayer; public funds earmarked for crucial service delivery programmes have been diverted to support financially distressed SOEs.
In the State Capture story, there are villains and heroes. Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan still enjoys hero status and the history books will acknowledge his bravery for speaking out against a kleptocratic state under Jacob Zuma – even when it wasn’t popular to do so.
But the history books will also acknow
ledge Gordhan for being a key public servant since SA transitioned to democracy in 1994, because he was the SARS Commissioner, headed the Finance Ministry (twice) and Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs. In other words, he had a grip on the levers of power and state decision-making.